Wiring underneath floor.

[Distant]

So I've currently got a sparky in doing some rewiring upstairs and we've got all the floors up. I've taken the opportunity to run as many AV leads as I can think of underneath the floor.

So far I've got:

- TV/satelite links under the floor to each bedroom and down into the kitchen.
- CCTV monitor leads into the living room, kitchen and master bedroom.
- Speaker wires from my (yet to be built) A/V cabinet in the corner of the living room, and down into the far corners for home theatre surround sound.
- Twin phono leads to each of the bedrooms for audio (or even video) output from whatever I choose in the A/V cabinet.

So the question is, have I missed anything that I'm going to regret not doing in a couple of years time? I don't intend to be taking the floor up ever again so I'd rather get everything possible underneath it now while I can.

Thoughts please...

[Plotloss]

Cat5e from where you're going to have your source equipment to everywhere else.

[ymwoods]

Plotloss said:

Cat5e from where you're going to have your source equipment to everywhere else.

This, to be completly future proof then you need computer wiring so you can connect up some servers and a home network.

[mrmr96]

ymwoods said:

Plotloss said:

Cat5e from where you're going to have your source equipment to everywhere else.

This, to be completly future proof then you need computer wiring so you can connect up some servers and a home network.

And also so you can connect A/V Baluns to the CAT5. These are boxes which take an A/V signal one side (different baluns for different format inputs) and then have cat5 the other side. So you put one balun each end of the cat5 and you can then carry whatever signal you like, all you need to do is buy the appropriate baluns.

HTH.

[Distant]

Thanks, so Cat5e can be used for video, or audio, or computer networking, depending on the type of balun used to connect to it. Is that right?

[Plotloss]

Distant said:

Thanks, so Cat5e can be used for video, or audio, or computer networking, depending on the type of balun used to connect to it. Is that right?

Cat5e can be used for (and this isn't by any means exhaustive):

Circuit switched analogue telephony
VOIP telephony
Packet switched network data
HD/SD Digital Component Video
HD/SD Digital RGB Video
Analogue Component Video
Analogue RGB/RGsB/RGBHV Video
Analogue Composite Video
Digital Multichannel Audio
Analogue Stereo Audio
Alarm
Control Transmission (RS232 etc)
DC Low Voltage Power

[Distant]

Wow, seems like it's pretty versatile stuff! If I'm using it to send, say a dvd signal to the bedroom, would I need to run 3 lengths, 1 for video, 1 for left audio and 1 for right audio?

Sorry for the numpty questions but I've never used the stuff before.

[Plotloss]

Nope, that will all go over a single run of Cat5e.

You may as pull in as many as you can though, for future proofing, its as easy to pull 4 cables as it is 1.

[mrmr96]

Distant said:

Wow, seems like it's pretty versatile stuff! If I'm using it to send, say a dvd signal to the bedroom, would I need to run 3 lengths, 1 for video, 1 for left audio and 1 for right audio?

Sorry for the numpty questions but I've never used the stuff before.

Do a google search for AV Cat5 Baluns and see what types are out there. Most stuff only uses one Cat5 cable. However I think that some stuff (maybe HDMI?) needs two. I've not used them so I've never done loads of research, but I know they exist and I've given you the idea and the keywords so you can do your own reseach. :-)

[Murph7355]

Personally not convinced you'd need more than 1x CAT5e cable per room, but as mentioned it's cheap to run it when your house has the floors up, and cables are cheap.

Just consider where your central kit cupboard is likely to be and run 2 or 3 cables from there to each room.

[Silverbullet767]

You can even use CAT5e to run HDMI signals too, with the appropriate converters etc.

I'd run more than 1 to each room if you can, a 100M reel of the stuff is cheap as chips.

[Plotloss]

The reason you run more than one is that baluns (generally) send the signal over the cable utilising it as a set of conductors rather than as packet switched data so you can't mix data and AV signals over the same cable.

[Engineer1]

Consider that while you are using your cat5 cable for AV stuff it can't be used for another application, so run several things that weren't networked before are now networkable, I have a bluray player that is networkable some TVs are etc.

If it was me I would run some trunking so that I could add cables as required, finding you are a length of something short is a pain if you can't pull it through.

Edited by Engineer1 on Monday 2nd August 13:14

[sonic_2k_uk]

Murph7355 said:

Personally not convinced you'd need more than 1x CAT5e cable per room, but as mentioned it's cheap to run it when your house has the floors up, and cables are cheap.

Just consider where your central kit cupboard is likely to be and run 2 or 3 cables from there to each room.

I thought that when i did mine a while ago, i put 3 into most rooms anyway, all coming out in different locations for convenience.

Now i've had to add more switches to some of the cables to allow more ports. One of the cables in the living room has x-box, bluray, ds and sometimes a laptop or 2.

Also it would be a PITA if the cable stopped working, and the carpet/floorboards has to come up again. Not common, but very possible.

[Distant]

Thanks for all the advice so far, I think I'll run a few (probably 5 if I can squeeze that many out of a reel) Cat5 cables to each location.

Think I'll run them up behind blanking plates in each room, so I can add baluns later.

[finlo]

Bye the time you need it Cat 5e will have been superseded by something else.

[sonic_2k_uk]

finlo said:

Bye the time you need it Cat 5e will have been superseded by something else.

Already has been with cat 6 and soon to be cat 7, but it's completely OTT for your house.

[Plotloss]

sonic_2k_uk said:

finlo said:

Bye the time you need it Cat 5e will have been superseded by something else.

Already has been with cat 6 and soon to be cat 7, but it's completely OTT for your house.

There's Cat8 too.

7 and 8 require proprietary connectors and if you run gigabit over it you only get gigabit and given that it uses all 8 connectors its just very expensive cat6.

Cat6 doesnt really work in residential applications as its a pig to work with.

10G is here/coming but again to requires a new faceplate and connector but mandates Cat6

In short, 5e is the right choice and isn't going anywhere for a LONG time yet.

[Murph7355]

sonic_2k_uk said:

I thought that when i did mine a while ago, i put 3 into most rooms anyway, all coming out in different locations for convenience.

Now i've had to add more switches to some of the cables to allow more ports. One of the cables in the living room has x-box, bluray, ds and sometimes a laptop or 2.

Also it would be a PITA if the cable stopped working, and the carpet/floorboards has to come up again. Not common, but very possible.

I also have the odd gigabit switch in use, plus plenty of WiFi...

If you've room to run more inconspicuously, I'd agree that it's worth it, to a point. Though you do need to think carefully at where the ends are going to be.