the coax makes sense yeah you can setup something like mythtv and some tv tuner cards but you could also do both and add in mythtv later which makes sense because if you go pure mythtv the first issue your gonna slam face first into is tuners for 4 people to watch 4 different channels your going to need between 2 and 4 tuners in the rack depending on what multicasts there watching if there all recording something that number goes up again or just run coax to the tv's they can watch whatever they want there on the tv with the tvs tuner you already paid for inside the tv then if you want the fancy features like streaming to mobile devices or recording live tv you can do that seperatly in the rack needing only tuners for channels you wish to record which reasonably 2 maybe 4 would be more than enough to handle that and you dont need a monsterous gpu to do transcoding and all that joy so yes coax to the tv and if the desire comes up later for mythtv add that in later
Congrats on the new house, I love the fact that you've split the videos into a series, so each video isn't too long and the first video is 1 hour 37 mins. Absolute legend.
As someone who currently has her entire apartment gutted to the brickwork and is installing power/data/alarm/speaker cable behind metal-suspended plasterboard, this is inspiration porn - none of the dirty construction work, but all the cabling joy. ❤
What you’re looking for in the attic for wire hanging is J hooks / J hangers. Neat, easy to install and maintain, and significantly cheaper than any cable tray setup will be.
Oh yeah, I am definitely waiting. We too are moving into our new house in few months and I too have elaborate plans for network install. Your videos are perfect as they are very detailed and don't mind the duration.
Having a house built mostly from wood really helps when doing cable runs. If you have a house build from concrete and bricks with no empty space between walls like our 1978 house, everything has to be done with trunking on the outside of walls. Not terrible, but not ideal. Congrats on your new place, can't wait to see the final result!
@@nelizmastr you can gouge up the wall and fit the cable in that, but yes it makes a lot of mess and work decoration etc. Plus coving, just to complicate things more. Trunking looks horrible in my view, which is why I’ll likely never get my house wired.
Concrete downstairs/block upstairs here, people before have put in trunking for power and I can’t wait to channel all of it into the wall even if its going to be a heck of a lot of work. Same for data cables, can run strips behind the plaster to make fishing for cables easier too.
Ive been waiting for this video - I can tell it's gonna be absolutely brilliant as your videos are always so high quality. Very exciting to have a full hour and a half of a video to enjoy!
Best of luck with the install Cameron! I have done something very similar with my new build immediately after moving in. After the developers refusing to let me install while they were building the house, I had to retro fit the lot after moving in. It's a lot of hard work to make it all perfect, but so worth it having connectivity in every room and enjoyed researching and learning a ton of new stuff along the way! Look forward to seeing the videos from you getting it all in and set up!
This video series gonna be great. Not enough detailed home network installs. One of the things I enjoy about your videos Cameron is the attention to detail. Looking forward to the next instalment..great work.
I've installed cable basket in my loft for cable management, I would definitely recommend it. It's very easy to install and pretty inexpensive really. Realistically you can't use it to get everywhere, but it keeps the main runs accessible and tidy.
Glad the video is out and looking forward to all the future updates… this house is going to be quite something once it’s finished and it will be amazing to see what you do with all the new possibilities of a house! Smart garden lighting?? Automated plant irrigation?? Locally controlled Valetudo style lawnmower?? Driveway ANPR for customised announcements inside the house?? The list of possibilities is endless…
Recently moved in a 10 year old UK home and it's interesting to see not much has changed in terms of preinstalled cables. Will definitely follow along on this series.
My house is 20 years old, south of England, though not built by a national firm. If that matters. 5 bed detached. Exactly the same wiring; phone sockets in most bedrooms, aerial in the loft disturbed to the living room and main bedroom. So I think this has been the “standard” for a long time. Just wish I had the enthusiasm for DIY as Mr Gray here! Sadly I’m content with mesh wifi and some home plug.
I would highly suggest looking into using baluns for a long run to your sub. Balance the RCA feed at the receiver end, run with whatever cable you want (could even be leftover cat6!), unbalance at the sub end, terminate to RCA, easy. Super cheap off the shelf products available, but you could also pretty easily DIY.
My electrician did the same method in my new build for cutting holes in the floor to run data cables. He opted to use galvanized steel discs to fill in the gaps instead of making up a plug like you though. Exciting stuff, looking forward to seeing the future videos in the series.
It’s a lot of work, but building a full CAD model of the house can be really helpful. Means you’re measuring the house once, and then you’re good forever. Really helpful to understand quirky wall alignment etc
Defintely a good idea. Fortunately I have a copy of the technical drawings of the house. Admittedly they're from a photo of a screen but I was able to square them up and adjust them to be pretty much perfect. I have then overlayed them in an image editor to let me view wall alignment between floors. That said, it could be interesting to use these to build a more accurate CAD model!
Just a heads up, Freeview is expected to be switched off in a few years (2030 I believe, but could be as late as 2034), so that coaxial cable sadly won't be as useful after that! You'll still get a good few years of use out of it but just wanted to mention that
great video, looking to do similar when I move into a new build next year. The only thing I will add for other people watching, as I see you''ve checked the flooring joists. but the direction of the floorboard will not always be opposite direction to the joists. This is going from my experience where I replaced broken / creaking floorboards for a friend and in my current place, you might find the floorboards are toungue and groove, so slotted together, and ran with the direction of the joists.
8:05 You should double up the speaker cables to rooms/bathroom as well. Recently installed mmwave presense sensors to all rooms and found a great hack using speaker cables to power all of them. They need 5V to power on, from my testing, 10m cables to rooms work fine on 5V power supply. But from 10m> some sensors don't turn on. To solve this I got 5-10V variable power supply, used a multimeter and measured from source to end for 5V while adjusting the power supply. Adjust the power supply so the ends get 5.5V or so. Also this could be avoided if you have different 5V power supplies for different rooms, but I prefer to keep everything at one place. This "hack" also work on 5V/9V/12V devices like ONT/cameras.
Cameron, the wired texecom keypads have 2 zones on them. You could just have one run from the panel to your cupboard and then run the contact off your keypad. Also, are you planning on getting some of the texecom smoke/heat detectors for your alarm system. I have them on mine and they are brilliant, phone alerts for fire events! I still have the 2 aico alarms that the fire service fitted though...
I definitely might do that, although equally I may just pull in extra cable if I have enough - just means that I'm not tied to always using a Texecom system with the keypad zones. Smoke detectors are an interesting idea, although I already have interlinked smoke alarms so that's lower priority, may run cables in though just in case I go that route in the future.
I've looked into the texecom smoke alarms and they look interesting although the wired ones don't contain sounders so I'd need those too, I'm also not necessarily a huge fan of introducing a burglar alarm panel as a single point of failure as part of a fire alarm system. However, what I may do is instead of adding in additional interlinked Deta alarms to match the existing ones, I may swap them all for Aico interlinked ones. That way I could use an Aico relay base and interlink this with the Texecom system. That way I'd get the benefits of remote monitoring and the ability to trigger the external alarm in the event of a fire alarm but still have a simple and reliable set of interlinked fire alarms at the heart of the system.
looking forward to seeing the alarm install video! friendly suggestion: if the Texecom your installing is 100% wired, and if you want to put a contact or a PIR in a shed or other outside building, they do wireless expanders 😁
Be sure to correctly seal the cable entry into the garage. There are strict fire stopping requirements, even if you don’t plan to keep a vehicle in there.
@camerongray1515 Also worth pointing out that the additional circuit you mentioned adding will need doing by an electrician even though it's an easy job as it meets one of the criteria as notifiable under part P of building regs.
“Requirements”? It’s his house though, not a rental, nor is he selling it tomorrow (I assume!) I suppose it might invalidate some insurance policy, or his mortgage small print not to do whatever remedial work you are talking about, but your language is a bit strong in the context of someone who has bought a house to live in.
Things in a private property still need to be done in line with the relevant regulations. However, Part P doesn't apply here in Scotland and generally speaking, the vast majority of electrical work in a house under 3 stories is non-notifiable.
Congratulations on the beautiful new home! How exciting! Have you considered running fiber with media converters or SFP switches for those longer runs (like a backhaul network). I’m considering a similar upgrade. Can’t wait to see the progress.
I paid for an electrician mate (who is also fine with plastering chases) to do my cables, it wasn't ridiculously expensive but the fact it's all in place would definitely be a factor on any decision to move in the future!
Looking forward to the upcoming videos on the new house! Always love your long form content. I often get ideas watching your videos, or spot that you’ve tackled a problem the same way I have which reassures me it’s probably a good solution (eg sticking Shellys behind light switches and using onboard scripting to handle detached vs relay switching when using smart bulbs and Home Assistant). I see a few comments about how much you move on camera, I wouldn’t worry too much - for me it just shows how much energy and enthusiasm you have.
I would suggest a door contact with a vibration sensor built in on your external doors. Also if you fit vibration sensors on all your down stairs windows. If you then set these with your doors as a part set it means you can still walk around your home but have the potential break in point covered. Also add PIR’s and make that a full set with the vibration sensors for when you’re out.
Vibration sensors are interesting, although I'd particularly worry about the front door for people knocking on it while I'm out - don't want that triggering an alarm. Windows are an interesting thought although getting cables to them all would be awkward. Will likely at least add ZigBee sensors to them all to notify me if a window is left open so while they wouldn't trigger the alarm itself, I could set up notifications based on them.etc. I also plan on adding a fair bit of person detection stuff to the CCTV (i.e. if a person is in the back garden which is normally locked, immediately phone me)
The front door won’t go off unless you set the gross and pulse settings correctly on the sensor via the keypad To install the window sensors UA-cam and google are your friend. What you can do is wire the sensor in series if you need to cover a larger window with 2 openings and wire them in series. If you need any help let me know 😊
@@camerongray1515 you can alter the setting in the vibration sensors, I drilled through the edge of the ceiling made a slim channel down to the corner of the window filled in the channel over the cable. The cable runs on the inside corner edge on the top of the window recess then clipped along the top of the window with adhesive clips & the sensor is placed in the middle of the window. The window blind hides all the cable over the window frame & the curtain covers the 4 inch actually on the corner. Plus you only need one sensors for the window.
Cameron, I would advise others to drill the inspection hole using a masonary bit. It's blunt and won't immediately burst a pipe unlike a sharp pointy spade bit.
Congrats on the new house and thank you sharing your plans in such engaging detail. You'll be loving the benefits of having a full fibre connection in this place. As an Edinburgh person with a similarly cabled house, if you need any off camera help with the install I'd be happy to get involved. Looking forward to next in the series.
I so love your videos, I’m buzzing about this! Please could you show us the full programming of the alarm system maybe? I’m going to be fitting a wired Texecom premier on my new house in the next few months, have already done networking / cameras but very new to wired alarms so a bit stuck 😂
Interesting, I do need to look into that side of things more. Thankfully the rack is relatively near the consumer unit so I can pull in additional bonding.etc. I was planning on bonding the patch panels to the rack along with the PDU. Not sure what additional bonding I should add, a dedicated bonding conductor from the rack back to the main earthing terminal? I have a TNCS earthing arrangement in case that makes things different.
Congrats on the new home Cameron. Nothing wrong with coax runs to TVs 👌🏼 most of those complaints aren’t from the UK I’m guessing, so unfamiliar with how ubiquitous it is here 🇬🇧
The video I have been waiting for! I am glad I am not the only one who is installing coax! Just installed some last week! Nice vintage computers in the garage! For those discovery holes, I use a metal kebab skewer. It gets through and is quite long so easy to find in the loft.
Great idea with the basket, at least you cover regs with for cable suspension. I did the same in my loft with tray. Look forward to the Upcoming install.
18:52 For the sub, just run coax and either terminate it with RCA or get adapters to go to RCA for either end. The coax has better shielding and should help cut down on interference.
Yeah, think I'll give that a go as long as I have some coax leftover. Then just test the hell out of it before closing up any access holes since if I do need a balanced connection I'd need to swap the coax out for something with 2 cores.
Really interested in this! I’ll be doing similar when I move also, mainly interested in your audio system as I’m not clued up at all on a good system, but I know you will be 😃
Fantastic Video, you should take a look at neutrik Speakon Connectors for use in the rack. That would be perfect for patching the amps into all the ceiling speakers. Great to see the face from behind the camera!
Yep, those are the plan - 4 pole speakons on a patch panel in the rack. One connector per room with the connector either carrying stereo or mono depending on the room. Might also fit a speakons faceplate behind the living room TV rather than needing to deal with binding posts/banana plugs.
Can't wait for more videos! I'm particularly looking forward to the automatic audio switch - I had the same idea, just couldn't find anything related on YT or google
Nice house. While you are sorting the lights, I highly recommend swapping out your wall based extractor fans for ones which are ducted through the ceiling into the lift and out of a soffit. Those cheap wall based units are loud and not the best looking things. The other benefit of the ducted units is you can have a far more powerful fan, they are silent and you can place the duct above the shower/bath which is far more effective at getting rid of the condensation.
Cameron, get a reolink poe doorbell. Absolutely ace mate. I bought one replaced with the ring & it’s wayyyy better !! Plus runs ONVIF so can record 24/7 on NVR.
Another vote for the Reolink PoE doorbell. Really like mine. Good quality video & audio, no subscription, good app and been working fine with Blueiris as well as recording to local SD card.
Watch yourself with ceiling speakers. The noise leaks upstairs and can annoy the life out other people in the house. Suggest you get additional sound proofing around the speaker installation. Otherwise you'll rarely have them switched on
Definitely something to be mindful of, the downstairs speakers will all have fire hoods above them which will help dampen the sound, if it's an issue I can always shove even more insulation above them.
Re 35:40 I managed to snag a 2nd hand 42U rack with a couple of shelves, full length pdu, top mounted temperature triggered fans and 24 port patch panel for $100 NZD (around 45 quid). Had to drive it home in the boot of my Mazda Demio with half of it hanging out the back and a shed load of ratchet straps to hold it in place but totally worth the bargain :)
That would probably work for a couple of small cables but not really for the amount of cables I'm installing here. It's also outside of the prescribed wiring zones in the UK's wiriing regulations. Officially those only apply to mains cables, not data/AV but I still feel like it's best practice to follow them for any cables I'd be installing in the walls.
As a network engineer, I am always amazed at the speed goals of most people's builds. They design their network as if they are a Google data center. Listen, obviously, faster is better, but most people don't need anything faster than 100/1000mbps. I would bankrupt most companies if I didn't design within their realistic usage requirements. I have seen large enterprise companies with a metro e through the city (own private fiber uplink to other campuses) that linked 6 campuses together with only one location being the demarcation and it used on adverage less than 10gbps. We did, of course, make it a 100gbps link, and it does peak around 40gbps, so they needed the extra on-demand bandwidth, but that is 6 campuses with hundreds of hosts. Most clients are still on fast ethernet ports (100mbps) and have no issues.
An important part of network design is understanding the end-user requirements and building something that meets those within the budget you're working to. I also deal with network design in a professional capacity so this is not just a hobbiest thing for me. Sure, in a large business, the average staff member's workstation doesn't really need beyond gigabit or even 100mbit and kitting out such a large network with 10gbit switching would be extremely cost prohibative. However, for my setup here I regularly transfer very large video files between my workstation and my NAS and therefore a 10gbit link is benefficial. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely don't NEED it but it's definitely a noticable improvement over gigabit. I only need a single 12 port 10GbE switch for all my 10gbit requirements so therefore the cost isn't a huge issue. It's not like I'm blindly running 10gbit to every single device, most devices will be connected to standard gigabit switching! The reason I'm running CAT 6A to everything is simply because the cost difference isn't huge and it made more sense to buy 4 boxes of CAT 6A and therefore be able to pull 4 runs at a time instead of mixing both CAT 6 and CAT 6A and need to think more carefully about which cables to pull where. The CAT 6A is not just for 10GbE, I'll also be heavily using it for HDBaseT video distribution to various TVs and if I were to ever upgrade to an HDBaseT 3.0 system in the future, this would require CAT 6A to handle with the 16Gbit data rate.
Don't worry about having a rack that's to big, bigger is always better with racks especially if you're unsure what you'll be putting in it and if need be you can down size. I currently have 32u that I thought would be more than big enough... But 4u & 2u servers add up quick, It's full now and I had to buy a 42u which is the biggest I can fit, I also went for a 4 post for the bigger rack, weighs less, easier to move, easier to install etc. As for drawers, 100% put a couple of 2u drawers in if you think you'll have the room, makes life so much easier having screws, cables, tools etc right in the rack and not having to stuff around hunting for things. With the drawers most will only be about 400 - 500mm deep and be supported on the front and the back does sag so sticking a full length shelf under them will make sure they don't bind on any servers then you can also use the shelf for a place to stick other stuff, mini pcs, power boards etc or like what I'm doing, sticking inset PDUs behind the drawers so I can easily plug more stuff into the UPS (my UPS only has 4 battery out puts).
Intersting take on the CAT standards, i largely agree with everything you've said... however i opted for CAT7a purely for the increased bandwidth of up to 40gb on standard runs for (total overkill) future proofing... not only that but due to the hatred of the standard, i picked up a 1000m drum (not a typo meters not feet!) specifically rated for in-wall burial for £20. As the core size is slightly larger but not too much, it was perfecly backwardly compatible with CAT6a keystones that can take the larger core wire sizes which has worked out a treat as no proprietry fiddling with connectors ot keystones was needed as well. I also ran it shielded (although not necessary) just because it was available to me with the S/FTP cable which is a nice to have and all keystones carry the ground/shield core from end device to network port. Yes i've likely broken the standard, but it can be a cheaper and technically more performant cable to run over CAT6A. I did a similar house wire to you and in quite a similar way, one different route i went with the loft was to put in 20mm high softwood battens running in line on top of the joists to create sacrificial height which ment that i could chop sections out of the sacrificial battens wherever i wanted to efficiently keep the cable runs minimal to the different rooms. Then what i did was use a cavity master hole saw (similarly to you) to install maintenence panels in the OSB flooring so i could easily reach junction boxes, LED controllers etc without removing boards and labelled the top of each easy access. I boarded the whole loft out in the smaller sizing of OSB3 (avoiding tongue and groove boards!) so that each board was easily removable when i inevitably needed to run a new cable with minimal fuss and then did a 2D plan of where everytihng was for future reference. I considered cbale baskets but instrwad opted for trunking spanning both long lengths of the loft to avoid cables getting pulled or snagged when loading stuff into the loft. Lastly i terminated all 30 network runs to a small network cab in the loft as my loft is quite accessible and mounted the to the back wall to allow structured cable runs to be patched from the loft as necessary and offered up POE to each room which i find very useful for home made multi-sensors etc. It also ment that CCTV cameras were a lot easier as i just needed to route cabling out towards the soffits back to the cab. I also installed an extractor fan and ducting as i run a server/NAS alongside the network cab and felt this helped control the airflow during summer to the loft. The extractor i went for is bluetooth controlled through HA and allows manual override and has a nice low RPM circulation mode that uses a few watts and costs a couple of quid per year to create airflow. Enjoy the journey though and put in extra provision at every step. Including some pull rope for future fishing! Just my 2 pence! :) What kit are you planning on using to build out the audio distribution?
Great video! Been thinking of running my own cabling in my house but a bit nervous of holing mistakes haha. Been working in IT for a while but cabling through walls is a part of cabling im afraid of doing myself Still, great video and i cant wait for part 2!
For the living room multi room sound you could run two coax which is great for RCA and setup an automation that’ll switch the ampilifier to a correct output when the need arises
That's true although I'd worry about running unbalanced audio over the distances involved without getting interference. With the audio over CAT systems, they are transferring the audio digitally so interference is much less of an issue.
Congratulations on your new home 🎉. Like you, I'm refurbishing my home, so your video has been timely & helpful. Perhaps it's now time to consider Ajax (alarm) and Loxone (smart home)?!
I’m planning on running cables in my new build soon also so really happy you’ve started this series. Quick question, for the cable routes into the downstairs, why not just drop from the attic into the first floor room then cut drill through the joist into the wall below to drop cables further down to the ground floor? Structural reasons? This way you’d just need to patch up plasterboard in the end.
Oh the envy I have of you with walls that are easy to run cables through. 1960's end of terrace and all downstairs walls are concrete blockwork, no studwork to be seen. If I wanted to run cabling ( and I do) I'd have to carve and chisel conduit through the walls.
@@camerongray1515 Finally got to watch your video today. I can certainly see why your arms ached so much! Lots of beams to get through. But I love the little holes you cut in the floor, very clever way of doing it. Looking forward to your next video Cameron.
Sees copper in the 2020s, future proofing -1000. But I miss the good old content from your channel nice to see it in my feed again, I went with LC lines and CAT7A+ back in 2017 when I crawled though the attic with a respirator for 3 days.
Yeah, think I'll give that a go as long as I have some coax leftover. Then just test the hell out of it before closing up any access holes since if I do need a balanced connection I'd need to swap the coax out for something with 2 cores.
I Love Your networking / AV videos You're totally right on also installing Coax - The built-in TV Freeview Tuner is so much easier to use than starting an app like HDHomerun (If your set has the app) I have 2x HDHomeruns they work well but i mostly use them to Record on Plex or for phones/tablets With “CT100” (Copper - Copper foil) each manufacturer will sell their own updated version as the original CT100 is air-spaced not foam filled - RG6 (Copper - Aluminium foil) is crap these days its often coated Steel.
Re: networking in new builds in the UK I bought mine in 2021 and the developer actually did put in CAT5e into 4 of the rooms with a patch panel on the wall near to the incoming fibre etc, so that's where my networking rack is installed Definitely agree that it's a complete joke in the UK though, I was expecting to have to wire a bunch of ethernet in myself after I moved in, because during the build phase the sales person said they don't install things like that - so it was a suprise when I moved in to find the patch panel on the wall. I somewhat suspect the sales person did not have a clue what I was talking about. I'm still a bit annoyed about it actually, if they had said up front it would come with ethernet ports in 4 rooms I'd have asked them to double up and install more in the remaining rooms that don't have them!
That's definitely an option, I'd just need to be definitely sure that it would be fine with unbalanced. If on the other hand I ran a shielded 2 core cable I could use it for both balanced or unbalanced. Suppose I could pull in coax if I have any leftover and test it before I seal up any of the access routes.
I have been planning to rewire my house over the last few months, so this video series is perfectly timed for me. Also, this might be a silly question, but do you know the name of your AV cabinet? I've been searching for a AV/TV cabinet with perforated doors in the exact same color combination for ages, but I haven’t been able to find anything with perforated doors (possibly combined with an open back for even better air circulation) in a grey and oak/other light wooden combination.
Could you not use a rebated hole cutter? I've got an armeg one that you can buy plastic caps for, seems a bit easier than your method, although my house doesn't have wood underneath the boards (what is the purpose of that?)
I have one of those cutters and it's great, but with these floors it won't cut down far enough to get through the OSB so you still need to use a second hole saw to cut through that so at that point it isn't really worth the additional cost of the plastic plugs. I also find this method is easier for getting the plug to sit completely flush with the floor which is particularly important when installing hard flooring above it.
@@camerongray1515 yeah fair enough, watching the section again and I think youre right the rebate cutter won't be deep enough. I wonder what the purpose of having such a thick floor is about.
It's the way they construct these houses. Almost all UK new builds are made in the same way - prefabricated timber pieces which are built in a factory and then assembled on site. They'll literally get an entire house frame put up in a few hours. The floors are made up of prefabricated panels (I-Joists fixed to a layer of OSB) known as "floor cassettes". These are all craned in on top of the ground floor and bolted together before the upper floor is then installed. Then, they will install the chipboard on top of these floor cassettes to provide a flat, smooth surface that flooring can be installed on top of.
@@camerongray1515 ah that's interesting then, I've got a new build that was built in 2022 by a major developer but it was all constructed on site, so it's more what I'm used to which is wooden joists and then 22mm (I think) t&g chipboard on top. I used the armeg cutter and it did me fine. I did see mention of I joists when I was doing my research but not got them here. My cabinet is wall mounted in my downstairs cupboard which is in the centre of the house so it was a bit of a pain to route cables through although it's a good position once it's done. I had to go into the floor void in the upstairs hallway, along the floor then up through the wall and into the loft. Took a lot of arm behind and swearing to get through the bottom of the wall framing with an angled drill with a hole saw on the end but managed it eventually. Had to be a bit creative with cable run behind a light switch to keep the cables in a zone but got there eventually. Yours seems a lot easier, I had similar in my first house and airing cupboard above (I imagine thats what yours was originally planned for but they've deleted the hw cylinder - ok for a combi but if you ever got a heat pump you'd have to put it back in). Looks like fun anyway glad mine is all done now though it's my third house I've cabled so far so no doubt I'll end up doing it again in future 🤪 although next project will be selfbuild so should be able to do a proper "first fix" not smash up a brand new house
Interesting content - and timely for me as I'm just beginning with an audio and networking wire up in our house (that currently has little/no cable runs). Did you select U/UTP or F/UTP cat6a cable?
It's U/FTP (each pair is individually screened but no outer screen) With this type of cable, the crosstalk is partially mitigated due to the screening around each pair meaning that the pairs don't need to be twisted as tightly as with UTP cable. It also doesn't need the central separator that you'd need with UTP cable. This is a pretty decent summary: stl.tech/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CAT-6A-UFTP-vs-FUTP_Application-Note.pdf
You can pick them up second hand so easily for next to nothing. Usually companies are giving them away as scrap metal. I would never buy a new one, I've thrown away so many over the years in a work capacity. I paid £50 for my current 22u Compaq rack, came with all side panels and it's served me well for the last 10 years.
@@SBBUK Its the "biz" price I find daft. Not the function as such. When you can pick up a new PC for the same price. Which is one heck of a lot more complicated to manufacture the components etc. Then asking 1200 for some extruded steel.
Not sure what you mean? I'd personally avoid any sort of powerline technology wherever possible - it's nowhere near equivalent to a wired connection and almost always has significantly worse performance than a modern WiFi connection. In the meantime until I get the cabling installed I've been using a TPLink powerline adapter to get a wired connection to my studio for testing wired only devices, and it's been absolutely dreadful.
I probably could however it's generally not seen as particularly good practice since it can cause damp bridging and certain cavity wall insulation can react badly with PVC cables.
With the speaker wire do they not need to be the same length for all the ones in a room to stay in sync or am I misremembering stuff? Are you splitting the 4 into 2 pairs but keeping them symmetrical? Cheekily along the next bit before I get to the end but have you found any aesthetic, preferably high density, wall plates? I use commercial ones on commercial sites but they’re not going to look good at home
Sound will travel down the cable at near enough the speed of light so while a delay would technically be measurable on the cable with specialist equipment it'll be inpercievable to the human ear. The sound coming out of the speakers then travels at the (much slower) speed of sound so your distance from each speaker will make a significantly greater difference than any additional cable length would. Many AV recievers will actually compensate for this during their calibration process (where you move a microphone to different listening positions around the room) however this is more important when it comes to surround sound/Atmos, for regualar music in a normal sized room, it won't make a noticable difference. As for network faceplates, I'll be using Excel CAT 6A keystone jacks along with Excel Angled Keystone Shutters (Part Number: 100-175) to install them in regular Euromodule faceplates. They are available in most decent ranges of electrical accessories so you can buy them to match your existing sockets/switches. Even if you just have white plastic accessories, it's nice to match the exact same shape, profile and shade with the network points. In my case I'll be replacing all of the electrical accessories with screwless brushed stainless steel ones, likely from the Click Definity range, so I'll be getting the euro module plates from the same range to match. Of course this only applies to the UK, other countries will have their own standards and ranges of electrical accessories/network points.
Looking forward to seeing the project unfold! Hope the bend radius on your cat6a will allow you to terminate OK in the backboxes. I tried running cat6a(unshielded) but even with 25mm deep back boxes the outer sheath was too stiff and put too much tension on the connection or even just getting the keystones in the euro modules plates. Few ended up popping off.. That being said I had all brick walls to work on so had to chase everything out. You may have better luck with stud walls. Ended up switching to cat6 but invested in really good quality stuff rated up to 550mhz.. Either way looking to how you tackle it
Thankfully with stud walls I can install 47mm dry lining boxes everywhere. I'm also going to try drilling extra holes in the top of the boxes so each cable can run straight up from it's respective euro module rather than needing to bend them around inside the box.
Great video and thank you for breaking this up into smaller editions. One ask when you're videoing & standing try to stand still. You're weaving back & forth which is very districting to watch.
A little suprised you didn't run any fibre. Cat 6A does 10 gig, but that's basically the end of the road for copper. And those 10g-base-t transceivers draw a lot of power.
Fibre is an idea, however most of these runs will be used for things like TVs, laptop docks and smart home devices, none of which use fibre. Currently there's a grand total of one desktop PC used in this house which could have a fibre capable network card installed, and it's not even mine! I'd maybe run fibre in the future if I had a specific scenario where it would be a benefit (might pull one to my studio workbench for example) but it's not something I'd just blanket install throughut a property.
@@Artentus I don't think fibre makes sense in a residential install as the runs are 30m or less and it's way easier to work with copper and you can terminate it yourself with hand tools. You could use fibre but you'd have to rod a preterminated cable through which sounds like a lot of hassle. Id probably only do it to connect 2 racks together e.g. one inside and one in a detached garage.
I wasn't suggesting to use fibre for everything, just the 10gig runs. Though I didn't realize you had this few stationary computers in the house (considering how many other devices you have), so I guess it's not necessary. @SBBUK depends on what you're doing. I'm a software developer and I connected my workstation to my NAS using fibre to work directly off of network drives. LC connectors are pretty small, you can get them through places, and OM3 is very similar in price to Cat 6 per meter.
@Artentus that makes sense. I'd still potentially like to look into it in the future, however all the places I'd consider fibre would be upstairs and would therefore be relatively easy to add in the future so don't necessarily need to be done at this stage. I'd particularly be interested in taking a look at field termination fibre kits as they're becoming relatively affordable without requiring expensive splicing equipment.
(1:48) That sounds worse than how it's done in Singapore, where for new flats, the HDB do make sure there's at least one network cable per room that all runs back to a central location in a small cabinet near the front door. As far as I can tell, they put in one cable per room as people are likely expected to connect multiple network switches, but also because those take the place of the Singtel phone lines and SCV/StarHub cable (coax) lines that older flats had. I'm not sure about dedicated houses (private housing), though. In my previous flat that was built in the early 2010s, there were cable lines as StarHub hadn't yet shut down their legacy cable network (IIRC they did so in 2009), but similar to what you mentioned about what's being done with homes in the UK, here the landline phone connections were wired within the flat with Cat5e, so those could then be converted to network ports (also as we used StarHub at the time so the phone lines weren't being used anyway) by one of a number of companies here, which I of course did a year or two before moving out. (15:27) Yep, makes sense considering that idea would theoretically have lower latency than Remote Play. (32:50) Interesting to see that they do stick in some sort of lighting! I'm accustomed to the HDB here just pasting a sticker that reads "LIGHTING POINT" and hiding a cable with a connector behind that on each ceiling lighting point (they also do a similar thing for the doorbell connection). (1:04:46) I'm sensing that they're all smart lights that work with Home Assistant, or possibly connected to a smart light switch, mostly because I'm predicting that you're going to do an updated version of your self-hosted smart lighting video!
This is also my gripe. I bought a new house and cant get the wires run while its being built. So then you need to cut into your brand new house. The amount of people that complaintheir internet is slow when its just the wifi isnt good enough
The vast majority of devices that will be connected to the cabling have regular copper network ports and no ability to add fibre network cards (e.g. TVs, smart home devices, laptop docking stations). If I were to have run fibre everywhere I'd have had to then add media converters behind practically every device which would just be silly.
@@camerongray1515 I'd recommend adding at least 1 OM4 fibre run between your rack and your office/studio without adding much cost or hassle. I have Cat6 throughout my house too, but having 25/100Gb access to your NAS would really help, especially if you're editing videos.
@@sranjan6101 A lot of people, especially here on UA-cam really over-exaggerate the network speeds required for editing video. Personally, I edit alll my footage locally so the network link is only used for transferring finished projects to my NAS or backing up raw footage if it's not due to be edited for some time. I edit off of a Samsung T7 SSD (that my camera records directly to). This SSD has a 10Gb USB connection and tops out at 1050MB/s (8.4Gb/s) and has worked flawlessly for editing 4K BRAW and ProRes footage, therefore if I did end up moving to edit from a NAS, 10Gb would be way more than enough. Even when transferring raw footage, a 10Gb link will transfer a completed video in under 30 seconds. At any rate, the office and studio are both upstairs so I can easily run new cables to them in the future - it's only the downstairs runs that will be awkward to access once flooring is down upstairs.
Hi Cameron, Congrats on the new house. I would love to retrofit structured cabling in our house. The issue is that we live in a double brick house, so not so easy. Given that you are using Cat 6A, it means that you will need a particular type of connector. If you use the standard Cat 5E/6 connectors, you will not get the full speed. Which type will you use and why? Thanks
I'll be using Excel toolless CAT 6A connectors on both ends of all the runs. The Low profile version for each of the wall jacks in the rooms and the regular full size ones at the patch panel.
@@camerongray1515 looking forward to these future videos as my runs would theoretically have no issues with Cat 6, I would prefer to use Cat 6A, however have been put off by all the extra requirements
Well, you alluded to the answer to my question. What are your plans for people who don't have their cellphone with them? Great video, I look forward to future updates. Your views are in line with mine. I am looking at getting the Konnected alarm panel I am also interested in what you use as your video matrix and audio distribution. Another thing that I have been looking at is cellphone reception.some places are great, but I live in a valley, so some places it is horrible. Oh and switches, I can't wait to see what you use. I am using the TP Link Kasa because they are cheap..... affordable and reliable. I am looking at replacing the remainder with inovelli switches because there is no neutral and one day I would love to have a house full of them. And USB power well, I just purchased a receptacle from Elegrp. Would love to see what your plans are.
Generally speaking most of the smart home stuff will be controllable with physical switches, remote controls or wall mounted touch screens. I personally don't want to rely on phones for everything! As for phone reception, here in the UK most providers offer "WiFi calling" where phones can make and recieve calls and texts over the internet when coverage is poor. Video and audio distribution will be using a Biamp Server IO DSP for audio and an HDBaseT matrix for video. Smart switches will be using Shelly devices as I thankfully have neutrals. I may consider some USB outlets although I'm not necessarily a huge fan of them as they can't be upgraded to support new fast charging standards and make certain electrical testing difficult as you now have electronics inside your wall outlets.
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the coax makes sense yeah you can setup something like mythtv and some tv tuner cards
but you could also do both and add in mythtv later
which makes sense because if you go pure mythtv the first issue your gonna slam face first into is tuners for 4 people to watch 4 different channels your going to need between 2 and 4 tuners in the rack depending on what multicasts there watching
if there all recording something that number goes up again
or just run coax to the tv's they can watch whatever they want there on the tv with the tvs tuner you already paid for inside the tv
then if you want the fancy features like streaming to mobile devices or recording live tv you can do that seperatly in the rack needing only tuners for channels you wish to record which reasonably 2 maybe 4 would be more than enough to handle that and you dont need a monsterous gpu to do transcoding and all that joy
so yes coax to the tv and if the desire comes up later for mythtv add that in later
Congrats on the new house, I love the fact that you've split the videos into a series, so each video isn't too long and the first video is 1 hour 37 mins. Absolute legend.
Haha.
👌
Your enthusiasm for all the hard work ahead of you is inspiring!
As someone who currently has her entire apartment gutted to the brickwork and is installing power/data/alarm/speaker cable behind metal-suspended plasterboard, this is inspiration porn - none of the dirty construction work, but all the cabling joy. ❤
This kind of enthusiast video is something I love to see. I live vicariously through some of these vids.
What you’re looking for in the attic for wire hanging is J hooks / J hangers. Neat, easy to install and maintain, and significantly cheaper than any cable tray setup will be.
Oh yeah, I am definitely waiting. We too are moving into our new house in few months and I too have elaborate plans for network install. Your videos are perfect as they are very detailed and don't mind the duration.
Having a house built mostly from wood really helps when doing cable runs. If you have a house build from concrete and bricks with no empty space between walls like our 1978 house, everything has to be done with trunking on the outside of walls. Not terrible, but not ideal.
Congrats on your new place, can't wait to see the final result!
@@nelizmastr you can gouge up the wall and fit the cable in that, but yes it makes a lot of mess and work decoration etc. Plus coving, just to complicate things more. Trunking looks horrible in my view, which is why I’ll likely never get my house wired.
Concrete downstairs/block upstairs here, people before have put in trunking for power and I can’t wait to channel all of it into the wall even if its going to be a heck of a lot of work. Same for data cables, can run strips behind the plaster to make fishing for cables easier too.
Ive been waiting for this video - I can tell it's gonna be absolutely brilliant as your videos are always so high quality. Very exciting to have a full hour and a half of a video to enjoy!
Best of luck with the install Cameron! I have done something very similar with my new build immediately after moving in. After the developers refusing to let me install while they were building the house, I had to retro fit the lot after moving in. It's a lot of hard work to make it all perfect, but so worth it having connectivity in every room and enjoyed researching and learning a ton of new stuff along the way!
Look forward to seeing the videos from you getting it all in and set up!
This video series gonna be great. Not enough detailed home network installs.
One of the things I enjoy about your videos Cameron is the attention to detail.
Looking forward to the next instalment..great work.
I've installed cable basket in my loft for cable management, I would definitely recommend it. It's very easy to install and pretty inexpensive really. Realistically you can't use it to get everywhere, but it keeps the main runs accessible and tidy.
Could you post a link to the basket you used, I really need to do this?
I have been looking forward to this one
Same!
Same too, looking forward to this
Glad the video is out and looking forward to all the future updates… this house is going to be quite something once it’s finished and it will be amazing to see what you do with all the new possibilities of a house! Smart garden lighting?? Automated plant irrigation?? Locally controlled Valetudo style lawnmower?? Driveway ANPR for customised announcements inside the house?? The list of possibilities is endless…
Recently moved in a 10 year old UK home and it's interesting to see not much has changed in terms of preinstalled cables. Will definitely follow along on this series.
My house is 20 years old, south of England, though not built by a national firm. If that matters. 5 bed detached. Exactly the same wiring; phone sockets in most bedrooms, aerial in the loft disturbed to the living room and main bedroom. So I think this has been the “standard” for a long time. Just wish I had the enthusiasm for DIY as Mr Gray here! Sadly I’m content with mesh wifi and some home plug.
Interestingly a couple of (non technical) friends’ new builds had quite a few cat6 runs pre installed
I would highly suggest looking into using baluns for a long run to your sub. Balance the RCA feed at the receiver end, run with whatever cable you want (could even be leftover cat6!), unbalance at the sub end, terminate to RCA, easy. Super cheap off the shelf products available, but you could also pretty easily DIY.
If you do this, don't skimp, a balun is often an audio transformer, and small ones often don't have the low frequency extension.
My electrician did the same method in my new build for cutting holes in the floor to run data cables. He opted to use galvanized steel discs to fill in the gaps instead of making up a plug like you though.
Exciting stuff, looking forward to seeing the future videos in the series.
It’s a lot of work, but building a full CAD model of the house can be really helpful. Means you’re measuring the house once, and then you’re good forever. Really helpful to understand quirky wall alignment etc
Defintely a good idea. Fortunately I have a copy of the technical drawings of the house. Admittedly they're from a photo of a screen but I was able to square them up and adjust them to be pretty much perfect. I have then overlayed them in an image editor to let me view wall alignment between floors. That said, it could be interesting to use these to build a more accurate CAD model!
Great video, good luck with the plans ahead Cameron
“And I’ll be installing some ceiling speakers.” Is the greatest Cameron Gray meme Ive so far heard…. Because of the ceiling speakers.
Just a heads up, Freeview is expected to be switched off in a few years (2030 I believe, but could be as late as 2034), so that coaxial cable sadly won't be as useful after that! You'll still get a good few years of use out of it but just wanted to mention that
great video, looking to do similar when I move into a new build next year. The only thing I will add for other people watching, as I see you''ve checked the flooring joists. but the direction of the floorboard will not always be opposite direction to the joists. This is going from my experience where I replaced broken / creaking floorboards for a friend and in my current place, you might find the floorboards are toungue and groove, so slotted together, and ran with the direction of the joists.
Man! been looking forward to this!!! let me grab some popcorn. Right. Let's go! Well done Cameron and best of luck with the new house
8:05
You should double up the speaker cables to rooms/bathroom as well.
Recently installed mmwave presense sensors to all rooms and found a great hack using speaker cables to power all of them.
They need 5V to power on, from my testing, 10m cables to rooms work fine on 5V power supply. But from 10m> some sensors don't turn on.
To solve this I got 5-10V variable power supply, used a multimeter and measured from source to end for 5V while adjusting the power supply. Adjust the power supply so the ends get 5.5V or so.
Also this could be avoided if you have different 5V power supplies for different rooms, but I prefer to keep everything at one place.
This "hack" also work on 5V/9V/12V devices like ONT/cameras.
Cameron, the wired texecom keypads have 2 zones on them. You could just have one run from the panel to your cupboard and then run the contact off your keypad. Also, are you planning on getting some of the texecom smoke/heat detectors for your alarm system. I have them on mine and they are brilliant, phone alerts for fire events! I still have the 2 aico alarms that the fire service fitted though...
I definitely might do that, although equally I may just pull in extra cable if I have enough - just means that I'm not tied to always using a Texecom system with the keypad zones. Smoke detectors are an interesting idea, although I already have interlinked smoke alarms so that's lower priority, may run cables in though just in case I go that route in the future.
I've looked into the texecom smoke alarms and they look interesting although the wired ones don't contain sounders so I'd need those too, I'm also not necessarily a huge fan of introducing a burglar alarm panel as a single point of failure as part of a fire alarm system. However, what I may do is instead of adding in additional interlinked Deta alarms to match the existing ones, I may swap them all for Aico interlinked ones. That way I could use an Aico relay base and interlink this with the Texecom system. That way I'd get the benefits of remote monitoring and the ability to trigger the external alarm in the event of a fire alarm but still have a simple and reliable set of interlinked fire alarms at the heart of the system.
looking forward to seeing the alarm install video!
friendly suggestion: if the Texecom your installing is 100% wired, and if you want to put a contact or a PIR in a shed or other outside building, they do wireless expanders 😁
I'm excited for this one, because I've been dreaming of cabling my house up and most of your new place looks very like mine!
Be sure to correctly seal the cable entry into the garage. There are strict fire stopping requirements, even if you don’t plan to keep a vehicle in there.
Yep, that's on the list, plan on using a proper fire seal (which is more than can be said for the cable holes behind the original light fitting)
@camerongray1515 Also worth pointing out that the additional circuit you mentioned adding will need doing by an electrician even though it's an easy job as it meets one of the criteria as notifiable under part P of building regs.
“Requirements”? It’s his house though, not a rental, nor is he selling it tomorrow (I assume!) I suppose it might invalidate some insurance policy, or his mortgage small print not to do whatever remedial work you are talking about, but your language is a bit strong in the context of someone who has bought a house to live in.
Things in a private property still need to be done in line with the relevant regulations. However, Part P doesn't apply here in Scotland and generally speaking, the vast majority of electrical work in a house under 3 stories is non-notifiable.
Congratulations on the beautiful new home! How exciting! Have you considered running fiber with media converters or SFP switches for those longer runs (like a backhaul network). I’m considering a similar upgrade.
Can’t wait to see the progress.
Nice one! Well planned out. Good luck in your new home.
I paid for an electrician mate (who is also fine with plastering chases) to do my cables, it wasn't ridiculously expensive but the fact it's all in place would definitely be a factor on any decision to move in the future!
Looking forward to the rest of the series, this one was filled with some excellent tips and tricks!
As long as you are waiting I suggest ip phones and a small pbx. Makes calling from room to room easy. 😊
Looking forward to the upcoming videos on the new house! Always love your long form content.
I often get ideas watching your videos, or spot that you’ve tackled a problem the same way I have which reassures me it’s probably a good solution (eg sticking Shellys behind light switches and using onboard scripting to handle detached vs relay switching when using smart bulbs and Home Assistant).
I see a few comments about how much you move on camera, I wouldn’t worry too much - for me it just shows how much energy and enthusiasm you have.
I would suggest a door contact with a vibration sensor built in on your external doors. Also if you fit vibration sensors on all your down stairs windows. If you then set these with your doors as a part set it means you can still walk around your home but have the potential break in point covered. Also add PIR’s and make that a full set with the vibration sensors for when you’re out.
Vibration sensors are interesting, although I'd particularly worry about the front door for people knocking on it while I'm out - don't want that triggering an alarm. Windows are an interesting thought although getting cables to them all would be awkward. Will likely at least add ZigBee sensors to them all to notify me if a window is left open so while they wouldn't trigger the alarm itself, I could set up notifications based on them.etc. I also plan on adding a fair bit of person detection stuff to the CCTV (i.e. if a person is in the back garden which is normally locked, immediately phone me)
The front door won’t go off unless you set the gross and pulse settings correctly on the sensor via the keypad
To install the window sensors UA-cam and google are your friend. What you can do is wire the sensor in series if you need to cover a larger window with 2 openings and wire them in series.
If you need any help let me know 😊
@@camerongray1515 you can alter the setting in the vibration sensors, I drilled through the edge of the ceiling made a slim channel down to the corner of the window filled in the channel over the cable. The cable runs on the inside corner edge on the top of the window recess then clipped along the top of the window with adhesive clips & the sensor is placed in the middle of the window. The window blind hides all the cable over the window frame & the curtain covers the 4 inch actually on the corner. Plus you only need one sensors for the window.
Cameron, I would advise others to drill the inspection hole using a masonary bit. It's blunt and won't immediately burst a pipe unlike a sharp pointy spade bit.
Congratulations again Cameron, really looking forward to this series!
Congrats on the new house and thank you sharing your plans in such engaging detail. You'll be loving the benefits of having a full fibre connection in this place. As an Edinburgh person with a similarly cabled house, if you need any off camera help with the install I'd be happy to get involved. Looking forward to next in the series.
Nice, waiting patiently for the videos
I so love your videos, I’m buzzing about this! Please could you show us the full programming of the alarm system maybe? I’m going to be fitting a wired Texecom premier on my new house in the next few months, have already done networking / cameras but very new to wired alarms so a bit stuck 😂
Congrats on the new house !
Keep in mind if its U/FTP you should (if you want to get the full benefit of 6A) have a clean earth at the comms room end.
Interesting, I do need to look into that side of things more. Thankfully the rack is relatively near the consumer unit so I can pull in additional bonding.etc. I was planning on bonding the patch panels to the rack along with the PDU. Not sure what additional bonding I should add, a dedicated bonding conductor from the rack back to the main earthing terminal? I have a TNCS earthing arrangement in case that makes things different.
Congrats on the new home Cameron. Nothing wrong with coax runs to TVs 👌🏼 most of those complaints aren’t from the UK I’m guessing, so unfamiliar with how ubiquitous it is here 🇬🇧
The video I have been waiting for!
I am glad I am not the only one who is installing coax! Just installed some last week!
Nice vintage computers in the garage!
For those discovery holes, I use a metal kebab skewer. It gets through and is quite long so easy to find in the loft.
Great detail watched whole vid looking forward to next vid. Brill job thanks
Great idea with the basket, at least you cover regs with for cable suspension. I did the same in my loft with tray. Look forward to the Upcoming install.
18:52 For the sub, just run coax and either terminate it with RCA or get adapters to go to RCA for either end. The coax has better shielding and should help cut down on interference.
Yeah, think I'll give that a go as long as I have some coax leftover. Then just test the hell out of it before closing up any access holes since if I do need a balanced connection I'd need to swap the coax out for something with 2 cores.
Really interested in this! I’ll be doing similar when I move also, mainly interested in your audio system as I’m not clued up at all on a good system, but I know you will be 😃
Fantastic Video, you should take a look at neutrik Speakon Connectors for use in the rack. That would be perfect for patching the amps into all the ceiling speakers. Great to see the face from behind the camera!
Yep, those are the plan - 4 pole speakons on a patch panel in the rack. One connector per room with the connector either carrying stereo or mono depending on the room. Might also fit a speakons faceplate behind the living room TV rather than needing to deal with binding posts/banana plugs.
Good luck! I've also moved into a new place & have been using your vids as a solid reference for cabling.
Can't wait for more videos! I'm particularly looking forward to the automatic audio switch - I had the same idea, just couldn't find anything related on YT or google
Nice house. While you are sorting the lights, I highly recommend swapping out your wall based extractor fans for ones which are ducted through the ceiling into the lift and out of a soffit. Those cheap wall based units are loud and not the best looking things. The other benefit of the ducted units is you can have a far more powerful fan, they are silent and you can place the duct above the shower/bath which is far more effective at getting rid of the condensation.
Damn you have it nice in the UK with those wooden and drywall walls. Here in Poland almost everything is in concrete and brick.
this is just in time for me moving out next week. i plan to do pretty much the same kind of work. thanks mate good video
Cameron, get a reolink poe doorbell. Absolutely ace mate. I bought one replaced with the ring & it’s wayyyy better !! Plus runs ONVIF so can record 24/7 on NVR.
They do a 12v powered WiFi version too so you can reuse your doorbell wiring (usually just needs changing to a 12v transformer)
It's definitely one of the ones on my list to consider - either the PoE one if I can get a cable to it, or the WiFi one if I can't.
Another vote for the Reolink PoE doorbell. Really like mine. Good quality video & audio, no subscription, good app and been working fine with Blueiris as well as recording to local SD card.
I did cat6a in my house 10yrs ago. Total over kill but nice to have them in place
Watch yourself with ceiling speakers. The noise leaks upstairs and can annoy the life out other people in the house. Suggest you get additional sound proofing around the speaker installation. Otherwise you'll rarely have them switched on
Definitely something to be mindful of, the downstairs speakers will all have fire hoods above them which will help dampen the sound, if it's an issue I can always shove even more insulation above them.
I like this format of filming, keep up
Re 35:40 I managed to snag a 2nd hand 42U rack with a couple of shelves, full length pdu, top mounted temperature triggered fans and 24 port patch panel for $100 NZD (around 45 quid).
Had to drive it home in the boot of my Mazda Demio with half of it hanging out the back and a shed load of ratchet straps to hold it in place but totally worth the bargain :)
You could take the skirting board off and use a router to cut a channel into it to hide wires that way
That would probably work for a couple of small cables but not really for the amount of cables I'm installing here. It's also outside of the prescribed wiring zones in the UK's wiriing regulations. Officially those only apply to mains cables, not data/AV but I still feel like it's best practice to follow them for any cables I'd be installing in the walls.
As a network engineer, I am always amazed at the speed goals of most people's builds. They design their network as if they are a Google data center. Listen, obviously, faster is better, but most people don't need anything faster than 100/1000mbps. I would bankrupt most companies if I didn't design within their realistic usage requirements. I have seen large enterprise companies with a metro e through the city (own private fiber uplink to other campuses) that linked 6 campuses together with only one location being the demarcation and it used on adverage less than 10gbps. We did, of course, make it a 100gbps link, and it does peak around 40gbps, so they needed the extra on-demand bandwidth, but that is 6 campuses with hundreds of hosts. Most clients are still on fast ethernet ports (100mbps) and have no issues.
An important part of network design is understanding the end-user requirements and building something that meets those within the budget you're working to. I also deal with network design in a professional capacity so this is not just a hobbiest thing for me. Sure, in a large business, the average staff member's workstation doesn't really need beyond gigabit or even 100mbit and kitting out such a large network with 10gbit switching would be extremely cost prohibative. However, for my setup here I regularly transfer very large video files between my workstation and my NAS and therefore a 10gbit link is benefficial. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely don't NEED it but it's definitely a noticable improvement over gigabit. I only need a single 12 port 10GbE switch for all my 10gbit requirements so therefore the cost isn't a huge issue. It's not like I'm blindly running 10gbit to every single device, most devices will be connected to standard gigabit switching! The reason I'm running CAT 6A to everything is simply because the cost difference isn't huge and it made more sense to buy 4 boxes of CAT 6A and therefore be able to pull 4 runs at a time instead of mixing both CAT 6 and CAT 6A and need to think more carefully about which cables to pull where. The CAT 6A is not just for 10GbE, I'll also be heavily using it for HDBaseT video distribution to various TVs and if I were to ever upgrade to an HDBaseT 3.0 system in the future, this would require CAT 6A to handle with the 16Gbit data rate.
Don't worry about having a rack that's to big, bigger is always better with racks especially if you're unsure what you'll be putting in it and if need be you can down size. I currently have 32u that I thought would be more than big enough... But 4u & 2u servers add up quick, It's full now and I had to buy a 42u which is the biggest I can fit, I also went for a 4 post for the bigger rack, weighs less, easier to move, easier to install etc.
As for drawers, 100% put a couple of 2u drawers in if you think you'll have the room, makes life so much easier having screws, cables, tools etc right in the rack and not having to stuff around hunting for things. With the drawers most will only be about 400 - 500mm deep and be supported on the front and the back does sag so sticking a full length shelf under them will make sure they don't bind on any servers then you can also use the shelf for a place to stick other stuff, mini pcs, power boards etc or like what I'm doing, sticking inset PDUs behind the drawers so I can easily plug more stuff into the UPS (my UPS only has 4 battery out puts).
Hi, thanks for this video, can you share the link and specification for all the cables?
Intersting take on the CAT standards, i largely agree with everything you've said... however i opted for CAT7a purely for the increased bandwidth of up to 40gb on standard runs for (total overkill) future proofing... not only that but due to the hatred of the standard, i picked up a 1000m drum (not a typo meters not feet!) specifically rated for in-wall burial for £20. As the core size is slightly larger but not too much, it was perfecly backwardly compatible with CAT6a keystones that can take the larger core wire sizes which has worked out a treat as no proprietry fiddling with connectors ot keystones was needed as well. I also ran it shielded (although not necessary) just because it was available to me with the S/FTP cable which is a nice to have and all keystones carry the ground/shield core from end device to network port. Yes i've likely broken the standard, but it can be a cheaper and technically more performant cable to run over CAT6A.
I did a similar house wire to you and in quite a similar way, one different route i went with the loft was to put in 20mm high softwood battens running in line on top of the joists to create sacrificial height which ment that i could chop sections out of the sacrificial battens wherever i wanted to efficiently keep the cable runs minimal to the different rooms. Then what i did was use a cavity master hole saw (similarly to you) to install maintenence panels in the OSB flooring so i could easily reach junction boxes, LED controllers etc without removing boards and labelled the top of each easy access. I boarded the whole loft out in the smaller sizing of OSB3 (avoiding tongue and groove boards!) so that each board was easily removable when i inevitably needed to run a new cable with minimal fuss and then did a 2D plan of where everytihng was for future reference. I considered cbale baskets but instrwad opted for trunking spanning both long lengths of the loft to avoid cables getting pulled or snagged when loading stuff into the loft. Lastly i terminated all 30 network runs to a small network cab in the loft as my loft is quite accessible and mounted the to the back wall to allow structured cable runs to be patched from the loft as necessary and offered up POE to each room which i find very useful for home made multi-sensors etc. It also ment that CCTV cameras were a lot easier as i just needed to route cabling out towards the soffits back to the cab. I also installed an extractor fan and ducting as i run a server/NAS alongside the network cab and felt this helped control the airflow during summer to the loft. The extractor i went for is bluetooth controlled through HA and allows manual override and has a nice low RPM circulation mode that uses a few watts and costs a couple of quid per year to create airflow.
Enjoy the journey though and put in extra provision at every step. Including some pull rope for future fishing! Just my 2 pence! :)
What kit are you planning on using to build out the audio distribution?
Great video! Been thinking of running my own cabling in my house but a bit nervous of holing mistakes haha.
Been working in IT for a while but cabling through walls is a part of cabling im afraid of doing myself
Still, great video and i cant wait for part 2!
Great video! I understood almost everything!!
For the living room multi room sound you could run two coax which is great for RCA and setup an automation that’ll switch the ampilifier to a correct output when the need arises
That's true although I'd worry about running unbalanced audio over the distances involved without getting interference. With the audio over CAT systems, they are transferring the audio digitally so interference is much less of an issue.
Congratulations on your new home 🎉. Like you, I'm refurbishing my home, so your video has been timely & helpful. Perhaps it's now time to consider Ajax (alarm) and Loxone (smart home)?!
I’m planning on running cables in my new build soon also so really happy you’ve started this series. Quick question, for the cable routes into the downstairs, why not just drop from the attic into the first floor room then cut drill through the joist into the wall below to drop cables further down to the ground floor? Structural reasons? This way you’d just need to patch up plasterboard in the end.
Oh the envy I have of you with walls that are easy to run cables through.
1960's end of terrace and all downstairs walls are concrete blockwork, no studwork to be seen.
If I wanted to run cabling ( and I do) I'd have to carve and chisel conduit through the walls.
Ooh I'll have to make time to watch this later! Bet you got a few sore knuckles installing all that lot!
I'm in so much pain after doing all of this! Not to mention the state of my arms from all the insulation!
@@camerongray1515 Finally got to watch your video today. I can certainly see why your arms ached so much! Lots of beams to get through. But I love the little holes you cut in the floor, very clever way of doing it. Looking forward to your next video Cameron.
Major upgrade. Congratulations
I like the idea of bring them up
The Samsung washing machine at 1:22:56 reminds me of mine waking me up at night when it finished, I quickly found the mute function on it after that.
Sees copper in the 2020s, future proofing -1000.
But I miss the good old content from your channel nice to see it in my feed again, I went with LC lines and CAT7A+ back in 2017 when I crawled though the attic with a respirator for 3 days.
Coax works really well to get audio subwoofer with minimal interferance
Yeah, think I'll give that a go as long as I have some coax leftover. Then just test the hell out of it before closing up any access holes since if I do need a balanced connection I'd need to swap the coax out for something with 2 cores.
I Love Your networking / AV videos You're totally right on also installing Coax
- The built-in TV Freeview Tuner is so much easier to use than starting an app like HDHomerun
(If your set has the app) I have 2x HDHomeruns they work well but i mostly use them to Record on Plex or for phones/tablets
With “CT100” (Copper - Copper foil) each manufacturer will sell their own updated version as the original CT100 is air-spaced not foam filled
- RG6 (Copper - Aluminium foil) is crap these days its often coated Steel.
Re: networking in new builds in the UK
I bought mine in 2021 and the developer actually did put in CAT5e into 4 of the rooms with a patch panel on the wall near to the incoming fibre etc, so that's where my networking rack is installed
Definitely agree that it's a complete joke in the UK though, I was expecting to have to wire a bunch of ethernet in myself after I moved in, because during the build phase the sales person said they don't install things like that - so it was a suprise when I moved in to find the patch panel on the wall. I somewhat suspect the sales person did not have a clue what I was talking about. I'm still a bit annoyed about it actually, if they had said up front it would come with ethernet ports in 4 rooms I'd have asked them to double up and install more in the remaining rooms that don't have them!
You could use a Grandstream HT812 for allowing to use a landline phone without a copper telephone line you just need to set up a VOIP account.
I definitely could, although I personally have absolutely no need or desire to have a landline phone.
Great video Cameron. Heads-up the Amazon link for the endoscope doesn’t look like the same one, at least on Amazon uk
It's the exact same listing I purchased however unfortunately it looks as though they've discontinued the 1M variant of it
For your sub, consider running coax and send your unbalanced line over that.
That's definitely an option, I'd just need to be definitely sure that it would be fine with unbalanced. If on the other hand I ran a shielded 2 core cable I could use it for both balanced or unbalanced. Suppose I could pull in coax if I have any leftover and test it before I seal up any of the access routes.
I have been planning to rewire my house over the last few months, so this video series is perfectly timed for me. Also, this might be a silly question, but do you know the name of your AV cabinet? I've been searching for a AV/TV cabinet with perforated doors in the exact same color combination for ages, but I haven’t been able to find anything with perforated doors (possibly combined with an open back for even better air circulation) in a grey and oak/other light wooden combination.
It's an IKEA "BESTA" unit - modular system using their "MÖRTVIKEN" mesh doors.
If you recess the box for the dining room TV in the downstairs bathroom you could hang a mirror over it and you wouldn't see the box
Could you not use a rebated hole cutter? I've got an armeg one that you can buy plastic caps for, seems a bit easier than your method, although my house doesn't have wood underneath the boards (what is the purpose of that?)
I have one of those cutters and it's great, but with these floors it won't cut down far enough to get through the OSB so you still need to use a second hole saw to cut through that so at that point it isn't really worth the additional cost of the plastic plugs. I also find this method is easier for getting the plug to sit completely flush with the floor which is particularly important when installing hard flooring above it.
@@camerongray1515 yeah fair enough, watching the section again and I think youre right the rebate cutter won't be deep enough. I wonder what the purpose of having such a thick floor is about.
It's the way they construct these houses. Almost all UK new builds are made in the same way - prefabricated timber pieces which are built in a factory and then assembled on site. They'll literally get an entire house frame put up in a few hours. The floors are made up of prefabricated panels (I-Joists fixed to a layer of OSB) known as "floor cassettes". These are all craned in on top of the ground floor and bolted together before the upper floor is then installed. Then, they will install the chipboard on top of these floor cassettes to provide a flat, smooth surface that flooring can be installed on top of.
@@camerongray1515 ah that's interesting then, I've got a new build that was built in 2022 by a major developer but it was all constructed on site, so it's more what I'm used to which is wooden joists and then 22mm (I think) t&g chipboard on top. I used the armeg cutter and it did me fine. I did see mention of I joists when I was doing my research but not got them here. My cabinet is wall mounted in my downstairs cupboard which is in the centre of the house so it was a bit of a pain to route cables through although it's a good position once it's done. I had to go into the floor void in the upstairs hallway, along the floor then up through the wall and into the loft. Took a lot of arm behind and swearing to get through the bottom of the wall framing with an angled drill with a hole saw on the end but managed it eventually. Had to be a bit creative with cable run behind a light switch to keep the cables in a zone but got there eventually. Yours seems a lot easier, I had similar in my first house and airing cupboard above (I imagine thats what yours was originally planned for but they've deleted the hw cylinder - ok for a combi but if you ever got a heat pump you'd have to put it back in). Looks like fun anyway glad mine is all done now though it's my third house I've cabled so far so no doubt I'll end up doing it again in future 🤪 although next project will be selfbuild so should be able to do a proper "first fix" not smash up a brand new house
Interesting content - and timely for me as I'm just beginning with an audio and networking wire up in our house (that currently has little/no cable runs). Did you select U/UTP or F/UTP cat6a cable?
It's U/FTP (each pair is individually screened but no outer screen) With this type of cable, the crosstalk is partially mitigated due to the screening around each pair meaning that the pairs don't need to be twisted as tightly as with UTP cable. It also doesn't need the central separator that you'd need with UTP cable. This is a pretty decent summary: stl.tech/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CAT-6A-UFTP-vs-FUTP_Application-Note.pdf
use quad sheilded rg6/“coax” cable for subs
Rack prices are just silly. They are nothing more that some extruded main supports and some sheet panelling.
You can pick them up second hand so easily for next to nothing. Usually companies are giving them away as scrap metal. I would never buy a new one, I've thrown away so many over the years in a work capacity. I paid £50 for my current 22u Compaq rack, came with all side panels and it's served me well for the last 10 years.
@@SBBUK Its the "biz" price I find daft. Not the function as such. When you can pick up a new PC for the same price. Which is one heck of a lot more complicated to manufacture the components etc. Then asking 1200 for some extruded steel.
What about having remote units in each room which get their signal from the mains wiring provided the source unit is downstairs with you Music system.
Not sure what you mean? I'd personally avoid any sort of powerline technology wherever possible - it's nowhere near equivalent to a wired connection and almost always has significantly worse performance than a modern WiFi connection. In the meantime until I get the cabling installed I've been using a TPLink powerline adapter to get a wired connection to my studio for testing wired only devices, and it's been absolutely dreadful.
You may be able to run most of the cable through the cavity in the walls
I probably could however it's generally not seen as particularly good practice since it can cause damp bridging and certain cavity wall insulation can react badly with PVC cables.
With the speaker wire do they not need to be the same length for all the ones in a room to stay in sync or am I misremembering stuff? Are you splitting the 4 into 2 pairs but keeping them symmetrical?
Cheekily along the next bit before I get to the end but have you found any aesthetic, preferably high density, wall plates? I use commercial ones on commercial sites but they’re not going to look good at home
Sound will travel down the cable at near enough the speed of light so while a delay would technically be measurable on the cable with specialist equipment it'll be inpercievable to the human ear. The sound coming out of the speakers then travels at the (much slower) speed of sound so your distance from each speaker will make a significantly greater difference than any additional cable length would. Many AV recievers will actually compensate for this during their calibration process (where you move a microphone to different listening positions around the room) however this is more important when it comes to surround sound/Atmos, for regualar music in a normal sized room, it won't make a noticable difference.
As for network faceplates, I'll be using Excel CAT 6A keystone jacks along with Excel Angled Keystone Shutters (Part Number: 100-175) to install them in regular Euromodule faceplates. They are available in most decent ranges of electrical accessories so you can buy them to match your existing sockets/switches. Even if you just have white plastic accessories, it's nice to match the exact same shape, profile and shade with the network points. In my case I'll be replacing all of the electrical accessories with screwless brushed stainless steel ones, likely from the Click Definity range, so I'll be getting the euro module plates from the same range to match. Of course this only applies to the UK, other countries will have their own standards and ranges of electrical accessories/network points.
Looking forward to seeing the project unfold! Hope the bend radius on your cat6a will allow you to terminate OK in the backboxes. I tried running cat6a(unshielded) but even with 25mm deep back boxes the outer sheath was too stiff and put too much tension on the connection or even just getting the keystones in the euro modules plates. Few ended up popping off.. That being said I had all brick walls to work on so had to chase everything out. You may have better luck with stud walls. Ended up switching to cat6 but invested in really good quality stuff rated up to 550mhz.. Either way looking to how you tackle it
Thankfully with stud walls I can install 47mm dry lining boxes everywhere. I'm also going to try drilling extra holes in the top of the boxes so each cable can run straight up from it's respective euro module rather than needing to bend them around inside the box.
Love your tv stand, where did you get that from, looks ideal for my set up
It's an IKEA BESTÅ modular system using their MÖRTVIKEN mesh doors.
Great video and thank you for breaking this up into smaller editions. One ask when you're videoing & standing try to stand still. You're weaving back & forth which is very districting to watch.
A little suprised you didn't run any fibre. Cat 6A does 10 gig, but that's basically the end of the road for copper. And those 10g-base-t transceivers draw a lot of power.
Fibre is an idea, however most of these runs will be used for things like TVs, laptop docks and smart home devices, none of which use fibre. Currently there's a grand total of one desktop PC used in this house which could have a fibre capable network card installed, and it's not even mine! I'd maybe run fibre in the future if I had a specific scenario where it would be a benefit (might pull one to my studio workbench for example) but it's not something I'd just blanket install throughut a property.
@@Artentus I don't think fibre makes sense in a residential install as the runs are 30m or less and it's way easier to work with copper and you can terminate it yourself with hand tools. You could use fibre but you'd have to rod a preterminated cable through which sounds like a lot of hassle. Id probably only do it to connect 2 racks together e.g. one inside and one in a detached garage.
I wasn't suggesting to use fibre for everything, just the 10gig runs. Though I didn't realize you had this few stationary computers in the house (considering how many other devices you have), so I guess it's not necessary.
@SBBUK depends on what you're doing. I'm a software developer and I connected my workstation to my NAS using fibre to work directly off of network drives.
LC connectors are pretty small, you can get them through places, and OM3 is very similar in price to Cat 6 per meter.
@Artentus that makes sense. I'd still potentially like to look into it in the future, however all the places I'd consider fibre would be upstairs and would therefore be relatively easy to add in the future so don't necessarily need to be done at this stage. I'd particularly be interested in taking a look at field termination fibre kits as they're becoming relatively affordable without requiring expensive splicing equipment.
(1:48) That sounds worse than how it's done in Singapore, where for new flats, the HDB do make sure there's at least one network cable per room that all runs back to a central location in a small cabinet near the front door. As far as I can tell, they put in one cable per room as people are likely expected to connect multiple network switches, but also because those take the place of the Singtel phone lines and SCV/StarHub cable (coax) lines that older flats had. I'm not sure about dedicated houses (private housing), though.
In my previous flat that was built in the early 2010s, there were cable lines as StarHub hadn't yet shut down their legacy cable network (IIRC they did so in 2009), but similar to what you mentioned about what's being done with homes in the UK, here the landline phone connections were wired within the flat with Cat5e, so those could then be converted to network ports (also as we used StarHub at the time so the phone lines weren't being used anyway) by one of a number of companies here, which I of course did a year or two before moving out.
(15:27) Yep, makes sense considering that idea would theoretically have lower latency than Remote Play.
(32:50) Interesting to see that they do stick in some sort of lighting! I'm accustomed to the HDB here just pasting a sticker that reads "LIGHTING POINT" and hiding a cable with a connector behind that on each ceiling lighting point (they also do a similar thing for the doorbell connection).
(1:04:46) I'm sensing that they're all smart lights that work with Home Assistant, or possibly connected to a smart light switch, mostly because I'm predicting that you're going to do an updated version of your self-hosted smart lighting video!
Try this in a house in Europe where we use stones ;-)
You could also maybe use an angle adapter on a drill.
This is also my gripe. I bought a new house and cant get the wires run while its being built. So then you need to cut into your brand new house. The amount of people that complaintheir internet is slow when its just the wifi isnt good enough
What about going full fibre through the house as you already have a fibre switch and special adapters that will connect to WPs throughout the house.
The vast majority of devices that will be connected to the cabling have regular copper network ports and no ability to add fibre network cards (e.g. TVs, smart home devices, laptop docking stations). If I were to have run fibre everywhere I'd have had to then add media converters behind practically every device which would just be silly.
@@camerongray1515 I'd recommend adding at least 1 OM4 fibre run between your rack and your office/studio without adding much cost or hassle. I have Cat6 throughout my house too, but having 25/100Gb access to your NAS would really help, especially if you're editing videos.
@@sranjan6101 A lot of people, especially here on UA-cam really over-exaggerate the network speeds required for editing video. Personally, I edit alll my footage locally so the network link is only used for transferring finished projects to my NAS or backing up raw footage if it's not due to be edited for some time. I edit off of a Samsung T7 SSD (that my camera records directly to). This SSD has a 10Gb USB connection and tops out at 1050MB/s (8.4Gb/s) and has worked flawlessly for editing 4K BRAW and ProRes footage, therefore if I did end up moving to edit from a NAS, 10Gb would be way more than enough. Even when transferring raw footage, a 10Gb link will transfer a completed video in under 30 seconds. At any rate, the office and studio are both upstairs so I can easily run new cables to them in the future - it's only the downstairs runs that will be awkward to access once flooring is down upstairs.
Hi Cameron,
Congrats on the new house. I would love to retrofit structured cabling in our house. The issue is that we live in a double brick house, so not so easy.
Given that you are using Cat 6A, it means that you will need a particular type of connector. If you use the standard Cat 5E/6 connectors, you will not get the full speed.
Which type will you use and why?
Thanks
I'll be using Excel toolless CAT 6A connectors on both ends of all the runs. The Low profile version for each of the wall jacks in the rooms and the regular full size ones at the patch panel.
@@camerongray1515 looking forward to these future videos as my runs would theoretically have no issues with Cat 6, I would prefer to use Cat 6A, however have been put off by all the extra requirements
Well, you alluded to the answer to my question. What are your plans for people who don't have their cellphone with them?
Great video,
I look forward to future updates.
Your views are in line with mine.
I am looking at getting the Konnected alarm panel
I am also interested in what you use as your video matrix and audio distribution.
Another thing that I have been looking at is cellphone reception.some places are great, but I live in a valley, so some places it is horrible.
Oh and switches, I can't wait to see what you use. I am using the TP Link Kasa because they are cheap..... affordable and reliable. I am looking at replacing the remainder with inovelli switches because there is no neutral and one day I would love to have a house full of them.
And USB power well, I just purchased a receptacle from Elegrp. Would love to see what your plans are.
Generally speaking most of the smart home stuff will be controllable with physical switches, remote controls or wall mounted touch screens. I personally don't want to rely on phones for everything!
As for phone reception, here in the UK most providers offer "WiFi calling" where phones can make and recieve calls and texts over the internet when coverage is poor.
Video and audio distribution will be using a Biamp Server IO DSP for audio and an HDBaseT matrix for video.
Smart switches will be using Shelly devices as I thankfully have neutrals. I may consider some USB outlets although I'm not necessarily a huge fan of them as they can't be upgraded to support new fast charging standards and make certain electrical testing difficult as you now have electronics inside your wall outlets.