Remodel Job Smarthome Newbie - All help welcome

[bhboren]

Hello Gents,
 
I happily stumbled upon your site looking for some help.  Excuse me if I'm in the wrong thread.
 
I'm in the midst of a remodel with a bunch of walls open.  Obviously now is the time - the question is what to do?
 
I don't need whole house automation.  Basically what I want is to hide my wires, hide my direct tv boxes, and have good wi-fi internet throughout the house.  Does that mean I simply just run long HDMI cables through my attic to where my TV's are being mounted and put all the boxes in one room and then access them through infared remotes?  People are telling me to run cat 5 or 6, but I'm not sure the point.  
 
I'd also like to play music in different rooms.  Again, should i use airport expresses and play through iTunes.  Sonos?  Or should I hardwire to some sort of hub in a closet?
 
I plan to have an alarm system.  Past that I'm open to anything cool and extra I should do, but within reason.
 
Please, how would you map it if you were me.  Please excuse my ignorance.
 
Thanks,
 
Brian

 

[drvnbysound]

Regarding the hiding of STB's, yes. Just be sure to make considerations if you may ever sell the home... the next owner may not want to have them centralized, and may rather have the boxes locally - so an additional HDMI drop near the TV is not a bad idea either.
 
Regarding the Cat5 drops, I absolutely agree. Streaming media is here... and that means connectivity. Wireless is not bulletproof and while it's good... it's not as reliable as a wired connection - and that goes for any wireless device, not just your network. Also realize that you can use Cat5 as part of the IR distribution for your STBs.
 
Whole-home audio... there are a bunch of different choices there from wired and wireless solutions. This really depends on what your requirements are for the system. Again, my preference is the wired systems... and I'd put it in the same place as you put your DTV boxes.
 
Plenty of options again with the alarm system - just a matter of what your requirements are and what you want it to do... not only today, but how you may want to expand it in the future.