Renovating a room. Wiring for home cinema?
Discussion
I have a 5m by 4m room that requires complete replastering and renovation. That means replastering walls, ceiling and new flooring. It will be a converted downstairs bedroom in the short term but ultimately it will go back to being a lounge/sitting room and as such I want to make it ready to accept a projector on one with 5.1 home theatre system. My question is what should I as the plaster to do? will i need a sparky at this point? Is there a way to inlay the trunking and put all the cabling/switching in when we convert back? Is there anything else i need to consider to future proof?
Well. the basics for cabling are:
- cable runs/trunking up to where the rear side surround speakers want to be .
- same for back surrounds if you can be bothered (most don't)
- cable run/trunking up to the projector location
- same for ceiling speakers if you want Dolby Atmos (again, most don't bother)
- Same for subwoofer is you/client take home cinema seriously - often the sub is not located at the front, but where it sounds best.
You could bury trunking behind the plaster, with a view to pulling speaker wire up in the future, but it would be very difficult to pull through, you'd have to leave a pull cord anyway (unsightly) and you'd still have to get the speaker cable back to the front of the room (more pull-throughs).
What I'd do (and have done before).
- decide where the TV will be, decide where gear will be (amp/Sky box etc). Run decent speaker cable to all locations. Hide the wire ends behind flush single gang blanking plates (stuff the wires coiled up in the back boxes - they can always be extended).
- run a HDMI cable from amp/gear location to Projector location, Again, hide.
No need for a sparky really for any of that. Only thing is you could do with running a kettle lead up to where the PJ will be - so it has power.
When it turns back into a lounge / cinema - remove blanking plates, access cables, hide cavities with speakers now in place!
- cable runs/trunking up to where the rear side surround speakers want to be .
- same for back surrounds if you can be bothered (most don't)
- cable run/trunking up to the projector location
- same for ceiling speakers if you want Dolby Atmos (again, most don't bother)
- Same for subwoofer is you/client take home cinema seriously - often the sub is not located at the front, but where it sounds best.
You could bury trunking behind the plaster, with a view to pulling speaker wire up in the future, but it would be very difficult to pull through, you'd have to leave a pull cord anyway (unsightly) and you'd still have to get the speaker cable back to the front of the room (more pull-throughs).
What I'd do (and have done before).
- decide where the TV will be, decide where gear will be (amp/Sky box etc). Run decent speaker cable to all locations. Hide the wire ends behind flush single gang blanking plates (stuff the wires coiled up in the back boxes - they can always be extended).
- run a HDMI cable from amp/gear location to Projector location, Again, hide.
No need for a sparky really for any of that. Only thing is you could do with running a kettle lead up to where the PJ will be - so it has power.
When it turns back into a lounge / cinema - remove blanking plates, access cables, hide cavities with speakers now in place!
Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff