Help with my Wiring Closet

So I've completed all my low voltage wiring, including the following:
 
- 3 Cat6 to every TV (green)
- 4 Cat6 to media room TV (green)
- Cat6 network to every room, sometimes multiple drops (blue)
- Cat5e for telephone to every room (beige)
- Cat6 to every possible in wall touchscreen location (yellow)
- 2 coaxial to every TV (black)
- security to every room for glass break
- security to every door
- security to every water location for sensors
- speakers to every zone (16 zones)
- 7.1 surround to media room
 
I now have a few months to sort out the room and get everything installed, and am having a bit of trouble figuring out what to buy and how to mount everything.  The only component I'm sure of is the Elk M1 and Radio Ra2 for lighting.  The rest, such as patch panels, stand alone racks or wall mount racks, phone and coaxial distribution, is all up in the air.  (The home automation is not final yet either, and am either going with the Elk M1 or Elan G.)  I have an entire room and had the guys install smooth, white laminate board to mount everything to, but haven't completely decided on having it in structured cans or all out in the open.  I wouild love to see some pictures of how you guys have done yours.
 
My closet looks like this at the moment:
 

 
Thanks,
 
 

I think you need to start by getting some sort of order to that mess.
 
You went through all the effort of color coding and specific cabling...now you need to start breaking that out and getting it in order.
 
I'd start by getting some "D" rings and then bundling the cabling...and based on the type of drop and room available, I'd put all the TV on one "bay" and security can be two. Network and telecom would be a logical one.
 
From that point, a small frame relay rack, wall mounted would be what I'd look at, then terminations can be done using rackmount hardware and then patches. Probably some horizontal Panduit wouldn't hurt.

I know its pretty messy .  I just finished it and its now about -20 celcius, so I won't be able to clean it up until insulation is done (this week) and the heat can turn on.
 
I will start on the D rings and bundling by color next.
 
Then on to specific equipment and organizing.  Just looking for pics and specifics if anybody has any?

If you have a dedicated room, then yes - I'm with DEL - some nice wall-mount patch panels and D-Rings to neatly group/organize your runs would look pretty good.  Cans are good for limited space but just having things mounted on a wall in a dedicated room gives so much more flexibility.  For the Alarm, I'd still put things into a can and close it up just to avoid tampering.
 
sorry - no pics handy at the moment...  but browse the gallery - you'll probably see a few things.
 
There are 1U and 2U Coax patch panels and also wall-mount patch-panel brackets for ethernet.  Personally I wouldn't have bothered with color coding or separating out Cat5 vs Cat6 because ultimately they should have different terminations (rated for each since wire gauge can be different) and I prefer to keep every wire run pretty universal; however now that you have it, I guess you could do some patch panels for each and do logical groupings.
 
Also - hopefully you have a good tracer or tone/probe, etc to make sense out of all that! Or some markings when the wires were run.

but haven't completely decided on having it in structured cans or all out in the open.

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+ as with Del and WorkToPlay. 
 
Here its a mixture of the two, another house its just structured cans (way less cables though).  The mixture of the two is also separated a bit by primary end point patch panel area and a "server" area which is just racks and patch panels / electrical on the wall with movable racks in front.  Both are destined to be "rooms" with doors.
 
Take you time with it.  Bring HV infrastructure / lighting to the area if you have not yet.  I added some 4 autonomous electrical circuits / breakers for the "area".  Look too at ventilation stuff.  (logical separations as mentioned above).
 
Just a couple of years ago helped a friend with his LV cabling on a new home build.  We ran all of the cables to a sort of nook (cement) in the basement which is destined to be a room.  That said the majority of cables are still mostly just organized and maybe only about 10% are being utilized.  The basement ceilings are 9 foot.  I installed two circuits only related to the LV stuff.  One switch / two lamps are over the vicinity of the pulled cable and one circuit goes to the bottom of the Leviton 42" can and one double duplex electrical box.  The nook is destined to be one room with a door. 
 
 
Yup; relating to the RG6 / Coax I made up a sort of patch panel for mine the early 2000's.  It is a real mixture of a variety of feeds.
 
I did find a picture of a 2U Coax patch panel.
 

 
You can do a lot if with what you have.  Here is a quickie really rough drawing of different spaces.

GIS of network + plywood + network + rack
https://www.google.com/search?espv=210&es_sm=122&biw=1746&bih=978&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=network+rack+cable+plywood&oq=network+rack+cable+plywood&gs_l=img.3...30641.32062.0.32233.12.12.0.0.0.0.103.460.11j1.12.0....0...1c.1.36.img..12.0.0.5c8HaVTinDw
 
I would patch everything but the audio speaker cables (directly to amp, in a wall-mount or floor-standing rack) and security cables.  I would also use an enclosure for the alarm.
 
I suggest getting the security, LAN, and phone working first.  Using local sources for the TVs initially (cable/satellite boxes mounted behind the TVs) will buy you a year until you get the audio and TV distribution figured out.
 
White laminate walls seems like an unusual choice; plywood would allow you to move things around easier.  If I was experienced, and would be installing everything at one time, then the laminate would look great.

Neurorad said:

GIS of network + plywood + network + rack

Click to expand...

 
I just love this picture that the Google search turned up:
 
http://www.myconfinedspace.com/2008/05/14/fine-network-cable-run/wiring_closet/

Yup; do a little bit at a time.  You will not be able to terminate all of the cables in a couple of hours.
 
Just relating to doing one personal DIY alarm / security piece with the pre-wire;
 
I made it a vacation endeavor sort of. 
 
It was a can in a closet in a closet in a closet endeavor (no real space to work with).
 
Three days; installation of alarm panel/can, testing cables and terminating them. 
 
BTW have a quick read here relating to FAQ's and guides and pictures. 
 
Most of your questions will be answered here by CT folks (very friendly and knowledgeable bunch).
 
Tell us how and what you do with your endeavor; it will be a learning experience for you and us here on the forum.

gooch707 said:

My closet looks like this at the moment:

Wiring Closet.jpg

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Heh, that's about how mine looked:


I've been on the fence regarding layout. I started with thinking of using cans in finished wall. I'm revising that. I want an enclosed look but cans alone can be a bit limiting on what fits, and where. I definitely don't like the look of stuff just nailed up to the wall, at least not in this particular setup.

So my question would be just how do you forsee using the space in front of this?

I thought I would update my wiring closet work with a few pics.
 
Unbundled the cables and labelled and starting to sort by cable color:
 

Everything sorted and bundled and ready for ElkM1 and wall mounted rack panel.
 

 
This weekend I am installing the rack mount for the Cat6, Switches, Coaxial panel and speaker panels.

Very nice gooch707!
 
BTW at a similar stage helping a friend with his LV stuff in his new home I put in a couple of new circuits to the fuse panel and some additional HV lighting / switch(s) for just a better view of what I was doing there (well that was an age thing for me).
 
I was lucky though that the fuse panel was only about 20 feet away up and over a floor and still was open.
 
Over the years have "added" more earth grounding stuff.  IE: started with the water pipe ground clamp which going in conduit to the fuse panel; then added external earth grounding (already had some)....kind of over doing it a bit though...

Is that ceiling going to get closed up?  If so you may want to sleeve those wires before you terminate them so that the ceiling can be finished around them - it looks a lot better than just a hole in the ceiling.

Work2Play said:

Is that ceiling going to get closed up?  If so you may want to sleeve those wires before you terminate them so that the ceiling can be finished around them - it looks a lot better than just a hole in the ceiling.

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And maybe run the security system cables through conduit to their can to prevent tampering.

If the bundles will be brought down close to the wall, I would use slotted wiring duct.