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.

I agree with at least 2 RG6 coax to every room. If you/they are going with a dish w/ HD and/or a DVR, you will need 2 coax in rooms with a set-top box home run to the dish/wiring closet.

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Smiley

'03 X5 3.0

Excellent advice. What do you suggest for power protection? Are there any good whole house power filters, surge protection, etc... or are we left to having to deal with good power strips around the house? Or both?

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As for whole house audio and your iPod, you may not need that complicated a system (or at least not right away). I decided that if iPod/iTunes is my exclusive source for music, I don't really need an elaborate multi-source set up. I'm going to set up my iPod/iTunes system myself by going for the Sonance iPort to a multi-zone amp, connecting my PC to a multizone amp and using network storage for my music, or purchasing Onkyo's iPod dock and linking my reciever to a multi-zone amp. I will use basic volume controls in the zones and probably IR in a few places.

Also, check out the Sonos system. It uses its own wireless network to stream music or you can connect the boxes and your PC using your Cat-5 runs. It has received great reveiws, and looks very slick (especially the remote). If your speaker wire and volume control runs are already set up, Sonos MAY not make be cost effective. Also, I don't think Sonos, or most other streaming systems, support AAC's purchased through iTunes Music Store. It may be worth looking into for your needs.

My contractor pre-wired six zones of music (Kitchen, Family Room, LR/DR, Loft, MBR, and Office). They ran speaker wire from the in-ceiling locations to the volume control. From the volume control, cat-5 to the wall panel. If you go with a wall panel/wiring closet, you may want to run additional cat-5s for local inputs into the whole house system. You may also want to wire for a deck/patio and the garage. I can easily run wire to those areas once I move in.

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Smiley

'03 X5 3.0

My non-tech 2Cts:
We have APC brand surge and batt units on our TV/Stereo/Sat/electronics set up and seperate units on our hot water boiler (has fancy & fragile electronics), the 'puter, etc., etc.

We have a hard wired 15kW Generac brand generator, so the APC UPS units are simply to keep us "cooking" during the mulitide of electrical outages and glitches...the Generac only comes on if power is off for 30 seconds, continuously.

The APCs work ok, though their batt backup time is slim based upon very "low horsepower" batt power reserves. APC makes bigger kick ass units, but there web page is not the most informative and once one jumps beyond household back-up units like the kind they sell in Circuit City, et al, the price really rockets north.

http://www.apc.com/solutions/index.cfm?segmentID=1

I think Surge is more important than a batt trying to keep your dvd player "going", for example, except for the batt backup ability on your 'puters, so one can safely shut those down, IF you don't have a hardwired, "automatic" generator.

Another item: in room speakers...we have them in many of our rooms and they were just some "reasonable" brand that our whole house/high tech wire guy sold. They are flush mounted w/grills, painted to match the wall color and, very unobtrusive. They sound exc. to my ol'ears, as they are for background music not critical "Collie-like" listening, imo. We have friends that spent Really big bucks on in room speakers but, the horizontal and/or ceiling mounting that is commonly used, coupled w/no "wall room" around speaker(s), seems to negate the higher cost they spent. "Thiers" vs 'ours', sound the same to most whom have listened.

We have a simple rheostat knob, matches the light switches, that controls the vol at each speaker pair. Obviously the amp/preamp qual and real power are the pump that allows for softer "volumes" via the wall speakers with good to vg fidelity.

The lists offered by the Regs&Faves are remarkable for their specifics and qual and length...though, I sometimes think most people have huge wishlists in new construction, but the reality of what actually "gets used" and those detailed practicalities vs. the overdone list, are miles apart, lol! I know of few people, for example, that need to cell phone their house to turn on mood lighting, turn on the toaster, etc., but many are caught up in the "let's BillGates our new Joint", lol.

My Qtr's up, from a non-tech ol'fart. GL,md

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I somewhat disagree with what he recommends. Your biggest mistake is not knowing exactly what you want, and where you want it. There is such a thing as "over wiring" your house. I own a custom a/v integration company and staff 10 employees that do exactly what you are asking. We typically sit with the client and figure out what their needs are before picking up a hammer. We design these types of systems for many architects and builders Some of what is recommended is good, although I would skip the fiber as it will soon be passed by 10gIP (10 GBPS over CAT-6 Copper wiring). Fiber can be quite expensive to terminate and the equipment is more than copper Ethernet. I can elaborate further if you would like. We are located in Westchester and Manhattan. Give me a call at 914-777-6611 x101.

Impressive, Osbee! And, welcome to the board. Hope you become a regular.

Juan

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Hmm post #1 and selling something already. But Welcome to X5world anyway.

You need to read his post better. Try this again and go slow... (Rangerfan)"I am looking for some suggestions on wiring and electronics to future proof the place."

You cannot over-wire a house (within reason). He does not know everything now that he may want later. You forgot to mention that structured wiring averages a 5-8% uplift on the resale of the house. The ONLY time it is affordable to run wire in a house is before the sheetrock goes up. The cost is 5x and up to do it after the walls are sealed up. Some people will rely on wireless technologies to get by, and that is fine for certian functionality. But there is NO substitute for hard wiring for performance and security. Period. If you sell a system to someone and are only looking at their needs in 2005, you should not be in business.

Fiber internet to the home is already a reality. If you have the chance to put fiber in the walls now, you are missing a huge opportunity by ignoring it. (Get it... fiber to the DESKTOP). If you are telling your clients that is is way too expensive to terminate mmf, you should look at some new vendors. The price has been falling consistently for 5 years.

Home-run wired structured cabling is the backbone of any modern home's audio, video, broadband, security, and automation needs, and is a must-have for anyone looking to remain future proof. For someone in the biz, sounds like you need to do more homework. I am not selling anything but I'll tell you this, you can completely wire a house for every possible scenario for about $2 a sq/ft. Structured wiring including fiber is less than .75 a sq/ft on average.

As MD suggests, APC makes some excellent gear. Can't go wrong with them. There are others that will be fine too of course. Many of them have coax and phone/ethernet protection on them too.

Also, you can get a surge suppressor from your power company that installs on your power meter. This stops all major surges coming down the line.