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BY
ELAN PRES. & CTO, BOB FARINELLI
The
concept of a "future-proof home" has been kicking
around the custom A/V industry for quite a while. Everyone
acknowledges it, but what does it really mean?
It
is generally accepted that a home built with a structured
wiring network is "future-proof" because it can
accommodate new products without rewiring. Many people think
that as long as they have extra telephone jacks in each room
their home is future-proofed.
Having
built two homes in the last 12 years, both of which benefited
from my inside connections at ELAN (i.e., access to deeply
discounted gear), I ‘Swiss-cheesed’ the studs in
both homes with miles of wire. But in the end, neither were
future-proofed. My biggest mistake was to drywall the ceilings
in those basements without any empty conduit runs, (smirf
tubes) forever sealing in the wire ways and preventing me
from adding just one more run without having to patch drywall
after the fact.
So,
lesson #1. Put a drop ceiling in your basement or interconnect
the home office to the media center to the structured wiring
center with smirf tubes. Then you can always add more wire
later!
But
if you want to take a serious stab at a future-proofed wiring
network...read on.
There
are two types of signals to consider:
Externally
generated signals enter the home at the "demarcation"
or service entrance. This is where your power, cable TV, satellite
dish feed and telephone/DSL networks enter the home.
In-home
generated signals are either entertainment-oriented A/V signals
that originate in the home theater or data network signals
that originate from a home office.
Pulling
all signal wires to the demarcation, the theater or the home
office is not advisable. Distributing multi-source/multi-zone
audio and control from a structured wiring location is as
cumbersome as distributing telephone and coax from the back
of your entertainment center!
Next
you need to consider the various types of wire to be being
pulled.
Coax.
You can’t go wrong with dual runs of RG-6 Quad Shield
from each room back to a structured wiring center. RG-6 has
very high bandwidth and quad shield has great EMI isolation
characteristics. These days some people are pulling three
runs of coax to each High Definition DLP or Plasma TV location
for component video. Where you locate the HDTV sources should
dictate where you pull these RGB coaxial runs from. This may
be different than the RF distribution center’s location,
and if so, pull the standard dual coax run from that room
back to the distribution center as well. Some people also
pull coax to front and back door or patio locations for future
camera applications. (CAT-5 is also used for this application
as well.)
CAT-5.
Again, dual runs should be home run from convenience outlets
in each room back to a structured wiring center. An additional
CAT-5 should be run from a "control" j-box located
adjacent to the light switch in each room to the media center
or home theater, and then looped down to the structured wiring
center. Doing so will provide the opportunity to add in room
keypads that will connect to a multi-source multi-zone switcher
located in the theater, or to amplified volume controls powered
from a whole-house audio distribution hub located in the structured
wiring center.
If
you are considering door speakers in the future, then run
CAT-5 from each door speaker location, back to the theater
location and then down to the structured wiring center. The
incoming telephone line should also be looped up to the theater,
the home office and then back down to the structured wiring
center for set top box, DSL or telephone controller applications.
16-4.
While there is a lot of hype these days over CAT-5 audio distribution,
not pulling some good old fashion 16-4 dual twisted pair speaker
wire limits your ability to provide "high quality seamless
integration" of distributed audio in your home. CAT-5
audio distribution has its place in certain applications,
and pulling CAT-5 as described above will insure you can upgrade
your home for either line level or digital audio distribution
to in room amplifiers.
I
use the term "seamless integration" from an interior
decorators point of view. Black box digital decoders/power
amplifiers plugged into RJ-45 outlets connected to free standing
speakers are not exactly seamlessly integrated into the room.
You might as well buy a $400 combo A/V package and save on
the wire cost and not be tethered to any single wall plate
location.
J-box
audio amplifiers connected to in-wall or in-ceiling speakers
do provide seamless integration of distributed audio. However,
they are generally powered via CAT-5 and are limited to about
10 watts per channel. I’m sorry, that’s just not
enough power for me (to many rock concerts as a kid). Centrally
located multi-channel amplifiers provide more dynamic headroom
and music power to each room via 16-4 twisted pair wire.
In
each room you are considering distributed audio you should
pull 16-4 from the left speaker location to the right speaker
location, (wall- or ceiling-mount) down to that "control"
j-box by the light switch, down to the theater location and
then down to the structured wiring location. This run essentially
parallels the CAT-5 run described above from the J-Box down.
Now you have the maximum flexibility to configure a distributed
audio system for many years to come.
It
takes a lot of wire to future-proof a home. Some say dual
runs of fiber optic cable provide the ultimate future proofing,
but hey, if investment in "dark fiber" nearly bankrupt
portions of the telecommunications industry, why make a similar
speculative investment in your home? Others say structured
wiring will be rendered obsolete by wireless solutions, but
wireless standards come and go every year, and wireless networks
are inherently insecure and susceptible to interference. The
bandwidth, security and noise immunity benefits of a professionally
installed coax, CAT-5 and 16-4 network will stand the test
of time.
Bob
Farinelli is the President and Chief Technology Officer of
ELAN Home Systems. Comments? E-Mail them to bfarinelli@elanhomesystems.com.
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