We introduce certain $C^*$-algebras and k-graphs associated to k finite-dimensional unitary representations $\rho _1,\ldots ,\rho _k$ of a compact group G. We define a higher rank Doplicher-Roberts algebra $\mathcal {O}_{\rho _1,\ldots ,\rho _k}$, constructed from intertwiners of tensor powers of these representations. Under certain conditions, we show that this $C^*$-algebra is isomorphic to a corner in the $C^*$-algebra of a row-finite rank k graph $\Lambda $ with no sources. For G finite and $\rho _i$ faithful of dimension at least two, this graph is irreducible, it has vertices $\hat {G}$ and the edges are determined by k commuting matrices obtained from the character table of the group. We illustrate this with some examples when $\mathcal {O}_{\rho _1,\ldots ,\rho _k}$ is simple and purely infinite, and with some K-theory computations.

Let G be a locally compact group and H an open subgroup of G. The embeddings of group C*-algebras associated with H into the group C*-algebras associated with G are studied. Three conditions for the embeddings given in terms of C*-norms of the group algebras, group representations and positive definite functions are shown to be equivalent. As corollary, we prove that the full C*-algebra of H can be embedded into the full C*-algebra of G in a natural way as well as the case for the reduced group C*-algebras. We also show that the embeddings hold for their duals and double duals.