CABLE YOUR HOME
For those looking for guidance on cabling their home, here’s an article we have pulled together for an insight into the considerations.
WHY CABLE?
OK, so why are we going to run cables around a property? Well the primary advantages are that when devices are physically connected – plugged into the wall!, and not reliant on your WIFI performance, they will perform better, be more robust and look great. You’ll have cables where you need them – like behind a TV, and not below it and hanging around looking untidy.
Having the right cable in the right places in your home isn’t expensive, given the cost of cables, but the success of your cabling does rely on an accurate plan.
AVINU CONSIDERATION: Consider placing a television on a wall for a clean look, with no wires showing, that will always have a great Internet connection with no other devices on show like Blu-ray players and Sky boxes.
THE PLAN
Before you develop your plan you will need to identify what it is you want around your home. It might help you to think about your requirements in the following four categories:
1. MUSIC – nearly all our customers now ask for music and radio around their homes, the key items for your plan are speaker locations, keypads for control, cinema or may be music in the shower?
2. DATA – it appears that all homes now need Internet connectivity with WIFI everywhere. This allows Internet access via TVs for services such as BBC iPlayer, LoveFilm, Netflix and so on. Add to this devices such as media players and games consoles, and we mustn’t forget our mobile devices such as phones and tablets, it soon becomes apparent how important a reliable network is.
AVINU CONSIDERATION: WIFI black spots around the home can be managed with the use of WIFI access points placed around the home; remember to keep them out of site though. Read more on WIFI here.
3. TELEVISION – so what would you like to watch on the TVs around your home? Will it be delivered to your TVs from your Sky-box, digital aerial, the Internet – may be all of these? When planning cabling for satellite and an aerial you should consider having all your TV devices centralised in one place: may be a utility or plant room, or under the stairs? This means no more devices, like Sky-boxes, on show in the home! Whatever, you decide, ensure you remember to cable back to the room where they will be. Centralised systems are now very popular and competitively priced; let us know if you need any help in identifying what will work best for you.
AVINU CONSIDERATION: Most of our customers now require HD content around the home. This is best achieved over data cable – not aerial coax cable.
4. SMART HOME – so great to have all your home entertainment looking great, reliable and sounding fab. But do you want to introduce ease of use by using some form of control? You may also want to include control of your heating and lighting as well.
AVINU CONSIDERATION: Control systems are no longer expensive, and are even already included in some of the products we use. There greatest value is ‘ease of use’ – our speciality.
Identifying what you want is key to defining what connectivity you’ll need, and where you’ll need it in the home.
AVINU CONSIDERATION: Don’t forget to add a bit more for future proofing and redundancy eh!
Now you can set about compiling your cable plan, so work through each room and detail the cable required, the ports, faceplates, locations and length of runs.
AVINU CONSIDERATION: We’d keep any HDMI cable run to no more than 12 meters.
Nobody wants to see cables around their home so now the task of running cables around your home. If you’re having any building work done then this is no problem – just chat to your electrical contractor or even better, contact us
WHAT CABLES?
So you now know what it is you want around your home, you now need to identify what cables to buy. Although there are many cable options, we suspect you’ll manage by understanding these three common cable types:
CAT6 DATA
Cat 6 data cable is the universal standard for transmitting digital data between PCs, internet routers, smart TVs, games consoles and other online-enabled devices. Anything with an Ethernet port will accept this type of cable and you’ll want to ensure that access points are available in all relevant rooms.
A wired connection will offer faster speeds and greater consistency than a wireless alternative, which is relevant for high-bandwidth activities such as HD video streaming.
COAX
Coax aerial cable is a common cable type which lets you hook up satellite set-top boxes, receivers and digital TVs to an exterior dish or aerial. It can also be used if you want to distribute your broadcaster’s service to multiple rooms in your home. Although you wouldn’t aim to transmit HD signals around the home over coax, it is possible but we’d recommend all HD content should by sent over distance using Cat6 data cable.
This cable is found in many older properties and sometimes known as aerial cable or CT100.
SPEAKER
Audio speaker cable does vary in price but you don’t need to go overboard if it’s for a multi-room system. The cable you see here is used for connecting up speakers around you home in the ceiling, on the wall and out in the garden. It will allow you to enjoy your music and radio anywhere in your home.
Other considerations for speaker cable would include a home cinema and the location of the speakers; consider in wall or on the wall locations. For a HiFi set-up you would consider using higher quality cable to reflect the performance of your equipment.
AVINU design . . .
. . . the very first task we have when designing any living space in a home is to listen to how the room is to be used. Sound simple? Understanding what’s needed for today and tomorrow, then making sure we locate the exact places. After that we design your cable plan and set about getting into the fabric of your home so you’ll never have to see any wires – it all has to look great!!
YOUR HOME
The technology in your home should reflect your lifestyle! It has to look great, sound great and don’t forget be ‘easy to use’. With so much music and film readily available it’s no wonder the devices in our homes are becoming cheaper and better. We can help you plan the cabling you need for your home, making sure your termination points are correct and that wiring is hidden. We can also give you advice about which products will give you the best results for your wired connectivity set-up! Get in touch with us by phone or online and we’ll work with you to achieve connectivity in your home!