WIRING UP FOR MEDIA

[Diwali]

Hi, I’m currently rewiring a house and it occurred to me that, while walls and ceilings are stripped, I have the ideal opportunity to install cables for media (speakers, network etc.). Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should consider? I have no issues with the electrical installation but I have no experience in media wiring. I’m thinking in terms of ‘future proofing’ my house!
All help and guidance gratefully received. Thanks

 

[AndyPRK]

Have a look in a different sub forum. Comms?

Basically you want to install some cat5 or cat6 cable.

You could put this in between your router and some rooms.

This cable can also be used to connect to external cameras. So you could run some in for that too

 

[ETAF]

you may also want to consider TV Aerial / sat cable , incase you are having TVs in various rooms.

 

[Edddd]

Cat5e cable can be used for most things. I suppose the major exceptions are speakers (but you can put line-level audio on cat5e and use active speakers, or use a digital system like Sonos) and antennas (but you can put analogue or hdmi video on cat5e from a remote receiver).

You would take all the cables to a central patch panel, where they would be bridged directly or connected to a network switch or other equipment as appropriate for the type of signal.

If you fit wired connections, do so because it will be more reliable than WiFi. Don't use network over mains wiring adapters

 

[mattylad]

IMO put in more cat5/6 cable runs than you think you currently need.
There will always be more devices in future that will need connectivity and wired will always beat wireless.
I wired 2 cables to my son's room but 4 would have been better.
Same for my daughters room, and now I have an attic room for myself I find I have to use a switch as the 1 up here is not enough (the 5 port switch here is full).
Yet I Have a 24 port switch where the net comes through.

 

[motorbiking]

HDMI, Cat6, speaker cable, maybe a digital interconnect (optical or coax). and if you have room for a channel a bit of string to pull new stuff through.

 

[bernardgreen]

a bit of string to pull new stuff through.

or wet string to carry electrical signals from room to room

 

[Sureitsoff?]

i would second the suggestions of more cat5/6 than you think you might need, and also think about coax for sat/tv/cable, not as common today but phone cable. try also to future proof by using conduit so that cable can be added to/replaced. these days there are so many things that need interconnecting it is difficult to decide what might be needed in the future. when i built the house i currently live in there was no need for cat5 etc but i have added it to every room since. like wise the sky box is distributed using HDMI amps and cables.

 

[AndyPRK]

I think Sky is going away from dishs and coax to broadband IP.

So I wouldn't install a massive amount of coax unless you are going to use it now (if you are in a virgin media area it could be used for that)

 

[SpecialK]

Neutrals to all the light switches for smart switches.
As above network cables to behind TV's and run to some form of media server / cupboard. Also some network cables in the ceilings up/down for wifi access points.

 

[SimonH2]

try also to future proof by using conduit so that cable can be added to/replaced.

This. Don't just try - do.
Modern construction standards seem designed to make such maintenance difficult. What with large sheets of floorboard, all glued down. Joists hung from wallplates so there's a lump of timber where you want to bring your conduits down/up.

 

[Diwali]

Wow! I’m in awe of you guys. In less than 24 hours I’ve had 10 replies to my query. All really useful too (well, almost all!).
I think as a minimum I’ll install Cat 5/6 cable and several runs of conduit (for the future!). I suspect extra coax cable will not be required but I may go for speaker cables (although probably a waste as my missus can’t tell the difference between stereo and mono!).
Thanks a bunch to you all.

 

[FrodoOne]

Note post #4 and don't forget the central Patch Panel.

 

[AndyPRK]

Not everyone wants a patch panel in there house

Just remember to route the cables to a point a patch panel could be installed.

Or if you are only going to have 4 connections a router will do it.

 

[RF Lighting]

A recent job I did we ran 2x cat6 and one PF100 coax to each TV position, and in every room at least 2x cat 6 at low level adjacent to a socket, with most rooms having 4 data outlets in there.

In this room there is two cat6 points and a coax point behind the tv. Currently it is using one point for internet for the smart TV, and one point for sky TV using a HDMI over cat6 adaptor.
There is also a HDMI cable from the TV to low level to allow a games console , laptop or DVD player to be plugged into the tv, as well as having internet available at the same position for these devices.