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Wiring home for nets/comms.. Structured wiring question.
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29-01-2010 11:48pm#1Hi,
I think I asked about this a while back but the time has finally come for wiring the new house for all the goodies etc
At the moment my plan is to go with CAT6 all over the house. At least one point/socket in each room. Then for the main rooms (kitchen/living,sitting and study/office) I will have maybe two points at opposit corners of the room with maybe 2-4 sockets in each.
I remember reading before that it was a good idea to install coaxial cable around the house also. Off the top of my head I can only think of security/surveilance as a possible use. Also, I was thinking that if each room had coax then we could put all dvd/sat boxes in the once location and patch them through to wherever was needed.
And what about speakers? I'm not really sure about this at all? I was thinking about having ceiling speakers in all locations too but not sure about the capabilites of speaker wire..What have people done in the past.
Alos, i'm going to be on the lookout for a cheap european(worldwide) supplier of all electrical fixtures..switches/sockets/light fittings etc.. So any links would be appreciated if ye have any.. thanks
Any advice greatly appreciated..1
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Ok,
So basically i'll just make sure i'm there to supervise the install of the CAT6 and let the electrician know that if I see any foul looking cable it comes out and get new cable gets laid. I'm sure if I mention that once it should be enough for him/me to take care. I know there is gadgets for testing continuity of a connection but can you get one that will test the quality of the connection and indicate stressed/broken cables?
From what you say about coax and my understanding of it. RG59 to the locations of cameras and RG6 for distribution around the house?
Do you know anything about gate intercoms/keypads? What kind of cable do they require or is proprietry depending on model/manufacturer?
Thanks for all your help.. 0 -
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Hey Calibos,
You seem to have things well though out.. I would like to go p15574 on the number cat5e cables however. I think 2 terminations is probably fine for bedrooms etc but I would advise putting 4 in primary locations like study/kitchen/living room etc.. and possibly on both sides of the rooms if they are big. "Networked" is the way everything is going, slowly but surely and it would be an awful pain to run out.
You make a really good point about distributing the satellite feed to the rooms and putting a box in each room then. I hadn't though of that
:o
Also, just so i'm clear aswell. 90 metre (max) runs + 10(5+5) for patching. I don't think it will be an issue though.0 -
I knew upfront that in one or two locations I'd need a switch to share a run like P15574(say that after a few jars ) said. There is at least a double or two doubles mains points in any location that might need a switch anyway, so power for a switch is no problem. I already knew I'd need a 4 port gigabit switch in some rooms besides the main 24 porter in the attic. One in the dedicated Home-Cinema room where there would be a PS3,Wii,360, Ion based minipc running XBMC and one in the Kitchen where there will be an XBMC, Drobo server and Broadband Router. Every other room has a desktop PC or wireless Laptop or XBMC but only one of the three. Unfortunatly adding another Cat5e port to a wallplate pushes all rooms over to needing 2 wall plates each. Those buggers are expensive when you add them all up. With one Cat5e port I save on doubling all wall plates in the house and can just add a cheap gigabit 4 port switch to rooms as needed in the future. I am not worried about bandwidth. Put it this way, 100mbit is enough to carry multiple HD streams from the server to multiple rooms at the same time. The only reason I am fitting gigabit switches is that on rare occasions I might want to move hardrive amounts of data from the servers to/from the desktops/laptops.
In terms of the wall plates, it'll be bad enough that every room would have a double mains plate and double sized 2xSat/Cat5/Phone but if I added another Cat5e port that pushed me over to two plates some rooms would have 2 double mains and Double sized 2xSat/Cat5/Phone and Single Sized Cat5 and Double sized 5.1 Surround Sound Speaker plate and Hdmi & Scart plate. Thats a lot of extra wall plates to pay for and in some rooms a row of wall plates 2 or 3 feet long I think I'll stick with some 4 port switches if and when needed to share a Cat5 point.
And anyway, assuming all Cat5 runs were undamaged, in the future if needed I could rewire the phone Cat5 ports to carry both Network and phone (using the unused twisted pairs) Don't expect my Sparks to have the knowledge to do that but I can do it myself in the future if need be or right now if he has the knowledge.
The thoughts of getting the house wired to cover all the bases and the thoughts of what type of cool gear will eventually be put in is very exciting, but by jaysus is it headwrecking and more like work/homework when one actually has to sit down and plan the topology (thats whats its called isn't it) of not just Network, but Tv and even mains power and lights. Not just taking into consideration what and where one will be fitting now but what and where one might concievable fit things in the future.
Budget meant I had to really examine the economics and do a cost/benefit analysis on every idea. I know it is much cheaper in the long run to put any kind of wiring in now but its not really the cost of the actual cabling thats a worry budget wise but the labour cost in adding so many more runs of this or that cabling wise. For instance, in terms of the cost benefit analysis of wiring for an alarm. Once I added up the cost of all the sensors I'd need and thus cable runs I knew I couldn't afford it budget wise. I know a wireless system will cost more to install in the future but I know I won't really need it for a few years anyway. 7 adults in the house and always 2 or 3 home at least at any given time. By the time some people move out the cost of a wireless system wont be an issue. But it is right now with a finite renovation budget. I also thought about cameras but its a busy street almost too well lit with a street light about 3 yards from the house. One couldn't break in without being seen. And sure multiple cameras would just tell someone there was something worth stealing in the house anyway. Thats the kind of cost benefit I had to do for everything, to keep within budget. Very quickly ruled out intelligent networked Light switches or networked central heating etc. Huge extra cost just to save someone getting up off their fat ass to go turn the heating up/down. An IR dimmer switch in a few rooms will be enough luxury and will do me grand
Will be worth all the headaches in the end though. 0 -
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I can see your point about piped music. With the likes of an XBMC streamer in most rooms one has 'piped' Movies,Tv Shows and Music anyone. Only missing out on Synchronised music but who needs the same music playing in every room in the house at the same time. The one room where I considered this was where most people would gather when entertaining and that was the Kitchen/Diner and formal dining room whish when the double doors between are opened makes a huge entertainment space. But even here I just put a secondary set of speakers wired to the 5.1 amp in the kitchen/diner. I didn't see a need tor the likes of a Sonos system anywhere in the house.
In terms of Satellite, one Octo Sky LNB can feed 8 non sky+ or SD boxes but remember Sky+ or Sky HD require to feeds from the dish. If you wanted the latter you could only feed 4 rooms with an Octo. This was what I was going to be doing till the Sat forum guys caught me in time and advise on a Quattro LNB feed a 5/16 Multiswitch that can feed Sky HD/+ to 8 rooms or 16 rooms if using SD boxes. And they make bigger multiswitches than that!!
In terms of Cat6. By all accounts its harder to install, more delicate, harder to terminate and the only advantage it has over Cat5e is it can go up to 10gbit. What home would ever need that kind of bandwidth. Cat5e is grand for gigabit speeds in a domestic environment, unless one lives in a 100 metre long mansion house. 0 -
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