Opinions on this well known structured wiring company?

soldsold

Hi All,

I have seen zero posts on this forum since 2008 referring to the well known structured wiring company who makes your home "smart".

To avoid the installation of some mood lighting etc in my build "dragon" on for a long time, Im getting a quote from them, a guy is calling to my "den" next week with some samples of control panels etc. Sorry Im not allowed to mention the companies name, I hope ye can read between the lines :rolleyes:

Is there a reason this well known company doesnt seem to be rated by this forum? I would have expected a few references to them over the last couple of years. Is it cost? Not being advanced enough?

The reason I'm getting a quote is really for convenience - I expect their mood lighting system will be able to be maintained and operated without an electronics degree. Also I know the electrician selling the stuff so should get a decent price.

They are allowing me to install my own (cheaper) Cat 5 and coax etc, so will provide design, hardware other than wiring, and comissioning if needed. I'll use other systems like apple airport, sonos, NAS server for music, movies, etc.

Any advice? PM's would be great if not willing to post here.

Thanks!

S

Calibos

I would say its cost and not being advanced enough, not that I have any experience with the company other than looking through the website.

I did investigate the whole smart home idea myself over a year ago but decided it was all too expensive and I didn't need all that integration and being able to do everything over the internet or iPhone malarkey. I'll wait till the various controllers are a heck of a lot cheaper and wireless. I didn't fancy the idea of running 20 miles of Cat5/6 to every light switch, socket, corner..etc etc etc and then paying hundreds and thousands for a smart bloody lightswitch, HDMI matrix switches and baluns, etc etc

I decided to just run 2 WF100 and 2 Cat5e to every room, have a gigbit switch and server in a closet and have ion based minipc's running XBMC in every room for music pictures and video. I'll make do with setting the alarm 'by hand' and getting up off the couch to turn up the heating, and relying on IR dimmer switches till all that smart home gear gets wireless and a heck of a lot cheaper.

The thing about the company you are talking about is that afaik the don't even do the real fancy smart home stuff with X10 controllers, canbus blah blah blah. For the most part they charge a fortune for speccing some cat5e and coax, telling your sparks where to run it and installing a neat utility cupboard. Its for people who wouldn't know an ethernet cable from a scart cable!!

If you've read up enough to even hear about the existence of Sonos or Nas servers, you probably have enough knowledge yourself to be able to tell your sparks to pick up some Cat5e and coax and where you want to run it and where you want to run it from. Thats what I did. Its not rocket science for me to terminate all these cables with wall plates on one end and a patchpanel and switch, Sat multiswitch on the other end and plug in me server and XBMC machines. This way it only cost me the money I'd have to pay no matter what to a sparks for the spools of cable and the cost per run. With that company I'd have paid thousands for them just to tell the sparks what and where to run it and for them to fit a nice cabinet.

Wexford-Bass

Calibos : You seem to be in the know. Can I ask what you might suggest here. I'm hoping to lay 2 coaxial's to 4 rooms, each for Freesat+ boxes. Can you advise the whether to use the OctoLNB or use a Sat Multiswitch with dimplexers....???

mark2003

Got a quote from the company you are talking about and found them extremely expensive for what you where getting.You could spend five thouand just for the first fix and another five for the software,you would really want to be interest in music and tv.

Calibos

Wexford-Bass wrote: »

Calibos : You seem to be in the know. Can I ask what you might suggest here. I'm hoping to lay 2 coaxial's to 4 rooms, each for Freesat+ boxes. Can you advise the whether to use the OctoLNB or use a Sat Multiswitch with dimplexers....???

The lads like Tony in the Satellite forum can advise better than me. I am just going on the info I picked up from them recently. I don't even have a sat system yet

I'd go with a quattro LNB feeding a 5/8 multiswitch(assuming you wont ever want to feed more rooms in the future. In my case I am going to fit a 5/16 to feed 8 rooms) 4 inputs on the multiswitch are your 4 LNB inputs and the 5th is you ariel feed for RTE etc. The diplexer splits the ariel frequencies from the sat feed at the wall plate. That way all 4 rooms get your dual sat feeds for the freesat+ boxes and a feed for analogue ariel for RTE or even Irish DTT range of channels in the future.

I've run a cable to the area my multiswitch will be from my NTL point outside under the eaves and another one up to the front of my attic where an ariel would go if I got one. Either can be fed to the rooms through the multiswitch as well as Sat. This way I can easily go back to NTL if I want or even get rid of all subscription services and use the sky boxes as freeview boxes in combo with IRish DTT.