I'm about to wreck our dining room and it will soon re-emerge as a cosy living room (estate agents would call it a "family room"). Eventually I'll be installing a home cinema setup, and I'd like to get some fixed wiring in place before decorating.
The trouble is I know nothing about home cinema gear so I don't know what sort of wiring I'm going to need. Our TV, which hasn't been switched on in years, is one of those fat heavy glass eyes with a mains plug and an aerial socket. I'm aware that things have moved on since then but I haven't kept up.
I'm thinking of a big flat screen in the middle of one wall, speakers in the four corners (how high?), and a collection of black boxes near the screen to make it all work. I have no idea what provision I should make for connecting the boxes to the screen and speakers, other than knowing I don't want wires trailing all over the place. Any advice appreciated.
I have little interest in broadcast TV but it would be daft not to have any connection with the outside world. I'll be providing an internet connection for the black boxes and I know how to do that. It's possible that I'll get a satellite dish installed at some stage (there's no prospect of cable) and I assume that the satellite wiring would enter through the outside wall. That's nowhere near where the black boxes will be - so how might I prepare for it? Or would I be wasting my time with satellite when the internet is taking over?
The room's about 4 metres square, by the way, with a concrete floor which will be carpeted, and thick stone walls.
OK. Run several mains style cables (for audio) and a lot of CAT 5 (for anything it might be useful for, like a home network) and coax (to the TV from the loft amplifier/distributor) to wherever you might want to have bits of the setup.
SEPARATELY run a mains ring.
Now even if you leave the cables coiled up inside a backing box, at least the cables are there if you need them. Its generally no big deal to hack out for another backing box and put a socket next door to one that exists, and ,if there is enough cable, extend a particular service.
I'll leave that to someone else - I have not advanced beyond basic sterio, except to say that a mate got a pir of transmission tunnel monster speakers back in the 90's and combined with good grade amp+preamp, they produced extremely realistic sound.
IME, you will want a TV with at least 4 HDMI inputs (everything is going HDMI and the cables are fairly thin).
So you will want to the TV - probably:
1) Mains
2) several audio cables back to amp
3) ethernet to TV (yes, really - modern TVs can do iPlayer direct - I would not be surprised if some will eventually do Netflix direct too).
4) Aerial to TV
5) HDMI for DVD
6) HDMI to Sky box if required - or BT Ondemand or Virgin box
7) Component or composite video (3-5 cables) to WII or some other games console. Note Games Console may be able to provide Netflix streaming service (my WII can).
So the potential for lots of cables is high. A big lump of D-Line trunking looks pretty neat between the TV and the cupboard with the rest of the gear.
Then you'll need said cupboard - with a glass front to let the remotes work.
Will you build in a cupboard or use a free standing one?
Get or make one with lots of shelves, vertical void in the back for cabling and as mentioned, glass doors. And ventilation.
Satellite will always have 100's of channels - but we are fast moving towards the time when on line streaming will provide anything you want over a 2+Mbit connection.
Netflix is already technically pretty good. Their catalogue is weak but to be fair they have only just started with UK streaming and I am seeing stuff being added every day - so it is only a matter of time.
Given that particular scenario - I would bolt the TV to the middle of the best wall for viewing. Then in the corner I would build a quality (but could be "rustic looking" wooden cabinet to house the kit. The cabinet would have a PDU for mains (you'll need loads of sockets here but not many amps).
Heavy bit of D-Line or some suitable trunking[1] across to the TV (direct - or along the skirting area then up). I would allow 4 square inches of cable area in this - seems a lot but it will fill).
The cabinet will end up with a load of piles of surplus cable so it would be a good idea to have a 4" deep void behind the shelves with some tie back points for tie wraps or velcro bands. The other solution is to get custom cables. Given you will have to buy HDMI cables for your kit, go to google and locate the best source, Do NOT buy from COMET, Dixons, Curries etc - they will charge you 5-10 times the price. Flat HDMI cable is easier to route and you can buy it to the nearest metre. You could also shorten all mains cables in the cabinet and even put IEC plugs on as IEC PDUs are more compact than 13A.
As far as the sat goes, get it taken in at ceiling height and drop it down to the cabinet from the floor void above. You would do well to drop some conduit (20mm round) down to the sit eof the cabinet - perhaps 6 lenghts to
3 double back boxes. This should give you more than enough for mains, aerial, sat, network and mabey speaker cables back up.
You didn't say of your stone walls were plastered?
My solution is only one of a thousand possibles - it may not suit what you were thinking of - other will have other ideas...
How much wrecking are you planning on? is there depth in the wall and space to fit buried conduit and some draw wires? Then either you or whoever fits the system could pull their own cables through when needed.
True enough but not an issue with most domestic home cinema systems where the "sub woofer" also handles the LF from the other five channels via "bass management". This avoids the requirement of trying to place 5 full range (ie large) speaker boxes in the room.
As for the OP it's probably easier to buy an AV Amp of some sort to stick in the pile of black boxes and everything goes through that. All the telly needs is a single HDMI and mains. No interest in broadcast telly so there isn't a requirement to get an audio signal back from the telly's reciever(s) to the AV amp. Some hint of DSAT but that would go through the AV Amp...
I'd be wary of mounting a TV up on a wall, too easy to get it too high and a crick in the neck watching it.
Cabling position really depends on the layout of the room and location of the viewing listening position. Each corner wouldn't really be very good if the listening position screen line is on a diagonal of the room for instance.
It's impossible to work all this out without knowing the exact equipment you'll be buying. All I can suggest if you wish to make provision before doing this is to run in adequate trunking to take all the cables etc when you do decide what to get.
I always advocate lots of buried conduit. You can get flexi in all diameters from 12mm to 50mm. 18 or 25mm is OK for most jobs. Put draw wires in. Terminate in deep steel patresses (backboxes) set into the wall. Cover with blank plates until needed.
Just a pity that builders don't have the same idea when they build houses. My wife often complains that I am being too industrial when I do work around the house, I try and transpose the words industrial and sensible when she does.
You can never have too many cable routes and draw wires in a home.
True. Especially if you don't have the equipment planned before you start.
Some people hang the TV off a false wall, built ~15cm in front of the real one. You can hide anything behind it then, and get behind it fairly easily (depending on how you build it). Much easier than channelling into stone walls.
I think that Satellite will be a good idea, as the bandwidth problems are always going to plague the internet. I know many people have centre speakers, left and right, a couple of sub woofers, and two or four other speakers behind the listener or part way down a room. Normally these tend to be smaller than the front ones. I'd not go for the extremes some do, with butt kickers under the furniture though!
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