Whole house wiring solution

[rhamer]

Ok, the age old question.

I am currently building a new house and I am finalising the plan for the cable runs to each room.

The building company will be installing the C-Bus stuff so thats not part of my plan.

There will be specific runs, but what I'm after is peoples general answer to what they run as a minimum to each room.

I have heard people say 2xCAT5 and 2xRG6 to every room, personally I think this is a little light on. Assuming the phone is distributed via CAT5 then there is only 1 data point left.

With the cost of cable being cheap (at least compared to the rest of the house) I would think 4xCAT5 and 2xRG6 would be better.

But thats why I'm asking. I would rather run overkill when there is no plaster, than being 1 short later on.

Also I am interested in what sort of plates are being used to fit off the ends, particulary if there are 6 wires to each room, I don't realy want a wall full of plates in each room. I was thinking of a standard 6 way clipsal plate with the correct inserts to match the GPO's.

Regards

Rohan

[Colin Smith]

I would agree with you on the quantity. Where in the house the cables are run can vary. The wall plate costs the same if it is 2,4 or 6 way and takes up the same amount of wall real estate. The difference in cost comes with the insert plug types. I would tend to look at putting in more CAT5/6 even if the cables are not terminated at this time because it is now possible to send audio and video over CAT5/6.

However for the lounge where the TV is:

1x RG6 for the signal from your standard terrestrial aerial/s. This would ideally go to a RF signal splitter where the signal is distributed to other rooms around your home without signal loss. Also if you are planning on using IR control via the RF cable then the RF splitter you use needs to pass this signal.
See (Home Networking Hub - Check Hills Industries web site for more info)

The feed to your lounge will need to have a TV/FM splitter so that you feed a quality signal to your FM radio receiver. This can occur behind the wall plate. But this requires two of the six outlets.

1x RG6 for the signal from a satellite dish run direct to the receiver. (pre-wired) (Direct to receiver is Sky NZs preferec method.)

1x RG6 from the back of your VCR to feed back into the RF signal splitter. This will enable you to watch your VCR from any room in the house. The Hills RF splitter has three inputs, others brands are available.

Possibly 1x RG6 from the satellite receiver back to the RF splitter for distribution and the same for your DVD player.
It is possible to loop some of these through the VCR for example, so there is only one feed back to the RF splitter. This limits what can be watched at the same time.

Possibly 1x RG6 for a cable TV network signal. There may be no hope of cable TV at the moment but who knows in 15 years time? Your house will still be standing at this time.
(In NZ, Telecom requests that we use CAT5 to run the phones. This includes from the connection point outside the house and then star wire from some place within the home. When you run this cable consider running a length of RG6 at the same time. This also gives you the option of sending a signal in either direction to the outside of your home.) Video telephones for example!

1x Cat5/6 cable for telephone. Sky TV Pay per View requires the satellite receiver to dial back to request the movie. You could use a 2 in 1 external plug so you can connect a standard telephone.

1x Cat5/6 for a Media PC type connection to distribute video and music to other networked devices around the house.

1x Cat5/6 for an Internet media device to connect to the Internet. This device might be part of your AM/FM radio receiver that can also connect to receive web based radio stations. Philips do (did) have a radio of this type.

That makes a minimum of 3x RG6 cables. TV in, Sat in, VCR out.
This requires 4 wall sockets if you include the TV/FM splitter.

This also makes a minimum of 3 Cat5/6 cables. 1x phone, 2x data.

This translates to a minimum of 1 wall plate with 6 outlets without the TV/FM splitter. To play safe you would need to go to 2 wall plates. With 2 wall plates you can go up to 12 outlets. You could make one all RG6 and the other CAT5/6.

One normally forgotten device is the AM radio. This comes with a ferrite aerial and a length of wire that is supposed to go somewhere? One of the lengths of RG6 could run to an outside aerial to deliver better quality RF and audio on AM.
Hope this helps!

Colin Smith

[rhamer]

Thanks for the comprehensive reply Colin.

I'm still getting it straight in my head, but I'm happy that what you are saying is much like I was thinking and there are no red flags.

Regards

Rohan

[CON]

cat 6 cable currently 34cents per meter
and 4 runs of it wont be overkill