I have been researching IP speaker systems for installation in my home. Has anyone had any experience with this type of speaker system?

I have a good bit of experience with A-bus distributed audio systems. With the A-bus system the audio source is connected to an A-bus hub and Cat5e cables are run from the hub to an A-bus power module, which is usually installed like an in-wall volume control in rooms which will have speakers. the power module not only control the volume in teh room, it can be used to control the audio source as well. The single cat5e cable from the A-bus hub carries the audio signal, power for the module and carries control data between the module and the hub. Have you checked into A-bus?

I have read some about the A-bus products. Do the cat 5 cables run to the speakers as well? I believe some of the speakers I looked at had cat5 cables running from the hub directly to the speakers.

most of the time there is a cat5e from the hub to the control module and regular speaker wire between the control module. There are also speaker available with the control mudule built into the speaker housing. In this case their is a cat5 cable from the module directly to the speakers. These speakers usually have a built in infrared reciever to allow control via a handheld IR remote control. In this type of installation the wall control unit is eliminated and replaced by a handheld IR remote.

very good, thanks. I plan to have 'local' inputs into the overhead speakers in my bedrooms. Is it possible to use the a-bus system or will I need seperate cabling to the speakers for a local input from the bedroom?

there are local input a-bus modules that also connect to the hub via a single cat5 and are made to be installed in a standard single gang outlet box, just like a regular input module. Some of these local input modules are auto sensing and automatically swith to the local input source when a signal is detected. No additional cabling to the speakers or cotrol module are needed. The local input modules can also be easily added to existing rooms by simply installing the module in the room and connecting it to the hub with a cat5 cable.