background music sound system for museum

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I'm a total idiot when it comes to audio systems...so I'm hoping to find some folks willing to help me. What I need to do is pipe music into several rooms of a historical house museum. I just want background music...not loud, nothing fancy. I have 15 or so MP3 files that I'd like to have played randomly to create some ambiance in the museum. There isn't a computer to play the music from, and I don't want to have a computer as part of the system. Just Mp3 files piped into several rooms from some kind of player. Also, I'll be connecting it to a light switch so that the music starts playing when someone turns on the lights.

Many thanks for any advice!!
 
it will be permanent

room size/dimensions? this one is complicated. It's an entire house, but from 1800's so each room is very small (15 x 15 avg.) and has two floors. But each room doesn't need a speaker...the music can come and go as the guests move from room to room.

type of museum? A historical museum (the sound track is from Ken Burn's Civil War documentary)

number of people per room? 2-6 (there is a guide that gives tours to variable group sizes)

how full are the rooms? like a typical house for the most part (some display cases against the wall and some furniture typical of late 1800's)

where can you place the speakers... etc... Now that's a really good question. Out of site is best of course. Holes cannot be cut in ceiling/walls/floors. Some creativity will be needed here to place them out of sight (on top of display case, above doors where there is a hidden light fixture, under furniture, etc)

how much $$ to do the job? The least amount possible ($250 or less would be ideal).
 
almost impossible at that budget.

best bet is either blutooth or FM broadcast.

You want a single source that can be remotely picked up without wires. So one of those FM stereo transmitters off epay will do the trick... now you just need cheezy FM receivers or boom boxes or whatever you can find at yard sales and flea markets... done.

you may need to use a real antenna on the FM transmitter so that you get signal everywhere... but should work fine. drift in the receivers vs. transmitter might mean some issues, but should work ok.

_-_-bear
 
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