Originally Posted by ncx

My 02 cents. This covers in audio video streaming, broadband, HD, whole house audio, etc. Here's a few things to get you thinking.

- run structured cable to every room. Include 2 multimode fiber, at least two RG6 coax, at least 2 cat5e or cat6. bundled cable is MUCH easier and cheaper to install than individual runs of cables.
- run extra cat5/6 to office locations.
- run extra coax and cat5 between tv locations and wire closet (for distributed video)
- run at least two coax from main audio source to wire closet (for house audio)
- run audiocat (speaker cable pair with cat5e) between wire closet and all main rooms, deck, and garage (for house audio/ceiling speakers/volume controls/automation touchpads).
- put ac outlets in closets. extra AC in wire closet.
- put sound absorbing insulation in interior wall (works great!)
- in your theater room/ av room run coax, IR wire, component vid to AV closet if you will have your equipment away from the TV, run component vid to ceiling (for a projector), put ac outlet in the ceiling (projector), and one under the floor in the seating position (for tactile bass buttkicker amp, Xbox, table top projector, laptop power, whatever).
- run extra cat5/6 to av room (xbox live, streaming internet radio, etc., MPC)
- run cat5/6 from av equipment location to seating position (for xbox live, internet access, etc)
- run theater/av room on its own 20amp+ circuit.
- run power to corners of the house in the attic if you want cameras there later. run av cable to the same locations.
- wire the theater av room for at least 9.1 surround+
- run a rg6 coax from the av equipment location to the opposite side of the room for subwoofer locations.
- run multi-conductor security wire everywhere imaginable so you can add cameras, sensors, detectors, etc down the road as needed.
- run 4 rg6 coax from the wire panel to the roof for HD sat.
- run 2 rg6 coax from wire closet to demarc for cable tv.
- run 2+ cat5/6 from wire panel to demarc for 'old fashion' phone lines
- make sure you plan for GOOD power protection for any signal coming into the house, be it incoming cable coax, phones, etc., make sure you have good UPS on all important subsystems (cable, ethernet switches, phone/voip systems, security system).

hope that helps.