Wiring House

[marvinwright1]

Hi,

I'm about to start wiring the house for a home network, distribute freeview and anything else that may be of use later. At some point later I'd like to be able to distribute HD signals to rooms. I'm only concerned about audio/video and computer network.

I want to make sure I run sufficient cables now otherwise later could be a problem.

Anyway this is what I was thinking, all cables will be run from a central location.

The freeview will come from the aerial to a centralised point where it will be amplified and sent by 1 ct100 cable to 8 different locations.
I will run another ct100 cable so I can send sources back to the centralised point.
1 cat5e cable to each point for a gigabit computer network
1 cat5e cable to each point as a spare with the hope I can use it for HD stuff later
Toying with the idea of running speaker cables but not sure yet.

Is there anything I am missing or any suggestions of anything else I should run to each point ?

Many Thanks,

Marvin.

[noel-pilot]

run way more cat 5!! You can use it for pretty much anything and you'll use a LOT more than what you're thinking.

Currently you can use 2 x Cat 5 with a converter to run HD, so thats two already, then you can use it for normal video, audio, cctv, motion detectors, lighting control all kinds of things.

have a look on www.automatedhome.co.uk for some more info and great advice

[marvinwright1]

Hi,

Thanks for the response, I will probably run more cat5 as a precaution but I really can't see myself ever worrying about some of the things that can be done like cctv, motion detectors and lighting.

Maybe I'll run the 2 CT100 cables and 4 or 5 cat5's.

Can you recommend any good places to get reasonably priced cat5e cable ?
Should I be looking at solid or stranded ?

Many Thanks,

Marvin.

[hornydragon]

I reconmend for Video you run 2 cat5 and 2 CT100 from node 0 (central point) to each video point if you want to distribute data etc you need more also if you have a MAIN room i suggest you double up with 4 cat5e 2 from central and 2 back, for structured cable use solid core and have a look at ww.Blackbox.co.uk

[marvinwright1]

Perfect, thanks HD.

Does this stuff look ok ?
http://www.blackbox.co.uk/solutions/...ables#moreinfo

Cheers,

Marvin

[hornydragon]

as far as cat5 goes yeah its fine

[marvinwright1]

Hi,

Regarding my main rooms where I might want to feed back to node 0, I have have a sky box in 2 rooms, if I feed those back, is it possible to control them from other rooms ?

Many thanks for your help.

Marvin.

[hornydragon]

yes as long as you have an IR system inplace to control the boxes

[JamesAV]

Hi,

Don't mean to hijack the thread but I am also in the middle of a complete rewire.

I plan to install 4 flat panels into my house, all AV equipment is located centrally.

Equipment:

2 Sky HD boxes
Blue Ray DVD player

The signals are to be distributed using Cat5 cable (I have decided to wire 3 cat 5's to each TV) and Gefen HDMI converters. Will also use a Gefen switches so any TV can watch either Sky box and DVD.

Do I need to wire freeview cabling to each TV - Or will the cat5's take it?

My major issue is controlling the equipment from the 4 viewing areas.

Ideally I want the following:

1: To control sky with original sky remotes.
2: To control DVD with original DVD remotes.
3: To be able to switch sources from the viewing area.

Any ideas? I really dont want to use a universal RF remote such as Harmony as prefer to use OEM remotes.


How does Xantech stuff work? Do you use their remotes?

[hornydragon]

Xantech is IR routing kit it picks up n room IR codes and transmits them over cables (usually FTP cat5) Controlling 2 sky boxes is the tricky bit here guys. I think you should wire coax for TV distrituon to local rooms (can also be used for IR if necassary but not as neat as cat5)

Ipersianlly think your plan is over complex and flawed using HDMI over cat5 is a good solution but for central distribution i feel you are going to struggle a Matrix switch would be a better idea havent seen a 4x4, 3x2 here http://www.tmfsolutions.co.uk/Octava_HDS32-UK.htm your current "mega wire solution is going to mean loads of kit and baluns

If i understand correct you need 3 1-4 HDMI distribution AMPs, 12 HDMI over Cat5 baluns and then 4 3-1 HDMI switches.

This will work betetr http://www.gefen.com/kvm/product.jsp?prod_id=3331 but still IR issues for sky I would locate the source kit not in cupboard but in room and distribute to 3 rooms one HD box on distribution, one on local only use.

[marvinwright1]

Hi HD,

As mentioned I will be running at least 2 CT100 feeds and about 4 cat5 cables to each local room, more in my main rooms where I want to sent sky etc back to node 0.

Using this method, how do I control the IR so that I can switch the sky boxes from each local room ? You mentioned I should have an IR system in place, could you point me in the right direction of what this intails so I can investigate ?

Many Thanks,

Marvin.

[hornydragon]

QED room link http://www.qed.co.uk/c192-191/Access...htm?mennum=191
Xantech http://www.xantech.com/ 795-20 FOUR ZONE AMPLIFIED CONNECTING BLOCK with pickups and emitters Seperate
ideally if you are controlling multiple devices with the same IR codes set you need a more advanced system that dictate which signals go where you have 2 options one is an expensive IR system the other is split the hose in half one half uses SKy box 1 the other uses sky box 2 and the IR systems are serperate RF2 control for sky is dead handy but needs carful planning of RF distribution to work with 2 boxes (note you can have Sky normal box and sky+/HD no issues its 2 normal boxes or 2 sky+/HD that have issues)

[marvinwright1]

Thanks again.

I like the idea of splitting the house in 2 so that half the house gets access to 1 box and the other half of the house gets the other box.

I dont want to go too crazy with this, afterall there's only 2 people living in the house

Cheers,

Marvin

[hornydragon]

LOL so is it is his and hers sky boxes? there are ways you can control both boxes from any location it just costs more

[marvinwright1]

Something like that, we could just allocate ourselves a room each, that would be cheaper

Who knows what will happen in the future though, kids etc., I'm doing this as a nice DIY project for myself, keeps my busy.

I guess the important thing is to make sure I run enough cable now, I can swap things around later at the node 0 patch panel if I choose to put in a more complex system.

Thanks again for your help, it really is appreciated.

Marvin