Anybody have a way to easily turn on or off your amplifiers remotely? The solutions I know about are either too complicated, such as automation software networked to the global-cache 100, or too expensive, such swapping the amps for others that are more than $2000 (and why do we have to pay $2000 for a 'receiver' amplifier, that will play remote sound like DLNA rendering?). The dirty way of doing this is to have IR receivers in various places wired to the closet rack IR emitters. But I am hoping for a wifi remote method controlled from the laptop, rather than from an IR remote and wires. Any ideas?
I exclusively use MediaCenter to control music playback, outputting to a remote sound renderer (usually the Linksys Wireless Music Bridge, but also a couple Roku Soundbridges). The amplifiers are in a closet where all the speaker wires are terminated too. I hate having to go up to the closet rack to turn on the amps. I used to have a dedicated htpc in there, but now only have a NAS.