You are going to use an AV receiver as a switch. That’s quite a waste of a good receiver. And it might not work if there’s no connection that passes ARC to the Beam.

is there a better option? Is it a waste if it achieves what i need done? The receiver has an eARC port. 

You’ll need a switch that can pass the HDMI-ARC signal from three TV’s to the Beam. No need for all the amps and signal processing the AV receiver also provides.

Not sure if such a switch exists……

The eARC port on the receiver surely does not generate an eARC signal for other audio equipment to receive.  It’s their to receive eARC from your TV.  I don’t see how this would help you.

Personally, I would approach this differently.  I would get a 4x4 HDMI matrix that allows you to switch up to 4 sources to 4 different displays...even though you have 3 TVs.  You could then send the output from your AppleTV(s) or Verizon to any of the 3 TVs and whatever combination you want.

For the audio, you have two options.  You could connect your Beam to the main TVs ARC/eARC channel so that it always plays what’s on the main TV.  Instead of changing which TV has audio, change what’s displayed on the main TV.  Or you can use that 4th HDMI output to connect to a HD Fury Arcana, which can covert normal HDMI to HDMI eARC for the Beam to use.  So your Beam would play the audio from any of the 3 TVs or a difference source entirely.

A couple words of advice, whatever method you go about it.  It will be better to get three TVs with the same stats, preferably same brand.  An HDMI switch will usually send audio at the lowest common denominator.  So if one of your TVs is 1080p, and the others are 4K, you could get everything at 1080p.  Some HDMI switches handle this better, but getting 4 equal quality TVs (not necessarily same size) makes this easier.

And get a high quality switch.  A cheap one may do the job fine, and have a decent remote, but since control is going to be important for this setup, I would spend a bit more for that.

One additional thought...consider putting the left and right TVs on carts  rather than mounting to the wall.  This way you can roll them out of the way when you aren’t wanting to be distracted by extra TVs, possibly to another location in the room or something of that nature.  

I’ll take a contrarian position and recommend a TOSLINK switch connected to the TV’s. I have no experience with this unit, but it will probably work. This scheme will not, however, pass premium audio formats, such as Dolby Atmos.

This post deleted - I misread the opening post

I think this is the most likely to achieve the OP’s stated aim.  I can’t see how a standard HDMI switch could work, because that expects HDMI inputs not HDMI-ARC.  However, maybe HDFury do something suitable, and I wonder if the ‘HDMI Matrix’ referred to by Danny is something on those lines?

But a digital optical switch outputting to the converter supplied with the Arc would work, I think.

This is the closest thing that I could come up with, as an HDMI eARC switch/extractor - which has eARC pass through. It’s really like an Arcana audio extractor with a built in (pass-through) switch, with one eARC audio output to the Sonos HT device - but I’m not sure if it would work.

I have this switch/audio extractor myself, but I have never tried adding a 2nd TV input to it as an A/V source and it’s not something I could easily setup/test here either - but it might be worth asking Feintech the question, perhaps?

What I can say, is it does work very well with one TV and it provides Atmos audio, but I’m not sure if inputs 2 and 3 would work with other TV’s. Currently HDMI input 1 is used for TV and HDMI input 5 is used for the pass-through eARC connection to the Sonos Arc/Beam (gen2) etc.

Anyhow see this link:

https://feintech.eu/en/products/feintech-vax04101-hdmi-earc-pass-switch-4x1

A major consideration in this sort of scheme is the switching time between sources. There are a lot of negotiations that need to take place when establishing a connection between a source and “sink” (display). We have all experienced this negotiation time as we switch to an input device. In a sports environment the play will be over before negotiations are complete. Commercial installations, such as sports bars, use specialized switches that fool all sources and sinks into believing that their connection is forever, The result is that the switching time is a video frame or two (essentially zero in human terms). These switches are very expensive -- thousands of dollars, not dozens or hundreds of dollars.

A very interesting setup would operate similar to a studio control room where a series of smaller displays flank a large display and any of the small displays can be instantly pulled up on the large display. Another design decision is which display or displays deliver audio into the room.

I would agree than optical switch is the most straight forward and least expensive way to resolve the issue as stated.  Honestly should have mentioned it myself, but opted to bring up a more comprehensive option….probably because I know what I would have done in the same situation.

Anyway, here is a link to a optical switch that does exactly what OP is asking for.  Nothing extra.  It’s not a bad solution at all.

However, if I were setting up this space, I would want the ability to display any of my sources (Apple TV, Verizon box, other sources I may want to add in the future) on any of the three TVs.  Additionally I would the audio from any of my sources to play on my Beam.  And I want it to be future proof so that I can upgrade my audio system without having to upgrade any other equipment.

An HDMI matrix, like this one, is the first step towards that goal.  You would connect up to 4 HDMI inputs (2 Apple TVs, Verizon box, one spare) to 4 HDMI outputs (3 TVS, one spare).  Want to use show an Apple TV source on the middle TV?  You can.  Want to show the verizon box on one of the outside TVs?  You can.  One to show the same thing on all 3 TVs?  You can.

But what about the audio?  Well you can still use an optical switch, connecting to the 3 TVs  as input, your Beam as output.  No problem, cheap and easy. The downside to this is you have more remotes to deal with and you are limited in audio quality (which is fine for the Beam). However, you have a spare HDMI output from your Matrix you could use.  And an  HD Fury Arcana will convert an normal HDMI signal into HDMI ARC/eARC for the Beam...Beam Gen 2, Arc, and Amp as well.  

So for example.  If your TVs  are outputs 1,2,3 on the matrix, and the Arcana/Beam are on output 4, to have the Beam play the audio for TV 1, set outputs 1 and 4 on the matrix to the same HDMI input.  If you want audio for the middle TV, 2 and 4 should be set to the same HDMI input on the matrix.  Get the idea?

Regarding the feintech product, I think it’s a good product, as it essentially combines an HDMI switch with an Arcana, which is great for a many source and 1 TV situation, but doesn’t work well with multiple displays.  An HDMI matrix + Arcana works better, I think

My current setup at the home isn’t passing Atmos anyways, correct? Gen 1 Beam doesn’t do that if i’m not mistaken?

Here are the supported formats.

Late reply on this thread, but thought I would post info regardless.  I was searching for how to replace my existing setup that is very similar to what you want to do with SONOS (Beam preferably, ARC if need be).  It looks like it won’t be as simple as what I have now.

I currently have an older Polk 5000 soundbar / sub, connected to my 3 x 65” Costco special TV’s. The Polk has 2 optical inputs and 1 3.5mm input for audio.  I just run the audio outs from the TV’s (left and middle TV’s optical, right TV rca to 3.5mm) to the Polk.  The Polk remote has a source select button on it that makes changing audio between the TV’s quite easy.

It looks like for my set up I will probably have to continue using this and then just put a pair of Sonos One SL’s beside the soundbar for my audio needs.  I had originally planned on using a TOSLink optical changer (and had purchased one, dunno where it is now though dangit), so maybe this will be the thing to switch to if I go with an ARC there to replace the existing.

Hope this helps a bit.

using the Sonos One SLs for music only?  I assume that’s what you mean.

Using optical with an Arc would be limit you to 5.1 audio only, no atmos.  Using an HDMI switch + Arcana, as I recommended above, would allow you to play up to TrueHD atmos, depending on source. 

Is there a way this can be extended to split the audio and send it to 2 different Sonos 5.1 setups / rooms? I am planning to have 1 TV and 1 projector in the basement (on extreme ends) with each having it’s own Sonos 5.1 setup. The plan is to play video/audio independently most of the time but when needed I would like to show same video and same audio on both TVs and both Sonos 5.1 setups! Is that possible with this?

No simple schemes will yield satisfactory results. Even if you use commercial grade switchers that can keep things synchronized and rapidly switch between sources, the raw physics of attempting to have two 5.1 systems operating simultaneously in the same room is stacked against you.

How about just grouping an additional Sonos ARC (from projector area) to the Sonos 5.1 setup (in bar area). I understand there will be a little lag, right?

Lip sync with the first TV will be OK, Grouped TV’s will be delayed by about 30ms from the first. You can fuss with this alignment by adjusting lip sync on the first TV.

Individual sensitivity to lip sync issues varies.

As a practical consideration, watching sports play does not involve lip sync because the commentator is talking off screen. If you are watching an on screen commentator, lip sync is more important.

And, I don’t think the second Arc will have any 5.1, it will be stereo only. 

That’s correct, but I don’t think that it will be a big deal. Two 5.1 systems, operating simultaneously, in the same space does not make much sense. 

Better to set that expectation, rather than disappoint the OP. :)