Video/ audio distribution part 2

[leenowell]

Hi All,

Firstly, I would like to thank you all for the great information you posted on this topic.

After a lot of research into this, a friend of mine put in a system for video/ audio distribution a couple of years ago which made me think that I may have been approaching this problem from the wrong direction. I have been considering how many locations I want to view video/ audio and how do I get everything to an end device at these locations such that they can all work concurrently. What he did was locate his standard equipment (dvd player, PC, CD player, video etc) in a central location and consider how many people will want to watch a different DVD (for example) at the same time. Then simply buy that number of DVD players. Maybe not the best example as I am looking to store the DVDs centrally so you don't have to go into the cupboard to change them but it shows the principle.

Everything is then distributed via CAT 5 cable (apparently you can buy a sort of video/ audio router for this) and controlled via radio remote controls.

It all seemed fairly cunning to me as you can scale it up as you need to and you don't have to buy the end devices for each room. Has anyone had any experience of this type of setup?

All help appreciated.,

thanks again

Lee.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|!Hi All, |! |!Firstly, I would like to thank you all for the great information you |!posted on this topic. |! |!After a lot of research into this, a friend of mine put in a system |!for video/ audio distribution a couple of years ago which made me |!think that I may have been approaching this problem from the wrong |!direction. I have been considering how many locations I want to view |!video/ audio and how do I get everything to an end device at these |!locations such that they can all work concurrently. What he did was |!locate his standard equipment (dvd player, PC, CD player, video etc) |!in a central location and consider how many people will want to watch |!a different DVD (for example) at the same time. Then simply buy that |!number of DVD players. Maybe not the best example as I am looking to |!store the DVDs centrally so you don't have to go into the cupboard to |!change them but it shows the principle. |! |!Everything is then distributed via CAT 5 cable (apparently you can buy |!a sort of video/ audio router for this) and controlled via radio |!remote controls.

Designing a system for what *you*, want before doing anything on the ground is always a *very* good idea. Your plan all depends how easy it would be to run more cable/coax round *your* house.

Having gone to no end of trouble running CT100 coax around the house for DTT and then found that people want to arrange their rooms in a different way, so the CT100 should end up in a different place. Then in the near future I expect to fit a quad LNB to my Sky dish and run *another* set of cables round the house for generic/freesatfromsky boxes I would not run a

*third* set of cables round my house. I have decided that when our many VCRs reach the end of their lives, I will fit R/W DVD players/recorders in every room and just swap the R/W DVDs around between the players as we do with Video cassettes.

[leenowell]

Gutenberg

Free to any

Thanks for the reply. In my case, we are about to embark on a major renovation so I want to run the cable now to cover my bases as running it afterwards will be a pain. My friend ended up running 3 x CAT5, 1 x Coax and 1 x phone to each major room to cover

CAT 5 - network CAT 5 - video/ audio distribution CAT 5 - spare Coax - normal terrestrial TV Phone - one cable supporting 2 lines.

Seemed like a fairly good idea given the price of CAT 5

What do you guys think?

[Andy Burns]

Even though an extension phone outlet only uses 3 wires, combining two extensions using 3 pairs means you will get cross-talk, an alternative is to only wire the A/B pair to each and use master outlets at the extensions, but the multiple extra components can affect ADSL on the line.

[Styx]

As you're buying a bunch of Cat5, you could use that for 'phone, too -- good article about it here:

[Dave Fawthrop]

|!On 13 May, 08:17, Dave Fawthrop |!wrote: |!> On 12 May 2007 23:43:45 -0700, [e-mail] wrote: |!>

|!> |!Hi All, |!> |! |!> |!Firstly, I would like to thank you all for the great information you |!> |!posted on this topic. |!> |! |!> |!After a lot of research into this, a friend of mine put in a system |!> |!for video/ audio distribution a couple of years ago which made me |!> |!think that I may have been approaching this problem from the wrong |!> |!direction. I have been considering how many locations I want to view |!> |!video/ audio and how do I get everything to an end device at these |!> |!locations such that they can all work concurrently. What he did was |!> |!locate his standard equipment (dvd player, PC, CD player, video etc) |!> |!in a central location and consider how many people will want to watch |!> |!a different DVD (for example) at the same time. Then simply buy that |!> |!number of DVD players. Maybe not the best example as I am looking to |!> |!store the DVDs centrally so you don't have to go into the cupboard to |!> |!change them but it shows the principle. |!> |! |!> |!Everything is then distributed via CAT 5 cable (apparently you can buy |!> |!a sort of video/ audio router for this) and controlled via radio |!> |!remote controls. |!>

|!> Designing a system for what *you*, want before doing anything on the ground |!> is always a *very* good idea. Your plan all depends how easy it would be |!> to run more cable/coax round *your* house. |!>

|!> Having gone to no end of trouble running CT100 coax around the house for |!> DTT and then found that people want to arrange their rooms in a different |!> way, so the CT100 should end up in a different place. Then in the near |!> future I expect to fit a quad LNB to my Sky dish and run *another* set of |!> cables round the house for generic/freesatfromsky boxes I would not run a |!> *third* set of cables round my house. I have decided that when our many |!> VCRs reach the end of their lives, I will fit R/W DVD players/recorders in |!> every room and just swap the R/W DVDs around between the players as we do |!> with Video cassettes.

|!Thanks for the reply. In my case, we are about to embark on a major |!renovation so I want to run the cable now to cover my bases as running |!it afterwards will be a pain. My friend ended up running 3 x CAT5, 1 |!x Coax and 1 x phone to each major room to cover |! |!CAT 5 - network |!CAT 5 - video/ audio distribution |!CAT 5 - spare |!Coax - normal terrestrial TV

If you are installing trunking initially a spare CT100 coax for Sat TV might be a good idea. Depends if you have a good view of Astra and/or a good view of the transmitter for DTT, after analogue switch off. |!Phone - one cable supporting 2 lines. |! |!Seemed like a fairly good idea given the price of CAT 5 |! |!What do you guys think?

[Lurch]

On 13 May 2007 01:53:13 -0700, [e-mail] mused:

Cat5e. ;)

I'd use cat7, or cat6, for AV distribution. This does need to be installed properly though, it is less forgiving of dodgy installatio than cat5\e.

Wouldn't hurt.

I'd run 2, while I was at it.

This is a debateable one, I'd probably run a minimum of 2 cat5e cables to each point and use LJAU's at the outlets.

[Ron Lowe]

This is what I am doing. This also gives the possibility of moving to a VoIP system later. ( My IP phones are currently on an isolated 'asterisk lab' for me to screw around. )

[leenowell]

Thanks all. Has anyone used or seen one of these AV router things? I can't seem to find them anywhere?

[leenowell]

I had read that cat 6 was much more expensive and wouldn't give many benefits? Also, I hadn't heard of cat7 until now? Is the cost benefit there?

thanks

Lee.

[Lurch]

On 13 May 2007 09:53:20 -0700, [e-mail] mused:

For an ethernet network, correct. For sending AV round the house though, cat5e would do, but wouldn't be fantastic. I'd prefer to see cat6. All of the units I've looked at have used\recommended the use of cat6 for the cabling.

Performance benefits, cat7 is designed for AV systems apparantly. It's similar in characteristics to cat6, but has additional shielding.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've no real idea how they send vision over these cables but if it's done properly and balanced the sheilding shouldn't matter much for domestic runs. I saw demonstrations of video sent round a large site using old twisted pair audio multi-core and it worked very well.

[Lurch]

On Mon, 14 May 2007 00:49:14 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)" mused:

I've used twisted pair (cat5e) on 250m runs for sending 3 CCTV video signals down one cable on 3 pairs and the results have been spot on. Some people have complained of problems with doing this. I think it depends, as you say, on baluns and to an extent, the cable. Cat7 is designed to eliminate the problems with multiple frequencies down a shared multicore, but for the most part cat6 would perform just as well.

For a single signal\frequency with decent baluns then I can't see there being much of a problem using just about any twisted pair, cat3 phone cable would do.

[leenowell]

May be a dumb question but what are baluns?

In my setup, I would have thought that the longest run from the "comms room" would be 50m at the max (by the time you go up over and down again). Also, if I work on running one set of wires (cat x, sat etc) to each room from the central hub, can I chain more than one socket in each room? It would be unlikely that I would use more than one socket in a particular room but thought if I had 2 or 3 sockets per room it would deal with future layout changes?

This is all very helpful

thanks.

[tony sayer]

[Lurch]

On 15 May 2007 06:17:58 -0700, [e-mail] mused:

Do you mean run 1 cable to each room then run it aorund several sockets, all connected in parallel? If so, I'd advise against it. Each socket\outlet ideally wants to be wired back to the central point individulaly.

[FKruger]

unbranded from China, so you take a risk on the quality.

[leenowell]

I'm not sure whether it would be parallel or serial but essentially yes. Only one socket per room would ever be used at once it is merely to cope with future room designs.

[Lurch]

On 22 May 2007 08:18:37 -0700, [e-mail] mused:

It will work, possibly not fantstically, and defnitely a bodge, and isn't recommended.