[x1nick]

Hi all

I am currently in the progress of moving into an old 4 bedroom house which has been undergoing re wiring, new plumbing, plastering, windows over the past few years. Basically everything.

The original plan was for this house to be sold as its owned by a family member, but I was offered to live here while finishing it off (I have been project managing the whole thing, not very well I might add!). So my plan is to live here for a few years and try and get a deposit big enough to try and buy it when it goes up for sale.

Luckily as I have done alot of the DIY already in this house meaning I am allowed to channel cables into the walls, wall mount tv's, tear up floor boards etc on the condition that when I move out everything can quickly be patched up and hidden. So I have accepted the fact that the 500m+ of cable I will run may be lost in the long run!

My old setup can be seen here: My Student Setup as you can see I have been adding to my collection of equipment over the years and it dosen't seem to stop. Expensive hobby this is!

Anyway onto the project...

To begin with there will be only 4 rooms, all amps, sources etc will be located in a 'central' location, I say central, the far corner of the house!
All video will be transported over cat6 to keep costs as low as possible, speaker cable will be over either 2.5mm twin and earth or 1.5mm in the bedroom/office

Rooms

• Living room
• Bedroom
• Office
• Garage

I also may have some sort of wireless speakers in the kitchen if I feel they are ever needed. The garage will only be used for audio to begin with, but may have a cheap TV in there at some point as I will have some gym equipment in there

Break down of equipment in the rooms and the sizes of the rooms

Living Room
Size: 5.44m x 3.4m

• Samsung 47" 3D (LE46C750R2K)
• Epson TW6000 Projector
• Duronic 92" Electric 16:9 Screen
• Mission M35i floor standing front speakers
• Wharfedale Diamond 8 Centre
• Kef HTS7001 for rear speakers
• Xbox Kinect sensor

Future plans:

• Ideally want a Mission center speaker

Bedroom
Size: 3.9m x 3.5m

• Samsung 40" (LE40M87BDX)
• Kef HTF7003 LCR Soundbar
• Kef C4 Sub

Office
Size: 3.5m x 3.2m

• 27" iMac 2011 Model, i5, 8GB Ram (this will be moving to my office in town when I get it)
• Samsung SyncMaster BW2443BW 24" Monitor
• MacBook Pro 15" i7 120GB OCZ SSD, 500GB Drive, 8GB Ram
• Technics HiFi Speakers - running off Onkyo 606 Amp

Currently haven't got the TV for this, I have a old Technics SA-DV280 HiFi which will probably be used to begin with

Garage

• Awia hifi
• Small headless ITX pc for streaming audio (plan is for a squeeze client)

All cabling goes back to my 'central' point in a NetApp 42U rack in the smallest bedroom which would only just fit a single bed in.

Current plans for equipment in this rack

• 2U - APC 2200 UPS
• 4U - 28TB file server (20TB usable) - running ESXi 5
• 2U - Master server - running ESXi 5
• 2U - Media PC
• ITX Media PC
• Raspberry Pi for IR distribution/temperature monitoring of rack
• Denon AVR 3313
• Denon AVR 1910
• Onkyo SR606
• Xbox slim
• HP ProCurve 24 port gigabit switch
• Virgin media super hub
• 4x2 HDMI Matrix

Also will be present here is a Raspberry Pi to read temperatures, and offer a some sort of a backup entry point to the management LAN, more on this later

So thats about 20U out of 42U used, im sure I will fill it once I have a second amp in there, HDMI matrix, another ESXi server and possibly a 21" 1080p monitor for viewing of the content around the house

Future plans:

• Unifi pro wireless access point
• Virgin media TiVo
• Retrotouch lightswitches with some sort of PC interface?

I plan on using a bunch of iPod touches as remotes, using the iRule software, but haven't done enough research on this yet. Demopad looks good too! Or maybe just write my own...

Final pictures will be edited in here...

[x1nick]

Start of the progress…

This is the bedroom wall, the 40" TV will be mounted on the chimney along with a sound bar

For now this is the only photo of the office, but this is the wall where the desk will be
The length of this wall is 3.2m but there is a door on the right, guessing the desk will be about 2.5m long
TV will be wall mounted above the desk, speakers likely to just sit either end of the desk

No photos of the living room currently as its full of junk

Onto the cabling… I estimate I'm running between 500-600m of cable in this house
All the cable ready

1.5mm T&E for bedroom speaker cables, 3 runs of this, about 15m each, I could have used the earth core but decided against this… so I will be using 6 of the 9 cores

As the bedroom is above the living room, I ran cables for the projector which will live under the floor
Runs here consist of for the projector
Mains for power
3x cat6 - 2 for HDMI, 1 for power triggers?

Runs to the TV consist of
1x Mains for TV power
1x Coax for TV signal
4x cat6 - 2 for HDMI, 2 spare
1x optical for audio to amp
3x T&E for speakers

To the right of where this photo is taken is also the runs for the projector screen which consists of
1x Mains
1x cat6 for trigger

All these runs pulled through into the box room where the 42U rack is living…bearing in mind this is currently 1 room only here! what have I got myself in for

This is a photo of the upstairs landing where all the cables run, luckily there were holes everywhere to run cables, quite a lot of cable running along here!

Cables run for my unifi access point, I ran 2x cat6 as the unifi pro has two ports which I plan on upgrading to at some point

[x1nick]

Here is how I left it all last night, spent about 6 hours so far running cables
I had to make one hole in the cloakroom wall which is directly below where the 42U rack lives, this was the best place to bring cables down stairs due to all other walls being solid brick

The yellow cables are used for pulling other cables through

Living room runs:
7x 2.5mm T&E for speaker (front Mission M35i's are bi-amped)
1x Optical
8x cat6 (for HDMI, kinect, IR etc)

Anyone want to terminate all these for me?

[kbharj]

Great post.....will be watching out for updates as i plan to do a project like this during the next year or so.

[x1nick]

Originally Posted by kbharj

Great post.....will be watching out for updates as i plan to do a project like this during the next year or so.

Cheers

One thing I will say, is run spare cat6, I don't know if I used cheap poor quality cat6 but I noticed some runs I did in another house didn't get full gigabit, while others would easily max out at over 100MB/s
But I did pay £75 for 2x 305m boxes so shouldn't complain too much!

Added the following to the first post:
I plan on using a bunch of iPod touches as remotes, using the iRule software, but haven't done enough research on this yet. Demopad looks good too! Or maybe just write my own...

[sjdeighton]

Sorry for stumbling in, but just saw your previous Student setup and wanted to know what you used to create/generate the BluRay cover arts?

I'm really keen on this as I have a mixture of SD and HD material which is sometimes difficult to identify.

[x1nick]

Originally Posted by sjdeighton

Sorry for stumbling in, but just saw your previous Student setup and wanted to know what you used to create/generate the BluRay cover arts?

I'm really keen on this as I have a mixture of SD and HD material which is sometimes difficult to identify.

image

No worries

Its a windows based program called Starkcovers
Simplify iT Innovations Pty. Ltd. • View forum - StarkCovers

I have a virtual machine dedicated to running media centre master, which monitors for changes on another virtual machine running the file server software.

Then I have a command line piece of software which automatically runs starkcovers, maximum lazyness basically

If anyone is interested I will try get a little guide posted on how to do this

[sjdeighton]

Awesome thank you. And yes, I would be interested in any info you are willing to post

[x1nick]

How to configure and use Starkcovers to enhance your artwork - Media Browser Community Tracker

Just found this which is better than my current solution! As mine is just hack upon hack to get it to run

[x1nick]

Turns out that Starkcovers is dead the replacement is called CoverArt which costs
I found the latest version (I think it is anyway) of Starkcovers here
DIY Media Home Downloads Index
...https://sites.google.com/a/jonscaife...edirects=0&d=1

Hope this helps

[kbharj]

Did you use solid core? Do you plan to use a patch panel?

Originally Posted by x1nick

Cheers

One thing I will say, is run spare cat6, I don't know if I used cheap poor quality cat6 but I noticed some runs I did in another house didn't get full gigabit, while others would easily max out at over 100MB/s
But I did pay £75 for 2x 305m boxes so shouldn't complain too much!

[x1nick]

Originally Posted by kbharj

Did you use solid core? Do you plan to use a patch panel?

Yep and I have two 24 cat6 patch panels like the one at the top of this rack

Back of the rack...

This is my server setup in my old 12U rack, top to bottom
24 port cat6 patch panel
HP ProCurve 1800-24G
Rack media PC
Master ESXi Server
Slave ESXi server/file server
2U space for UPS (APC Smart UPS 2200 not in picture)

Specs of these for those that are interested:

Media PC spec:
Case: Xcase microatx case
MOBO: Asus Motherboard
RAM: 3GB DDR2
CPU: AMD 5050e low power processor
HDD: 2.5" 160GB OS Disk
PSU: Tagan UG01 480w
OS: Windows 7

At the back:
APC Switched PDU
12 port cat6 patch panel
Crappy 5port 100mbit switch for management lan (as procurve is switched off when not required)

Master ESXi Spec:
Case: X-case 2U 550mm
Mobo: Asus P8B-WS
CPU: Intel Xeon 1245
RAM: Corsair 32GB DDR3
PSU: Tagan UG01 480w
NIC1: Intel dual port gigabit PCIe (passed through to VM)
NIC2: Intel single port PCI (passed through to VM)
HDD1: OCZ Agility 240GB SSD
HDD2: Hitachi 5K3000 3TB
OPTICAL: LG Bluray reader/writer (not passed through yet, as not had time to set this up!)

Slave ESXi:
Case: Xcase 24 SAS bay 550mm
MOBO: Asus P8B-WS
CPU: Intel Xeon 1245
RAM: Corsair 16GB DDR3
PSU: Corsair HX650
HDD1: OS drive 120GB Samsung 2.5" 7200rpm
GFX1: ATI HD4350 (passed through to windows 7 VM, work in progress)
RAID1: Adaptec 5805 (passed through to Ubuntu VM)
RAID2: 3ware 9690SA-8I (passed through to Ubuntu VM)
HDDs:
RAID6: 8x 3TB Hitachi 5K3000
RAID5: 4x 1TB WD Green (not fully setup yet)

[wmilner]

Nice Nice NICE ! love the kit...

[x1nick]

Originally Posted by wmilner

Nice Nice NICE ! love the kit...

Cheers, just need my 42U rack to arrive so it all has a home! Seller on ebay hasnt been replying, guess the deal was too good to be true

I managed to get a HDMI matrix off ebay for just over £20 delivered, its only a 4x2 to begin with, as I will only have a bedroom TV and the living room TV

But I am guessing in the long run I will need atleast a 4x4

My planned inputs:
2x Media PCs
2x Virgin Media TiVo (if there offer lasts where you get the second one free)
1x Xbox

Planned outputs:
Downstairs TV
Bedroom TV
Office TV
Rack mount monitor for debugging, will probably be a bodge mount as no 21" 1080p monitor will fit in a rack by default
Possibility for TV in garage/gym area but I figure I will get a splitter and run this with the rack mount monitor

Anyway here is the cheap HDMI matrix, wonder how well it will hold up

And for those who care, this is what my setup currently looks like in another house...
Speakers are far too big!

[Geps]

If you're running Cat6 an want gigabit speeds make sure:
You're buying actual copper cable and not CCA (copper coated aluminium) cable - I suspect you've already fallen foul of this at those prices....
You don't have any tight bends in the cable less than 4x the diameter.
You only untwist the absolute maximum you need for the connector
You use decent connectors
You keep away from mains cables and avoid running in parallel for any length (the twisted pair and balanced signal should eliminate this condition but plenty of people still report problems all the same)
And if using shielded cable, only one end is grounded.

HTH,

[itsgonnarain]

The structural integrity of the landing joists must be seriously compromised with them notches directly above drilled holes

[x1nick]

Originally Posted by Geps

If you're running Cat6 an want gigabit speeds make sure:
You're buying actual copper cable and not CCA (copper coated aluminium) cable - I suspect you've already fallen foul of this at those prices....
HTH,

Is there anyway to tell? Either way the runs of this cable I have done in another house have easily maxed out at over 100MB/s

Originally Posted by itsgonnarain

The structural integrity of the landing joists must be seriously compromised with them notches directly above drilled holes

I thought about this, but I have't made any new holes, nor has the electrician or plumber. So I am guessing they have been fine for the last 20 years if not 40! So should be fine, I just made use of whats there where ever possible

Some more pointless photos!

Cat6 cabling for downstairs hall and lounge, total of 9 cables here, not too sure what there all for yet

Why you should never run cables when tired, almost missed a whole section out where I needed to run the cable

And all the cables into the door way of the living room

Next step is to drill holes behind skirting boards for cables and channel them into the wall for the TV!

Any opinions on the best way to do this?
I am thinking a angle grinder, but I don't have one. Only have a SRS drill will 20 odd different chisel ends and drill bits

[nonumb]

Not much help but great thread sub'd

[aandpwoodley]

god thats allot of wires, must be miles of the stuff

[x1nick]

Originally Posted by aandpwoodley

god thats allot of wires, must be miles of the stuff

Haha 53 runs
Im estimating between 500-600m! I must be mental

[x1nick]

All 53 cables run and appearing through the floor where the 42U rack will live
All floor boards are finally going back down. Joiner is coming in on the 3rd september to fit all internal doors and any other left over bits

As all video is going over cat6 I needed some converters, I found these for under £12 on eBay. Thought it was worth a go, thought for the price if there useless then its not a complete loss. No additional power is required with these

Initial results over about 10m of cable (my max distance is 17m, which I still need to test) were very good, no lag, no tearing on fast moving scenes

Very impressed!

Gave the HDMI matrix some testing too, with the HDMI over cat6 connected too

It works, but really does struggle to display the PC on both screens at the same time. Assuming this is the PC adjusting its screen settings etc causing one display to cut out

Xbox seems to be fine, both TVs are 1080p too.

[Blump]

Good effort with the cables.

[x1nick]

Tiny update as haven't had much time to do things in the house

Hopefully getting the carpet fitter in to do a single room where the 42U rack will live so I can put it in place and start terminating cables etc

TV signal splitting for office TV and rack signal, would have been easier to use a more appropriate splitter but I already had these...

Also my compression f type connectors don't seem to be the right ones for my crimp tool so had to use bog standard ones!

Last floor board going down here, left some spare yellow cable for pulling additional runs through in the future

Here is the virgin media 'super' hub, why the decided to put the cables where they did I will never know

This is going to live on a 1U shelf in the rack
1 patch going into the firewall
1 patch going into a raspberry pi as a backdoor if ever needed

I fitted a f type right angle in an attempt to keep it at 1U height, but its still going to use 1.5U oh well

Oh and a speed test result, did have 98Mb once, guess it will do!

[x1nick]

The 42U rack arrived this evening

It was described as "very good condition" build is fine, but marks everywhere! oh well was pretty cheap and should do the job.

No idea how I will get this upstairs though, it weights so much!

It also comes with 2x 16A PDUs with possibility the thickest cable I have ever seen not fixed onto a house or something!

[pcman123456]

I would love to do this myself

[x1nick]

Originally Posted by pcman123456

I would love to do this myself

Im starting to regret it now! Alot of work!

A larger switched APC PDU appeared today, my last one had a max current of 10A where as this one has 16A, just need a way of getting a suitable socket to where the rack will live now...

[coolamasta]

Great work so far bud, very much what I want to do but have to wait until I need an excuse to decorate haha.
I am running a 12U rack at the moment with my kit it and I know how annoying the Virgin routers are to fit in a rack, good effort on the right-angle F connector though lol

[aandpwoodley]

How's it all going,

[x1nick]

Not really got much done recently, work has been a bit hectic so had very little free time. Off there later for a few hours to sand some wood work down.

Joiner starts tomorrow so hopefully some progress in that department very soon and looking at booking the carpet fitter on tuesday!

Also managed to get a Denon AVR 1910 for free, downside it dosen't play any sound. Not had chance to investigate yet but with the volume on high you can hear a slight hiss on the speakers.
Read a few things online where the headphones socket gets dust inside, but not checked this yet.
Looks like new! and has hardly been used

Also been thinking of ways to control all of the devices, ideally I want multi direction IR (over cat6 cable) so I can use some 'server' to control the TVs or I can have the amp remotes in the specific zone and IR gets sent back to the device
Really not sure on the best way of doing this just yet, been looking for some circuit examples which I could maybe put together to send IR all around the house.
Very tempted to use ipod touch's as remote controls and possibly build the software myself, sounds a bit time consuming this does though!

[x1nick]

Oh and think I am going to be getting this for the bedroom but not using the surround speakers

KEF KHT7005

KEF KHT 7005 5.1 AV Speaker Package at Audio Affair