Hello from the PNW

[tglarsen]

I'm in the process of building my family's dream home here in the Pacific Northwest.  I love all things tech and am searching around for ways to wire my home in a simple, but very useful manner.  The home we are building has the 1st floor being ICF (Insulated Concrete Foam) and the 2nd floor is a standard stick frame.  I have a couple macs, usual iOS devices, 3 xboxes, and a handful of TVs.  I am not looking for any insane home automation, but just good access to my services from many points in the house.
 
I look forward to any advice or diagrams people can offer up and will probably visit another topic to find the info.
 
Look forward to seeing what this is all about.

 

[Desert_AIP]

Welcome.

Dry side or wet side?

 

[tglarsen]

Wet side, especially now.  Quite soggy, and a bit irritating.  It is about time this weather turns around.
 
 

Welcome.

Dry side or wet side?

 

[Desert_AIP]

Wait until July 5th.
 
What type of things do you want to do?
 
Lighting, security, HVAC, IP related (audio, video, cameras)?

 

[tglarsen]

Thank you for asking!
 
I'm not looking for any insane home automation, just the best way to set up my home for entertainment (Cable TV/Sat), Internet (Cat6,WiFi) and some streaming.
 
I have 6 rooms that will have HDTV available connections, and I'd like to run ethernet cable to all those rooms.  My office will probably need 4 cables, but was thinking of running pairs to each of the other rooms.
 
I have a newer MacMini that I'd like to use as a streaming device/webTV, possibly running HDMI into a splitter/amp to send out to other TVs.
 
Ultimately, I'd like to make the best out of HDTV/XBox/Computer for each room.  Here is a snapshot;
 
Living Room;
- HDTV (Smart), XBox360, DVD, Smaller receiver
Office:
- HDTV (Smart), XBox360, Multiple computers w/ one always hard wired and option to hard wire another, Network Printer
Bonus Room:
- HDTV (Smart), XBox360, Receiver (non-network), Possible media device
Bedrooms:
- HDTV (Master will have a SmarTV, w/ future TVs possible for 2 other rooms), ethernet ports for hard wiring network devices.
 
I will most likely going with Dish for my sat provider and Xfinity for internet.  Am thinking of where I need to put the Home Runs for them (Attic, maybe?).  I'm sure the home run for the dish will be up there, but wasn't sure about the TV cable if I wanted to use it in the future.
 
Any input on where I may want to go for research?  The common names drowns out my results a bit.
 
Thank you for entertaining my dilemma.

 

[Desert_AIP]

Try the Home Theater forum here.  That's probably the best location for distributed video.
 
That's probably my weakest area of personal knowledge, once everything went digital.
Digital rights management, HDMI distro, etc., etc.  I'm at a loss for equipment and setup.
 
I would run more cable than you think you will need Cat-5/6 is relatively cheap and there are a lot of things you can do with them.
For instance, I have 4 IP devices in my Family room for the TV stack.  I should have run 6 drops there.
When I initially started there was only one device and I ran 2 drops.

 

[az1324]

Dish uses MoCA for whole home dvr stuff so you probably want to have coax in all TV rooms. You can also piggyback and break out ethernet from that (with bandwidth sharing). Of course while you're at it having a few cat cables available is good too. If you are not doing really high bandwidth stuff like uncompressed video or a multimedia server you can always split a single gigabit link with a 5 or 8 port switch for multiple devices in that location and not have any performance issues.

 

[tmbrown97]

Also pick a good place for the wiring - the attic is rarely a good place unless you have a walk-in attic space; you don't want to have to go into the crawlspace for the wiring.  Take a look at the Leviton structured media enclosures - that's what is done in modern homes; pick a closet somewhere and use that or if you're building, spec out a wiring closet.

 

[tglarsen]

Awesome.  I have decided to put it on the wall of my laundry room.  It is closest to central for most connections and has easy attic access.  
 
I have seen the enclosures, and will probably go with one of those.  For running all my Cat6, does the Leviton act as its own switch or will I need to puchase an actual switch?  I am planning on having a wireless router in place, with an extender on the lower floor, but unsure of what I need to distribute the internet signal.
 
Something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Leviton-476TL-T12-Telephone-Distribution-Housing/dp/B003O84R3G/ref=sr_1_8?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1369322743&sr=1-8&keywords=Leviton
 
Or do I need to add another switch (similar to this) http://www.amazon.com/Netgear-ProSafe-16-Port-Ethernet-Desktop/dp/B000063UZW/ref=sr_1_7?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1369322881&sr=1-7&keywords=16+port+switch+gigabit
 
Thank you for the help, as this is all incredibly helpful!  I need to get locations to my electrician here in the next few days and wasn't completely thinking this out.
 
Oh, and I'm only going to have one line of POTS that will be nowhere near this panel. haha  So I guess my only desire is Cable/Sat TV and Internet.