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Route a Source to Multiple Zones

Goal: make one source — an audio server, a shared cable box, an Apple TV — available and playable in several AV zones.

There are two ways to share a source, and they solve different problems: global sources (the same source appears in every zone's menu) and matrix routing (a switcher physically sends one input to many outputs).

Before you start​

  • You're logged in as an administrator.
  • The AV zones that should share the source already exist (see Set Up an AV Zone).

Option A — Global source (available everywhere)​

Use this when a source should appear in every zone's source list.

  1. Open AV Sources and add or edit the source.

    Open AV Sources

  2. Check Global. The source now appears in all AV zones instead of just one.

  3. To exclude it from a particular zone, use that zone's Hidden Global Sources setting.

This controls availability — which zones can pick the source. How the audio/video actually reaches each room is the matrix question below (or, for networked sources like a streamer per room, handled by the source device itself).

Option B — Matrix routing (one input, many outputs)​

Use this when a hardware matrix switcher distributes a single source input to multiple zone outputs.

  1. On the source, set Address to the matrix input number the device is wired to.

  2. On each AV zone, set Address to that zone's matrix output.

    Open AV Zones

  3. When a user selects the source in a zone, GEM routes that input to the zone's output on the matrix automatically.

:::tip Combine both A shared cable box is often Global (so every room can pick it) and matrix-routed (so the switcher sends it to whichever room selected it). The two settings are independent and work together. :::

Verify it​

Select the source in two different zones and confirm both play it. For matrix routing, confirm each zone receives the correct feed.