House Audio / Visual re-fit recommendations

[gwernybwch]

I’m currently in the process of renovating a house which needs all the plaster hacking off all the walls and total electrical rewire. As I having this work done, I thought that I would just as well bring the house up to a ‘well above average’ (I’m not talking ‘state of the art’) standard on the audio / visual front as well.

I’ve been looking on various forums for different suggestions and have come to some form of first draft, but would recommend your comments or suggestions –

Satellite TV
Changing the current Satellite LNB to a Techomate Octo LNB and running a Triax ‘shotgun’ (twin) cable to the Living Room, Dining Room and all Bedrooms.
Possibility of changing the dish to 80cm motorised set-up at a later date.

Freeview TV
Fitting a TV aerial connecting to an electrical powered booster (based in the attic) with co-axial cable running to the Living Room, Dining Room, Kitchen and all Bedrooms.

Network
The first phone point comes into the house through the front window, will then need to run a cable to under the stairs (where the router will be housed) and running Cat5e to each room in the house.
Possibility of a second wi-fi router at the top of the landing.

Phone
A phone point in each room

Audio
Either Cat5e or speaker wire either to each room (i.e. whole house) or from the living room to landing.

Electrical Sockets
Min of 3 (double) needed in the living room (TV, DVD, Receiver, Amp, CD Player, PS3)
I’m guessing a min of 2 (double) in the other rooms in the house?

Other Electrical
Was planning to fit a mains operated smoke alarm and burglar alarm (should the house ever be rented or empty).

Considerations:
Cost – I want to put in some good networks whilst I have the chance, but can’t afford a top of the range solution
TV – the Freeview picture is very good, but the channel choice is extremely limited. Freesat has a huge choice, but often drops in poor weather. Therefore the proposal for both an aerial and a dish.
Network – this is an old house and I’ve noticed in the other Victorian houses that I’ve lived in that the wi-fi signal doesn’t travel too well, therefore the proposal for network point in each room.

Comments and suggestions appreciated!

 

[OwainDIYer]

Electrical Sockets
Min of 3 (double) needed in the living room (TV, DVD, Receiver, Amp, CD Player, PS3)
I’m guessing a min of 2 (double) in the other rooms in the house?

Get real.

Min of 2 doubles (each corner, each wall) in bedrooms. Probably about 12-15 doubles in a lounge.

You might want 5A table lamp points switched at the door as well.

 

[chapeau]

Comments and suggestions appreciated!

Not sure how much your budget is but if your sparky is working it out at £50 a point then it's going to get spendy real quick.

I wouldn't go crazy. Do you really need a phone in every room? Cordless have been the new fangled thing now for twenty odd years. When do you use a landline? Audio piped to every room? You can get decent enough sound in your kitchen by plugging your smartphone into a docking station and then move it around the house.

Definitely a double power socket in every corner + half way along long walls. Alarm points where it makes sense.

re all the other stuff. You will probably have two major points where all your cables converge. Where you have your comms kit, and where you have your AV kit. You could route your alarm cables to where you have the router (you probably should have a dedicated circuit to that comms location with UPS etc. We have ours in the attic)

Decide where these things go and try to stick with it and bring all the relevant cables to there. Remember you will need speaker cables (+ a subwoofer coax) going from where your amp is to where you want your speakers. Nothing like cables going around the skirting to annoy your mrs.

Re networking. These new fangled wifi stations are a lot better at penetrating walls, the problem is insufficient channels so you get interference with the neighbours.

We have a Cat5e in every room (some have two outlets) and to be honest we never use them for computers except the ones in the study. We do use them for wireless points, we have two here, probably need another. Make sure one Cat5e does go to where your av kit is as more and more stuff will be sent down these pipes as we go along. If you have a study/home office then certainly make sure you have cat5 into there, possibly several points. Cat5e is far faster than the wifi and if you are doing work with servers etc then the additional bandwidth does help.

If you have a shed, or think you are going to have one, then don't forget services to there too.

There isn't a need to have every conceivable cable going to every conceivable corner of every conceivable room. So work out what you are going to need and plan for that. Apart from power sockets, where you should have them in all corners + long walls. Plan now.

 

[ericmark]

I when running cables in my house ran a load of double phone sockets one internal linked and one with land line the fax machine was designed to auto turn off the internal when a fax arrived allowing a faster baud rate. All done around 1990.

However today the stand alone fax machine is long gone and the printer/fax does not need to turn off the other phones any more.

In the main all the phones are cordless so most sockets are unused.

In fact when we got broad band I found mains hum picked up on some of the lines was degrading broad band so many now disconnected.

So now just four items plugged in, Fax/printer/scanner. Router. Wireless phone. One standard in case of power cut. In fact three items within a couple of foot of each other.

So all my work now is redundant. So I would say if your not going to use it now don't bother. Likely you will route all phone lines to find in 5 years all optical anyway.

 

[ChrisFrost]

These "back of a fag packet" specs are always a bit of a guessing game. The three biggest unknowns are your priorities, your budget, and what's going to happen with technology in the future.


An Octo LNB is fine, but it'll still only give you a maximum or 4 fully featured recorders. Have you thought about a Quattro LNB + a multiswitch?

Also, if you go motorised then won't everyone else lose their Freesat feed? Have you thought about a twin dish system?

Network:
Ditch the idea of a second wireless router. Take everything back to the hub location and put in a decent size switch. Supplement with wireless access points to boost wifi coverage.

Also, have a think about what might be needed in the future for smart TV and centralised media storage. I'd wire 3 CAT6 behind each TV point. 1 can be used for data. The other two for a non-IP balun system to distribute HD and SD video.

Similarly, wire equipment point with CAT for both internet and non-IP use.

Phones - Unless you plan to run security and door access through the phones then cordless will probably suffice.

 

[Sam Gangee]

I also recommend a multiswitch. One with a 5th input (as most have) will let you run the Freeview signal in the same cables. Use an 80cm dish to combat rain fade and losses in the multiswitch. If you install a motorised system, do it separately. It's unlikely that you'll need it to feed more than one room.

If you do install phone cable, make sure it's the real "twisted pair" cable and not "alarm cable", which is often missold as "phone cable".

If you don't use the phone cable for phones, it can be used for an intercom, buzzer, doorbell or audio.

 

[chapeau]

In fact when we got broad band I found mains hum picked up on some of the lines was degrading broad band so many now disconnected.

Best is to install twisted pair from your BT master socket to wherever you have your broadband splitter, and continue with twisted pair on the broadband line until you get to your gateway router. In fact put a splitter plate on your master socket if you have a modular type and run your phone cable separately. Best to have no 'standard' cable carrying ADSL signals at all, keep it all twisted pair e.g. cat5e

 

[Monkeh]

Best to have no 'standard' cable carrying ADSL signals at all, keep it all twisted pair e.g. cat5e

'Standard' phone cable is twisted pair.

 

[chapeau]

BT phone cable is twisted pair, the standard phone cable you get down screwfix or B and Q isn't. It's clear from my complete post what is meant.

 

[Monkeh]

BT phone cable is twisted pair, the standard phone cable you get down screwfix or B and Q isn't.

That stuff isn't phone cable, no matter what label they choose to slap on it.

 

[chapeau]

Well I hope (and am sure) the OP knows what I mean even if you don't.

 

[Sam Gangee]

If you do install phone cable, make sure it's the real "twisted pair" cable and not "alarm cable", which is often missold as "phone cable".

I think my original statement was sufficient, without "naming names".
If it doesn't specifically state "twisted pair" then it may not be, so avoid it.

 

[gwernybwch]

Thanks all the replies.

Not sure how much your budget is but if your sparky is working it out at £50 a point then it's going to get spendy real quick.

I wouldn't go crazy. ...... Plan now.

I started to get quotes from a TV installer and an electrician and yes it has got expensive rather quickly!

I decided to the TV / sat / network installation myself, but are struggling to work out what width metal gang boxes I should be using.
Bearing in mind that I have hacked off to bare walls, should I be using 16mm, 25mm or 35mm?

I'm using WF100 shotgun / twin cable (which feels pretty inflexible) and screened output plates.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

 

[Sam Gangee]

I'm using WF100 shotgun / twin cable (which feels pretty inflexible) and screened output plates.

It's more flexible once you've separated the two cables and you may need to split them apart to go around corners. However, do not go below the recommended bend radius. Corners are handled more easily if you also drop the cable down a few centimetres (i.e. down one brick level) at the same time.

For wall plates, you may need to join a short length of WF65 to the WF100, as the former is thinner and more flexible. Use a short length of WF100 outer sheath to bring WF65 up the the 6mm diameter (if necessary) for fitting into wall plates.

Wall boxes should be as deep as possible and cables should be run loosely inside generous-width conduit to improve flexibility. If you plaster the cable directly into the wall, you'll create problems.