I would just like to say that the most efficient "mesh install" would include cat six to the mesh repeaters so that they can enjoy a hard line to the switch. This improves signal quality and speed coming from the mesh repeaters and in the case of a fully enclosed theater, I would have a hard wire to the projector as well as to the mesh repeater in the room if you needed that kind of redundancy.
I agree that without a hard wired, physical connection the mesh would not work well in this house. Especially in the theater. Everything is hardwired with Cat6 cables and POE powered in this home just like you suggest. This home did have coax pulled just in case they wanted cable boxes and weren’t ready to cut the cord. Moca is fine when you don’t have any other options IMO.
Just to be that guy: _Mesh_ is essentially a marketing term (popularized relatively recently) describing network topologies that use radio signaling _instead of cables_ to connect wireless nodes to clients as well as to one another. Standard WiFi access points with wired connections to the switch are by definition not a mesh, and there's no need to throw "witless mesh" in scare quotes.
Happy to see you installing a rack downstairs in the basement. I am not a fan of the in wall on-q style network boxes. I would run several drops of Cat6 to each room. Network cable is cheep and on drop room usually is not enough.
What about making it easier to replace the cables? Through time surely they will need replaced? One other thing you mentioned putting in tubing for future proofing and great advice however I would of added putting rope through the tubing so you already have a pull through for the cables from one end to the other. Would definitely be advisable if you are unable to go straight up the way. I would also add access points on every floor, all cables running to that point and tubing splitting off in those access points so you can replace the cables if needed to down the line, instead of having no way to easily do this once all walls etc are covered.
I like how you think... You're not wrong, but I will say this boils down to personal preference. I'll share my 2 cents. You can go as crazy with future proofing... And many people do. I simply want to plant the seed in their minds so they can think through their own setups and planning... The pull string is a great idea. Typically, they are best used for adding new cables though. When replaceing a cable, in most cases, you can use the old cable as the pull string. So it depends on what you are preparing yourself for! I will say that if a user is pulling Cat6 or Cat6A, the need to replace cables might be slim. Both cables are rated at 10G speeds so unless a cable breaks - which is rare - I don't know that you would do that... In my eyes, the more likely scenario may be a new type of cable being introduced for home networking and someone wants to upgrade to that. We just don't know what the future holds in that area so planning for this is a great idea. Thanks for your input and for sharing your thoughts. All smart ideas.
I like to terminate my primary conduit into the back of a weatherproof service box mounted on the exterior wall of the house. The telcos install their own boxes and then jump to the house box, which goes to the main distribution panel / cabinet / rack. I like my main conduit to be at least an inch in diameter, especially if it has to twist a few times en route to its destination. This makes it easier to pull fiber down the road without having to disturb existing services like cable and analog phone.
Great video! Learned tons! Thanks! Still have a few questions about the network head-end and the exterior termination point. Is it ideal to have the coaxial lines also go to where the network headend is too? It seems like in the video they're in the same location as the network head-end. Is that right?
Yes it is. Why? For no other reason than in many sections of the country if you lose the internet you still have broadcast TV (DTV/ATSC) that can be used. On top of that, for weather emergencies, every area I've been to has at least one local station with a dedicated weather channel. A *good* DTV antenna is not that expensive, can be mounted in the interior attic space, and can be split in a centralized system to every TV in the house, and all of those TV's will have an ATSC tuner. However you can also add in the rapid rise of streaming costs, and the introduction of commercials in some platforms, streaming is becoming less price competitive.
It really depends on the space. I try to be very fair. If you'd like to email me at tim@ethernetblueprint.com, I'd be happy to talk through it with you. I don't charge anything for that part. lol
$75 - $100 per drop give or take.. this covers cabling, connectors, wall plates, keystones, low voltage mounting plates, smurf tubing and misc items plus labor
Another key issue I've seen design woes with - in-floor heating! We had a client with in-floor hydronic (hot water) heating no only in their basement, but 1st and 2nd levels as well. Moving water and WiFi don't mix. Had to have multiple WAPs for every floor!
Does having data and electrical wires did not affect the signal for Ethernet in that house? I get that the wiring wasn't going through the same holes on the studs, but it appears that some of the wires are overlapping.
Out of curiosity why didn't you do a full size plastic structure wiring panel or even a half size. Also do you guys normally do your rack bundles down low not up high?
Are you talking about the boxes built in the wall that comes with some homes? If you are, I strongly dislike those boxes. IMO, they are not practical for "most" unifi network gear - especially if you plan to have a UPS. As far as rack placement, it really depends on the home. Some are high, some are lower... I try to find the happy medium between not needing a ladder to access them, but also having them out of the way... It really depends on the home though. For this house, this location made the most sense based on how the fiber was entering the property.
You had some great explanations. Ive got about 8 wires that i ran from the isp drop (modem room) to my new living room (router location). Whats the best way to choose the fastest ethernet line to go from the modem To the router? I noticed some are slower than others and im not sure why. Theyre a mix of Cat6e and Cat7 cables.
Can I ask how you are testing the speeds of these cables? Cat6e at lengths less than 150' can do 10Gb speeds. So as long as your router is rated for less than 10Gb speeds and your distance is less than 150ft, you should be maxing out your speeds from the modem to the router.... Now, I will say that not all cable is created equal and cheaper cable usually has less quality. I typically recommend Cat6, Cat6e or Cat6A - pure copper, UTP Riser Rated Cable (CMR), non-plenum for residential homes.
Hey Tim, great video. I'm currently having my house built in Tenn and my electrician is old school and doesn't know anything about ethernet, so I'm doing all the wiring myself. I saw that you used single gang fully enclosed boxes vs the open boxes that you can get almost anywhere. Is there a reason you went that way ? FYI, I am running cat6A cable throughout the entire house.
Good catch... You can use LV open boxes for your runs, no problem. If you are doing WAPs, you may want to use a solid box for the ceiling locations though. They are a bit more rigid and won't sag at all from the weight of the AP. I'm sure either would work. That has just always been my preference. Thanks for watching!
14:58 y’all didn’t want to support that corner of the landing? I understand you’re using fab joist and all but that’s going to be the first failure point and I think about after a year that’s where you’re going to see the most cracks in drywall and mud due to settling and lack of support.
Great video. I have concrete home theatre as well. I had a mesh system that worked ok not greatest wifi in theatre. I then upgraded my mesh system to Asus XT-9 that comes with two units wifi was very weak in theatre so I added a router that joins mesh system and put it inside theatre now wifi is great. Why don't you just put an access point in the theatre?
Should I run wires through conduit before the drywalls are up or run the lines outside of the conduit and have a clear path for future just in case purposes? How do you do a y in Smurf tubing?
I dont think you want a Y in the smurf tube. I have seen it where people will create an access panel and then run multple tubes back to that location. That allows them to run cables just about anywhere they want by jumping from tube to tube in the junction box. A "y" would not work well for fishing cabling. I like my LV cabing in the walls... but every project is different. I may need a bit more info before I can offer further advice.
Home wifi that is all I've ever needed to stream video/TV and access internet. I've occasionally used wifi cameras like google Nest or Wyze, though this is more a novelty than necessary. I plan to run a single coaxial cable to a central point in the home to connect a wifi router. I've never used hard-wired networking in a home and don't see a need for it today. Why run Cat6 or any other cable when wifi is adequate for home needs? Why run Coaxial to TVs when streaming has taken over? Is it for gaming (which I don't do)?
Well I would argue that if Wi-Fi is important to you then it may be a good idea to wire in a nice system however, everyone’s needs are different. Your home may not require a mesh and a single unit works well for you. Or, you don’t think you’ll ever need Wi-Fi outdoors away from the house. I’m basing my content off my experience in people’s homes attempting to make standard Wi-Fi or Mesh systems work where there is no cabling. The options are extremely limited. And a home owners need change over time. Having wired infrastructure in place can make a huge difference in cost when that unknown thing that you didn’t know you needed comes along. I do, however, respect your opinion on this manner and appreciate you commenting.
@@ethernetblueprint Thanks for the reply. My contractor had initially specified a couple of access points, but agreed that a centrally placed wifi router may be adequate. He said we could at Mesh later if needed. The current home build is 4000 sq ft open floor plan all on a single level, and the router will be in the center of the home. However, my last home as a little larger at 5000 sq ft on 2 levels, and the single wireless router located on the second level supplied good wifi in all areas of the home, even the back patio. But as far as cat6 cable, I just don't understand why that would be needed with good wifi. I am having low voltage wire run for motorized shades and distributed audio as well as home theater speakers (though wireless sonos is a good option as well, just not as clean a look as wall or ceiling installed speakers. I'm also running conduit from the rack to the crawl space and figure I can run wire in the crawl space if something ever comes up.
take the pedestal conduit direct connect with the MDF conduit using a right angle conduit body with cover.. it will look cleaner and professional without havting any exposed wiring out side
I'm a contractor with Cox Communications, they would literally cut the conduit in order to place a house box on the side of the house which is protocol so I wouldn't bother with that.
What do you think of those flat ethernet lines they sell on amazon? I ran about 12 of them Through a diy flashing conduit i made in 2020. Are they just as easy to re-terminate as the standard?
Personally, I don't care for them at all. In my experience, from a functionality aspect, they work fine, but aren't super asthetically pleasing. I haven't bought a spool of cable and tried to terminate, but I have snipped a flat prebuilt patch cable before and tried to re-end it.... Unsuccessfully, I might add.
Should low voltage be run next to conduit? Or just run it through conduit for the hell of it? Can you put a y in Smurf tubing? Would speaker wire be better to terminate with connections or leave a brushed pass through faceplate for connecting directly? Doesn’t quality downgrade based on increased quantity of connections, especially HDMI?
When I talk about LV cabling, I am talking about network cabling (Cat6, Cat6A...). I don't know much about AV cabling to be honest and have been looking to team up with someone on my channel to help with questions like this... I will say this.... Different city/states have different rules for this. In Nebraska, we can have LV run next to power conduit with no problems, but you don't want to share a conduit with power. Typically it is recommended that LV cabing that is running horizontal to power lines (not in conduit) should be 12" away from it to avoid interference. I do like using smurf tubing for LV cabing and future proofing.
Btw, if you have floor to ceiling tile like in a bathroom, wifi doesn’t even like that! I have a laundry with 4' tile against a bathroom with ceiling tile, and the laundry room gets bad connection even though there is an access point directly on the other side of the bathroom.
Something I dream of doing on new construction or heavy renovations is to bury PVC conduit to the property line where the service provider has their trunk. Too often a cable fails en route and since burying it properly would be either too expensive or too difficult, the replacement is either buried hastily or not buried but rather strung along the property in some crude, unsightly manner. A conduit is cheap insurance against this.
Smart. Anytime you can protect the line in the ground, its a good option. Make sure you talk to your provider first, some of them have issues with running their cables through other peoples conduit. Wouldn't want it to be all for nothing...even though it makes more sense to do it that way. ISPs can be funny about that sort of thing!
For this job, we are using U6 Pros for the ceiling waps and U6 InWall for the wall mounted ones. For the Outdoor AP, I think I am going to use a U6 Mesh Unit. All Unifi APs.
The cat6 comes straight out of the ZIP sheathing and the hole is filled with spray foam…. Ouch that hurts to look at. Matt Risinger would not approve! Needs to have the ZIP liquid flash.
You bring up a good point on coax, but there are many people out there who use it for OTA TV... Also, I think when you get into more complicated builds that require HDMI over Etherent, or other special AV needs, then a home owner should consult a professional to make sure all the cables are getting pulled to the correct locations.
@@ethernetblueprint I haven't used OTA TV since 2008, so I guess that's why I didn't even consider that. 😂 You can just pull from the rack to all the TV locations, same as coax (assuming the networking closet is where that is located). If they go HDMI over CAT6, it's pretty simple from the rack. All the switching also happens there if they want to get fancy later on!
I personally wouldn’t rely so heavily on wifi especially where network security is concerned. WiFi has it’s place but nothing surpasses hardwired connections both for reliability and security
9:44 - there is no reason to run coax to a TV in 2024. Just HDMI and ethernet. I would run two of each. Coax is useful to were the setup box is but they aren't mounting a set top box above the fireplace.
I hear what you’re saying and agree when it comes to my personal setup but many of my homes like to have an OTA antenna in the attic and run to the TVs… especially with cable and streaming costs rising all the time. While I would never run coax in my home, many still have a need for it.
Wrong. I just ran new coax to a patch panel in the basement of my house. My wife and I watch sports in OTA antenna, and streaming for everything else. We're not paying for extra sports we can get for free. Also, local news is a thing.
Cat6 is so versatile but if you are a real low voltage company you do not use electrical boxes you use low voltage boxes so the wire can not get kinked up
I hear you and agree that LV boxes can be used... For me personally, I like the extra support of an electrical box for a ceiling mounted AP. The wiring doesn't have to be "kinked". It can still can be pushed through the box similar to a LV style. I typically use LV boxes behind the TVs and for vertical mounted wall jacks.
Technology that uses wires is evolving so rapidly that I question how much we can future-proof anything involving wires. The only thing that seems likely to be useful long term is roomy conduit so we can easily take out the outdated tech and put the new ones in.
Yes, the only way to 100% future proof a home is to run conduit everywhere. Not sure how practical that is... depends on your home's layout for sure. I typically recommend choosing a couple locations in your home to pull conduit to... WAPs, Cameras and possibly your main entertaining areas just in case. Those areas would be most likely where you may need to upgrade down the road. And make sure you have one to the attic for any future pulling...
1 gig has been the standard for the past 20 years. Run Cat 6a, 10 gig will be the standard for a while. Most devices are 1 gig, some new cameras went back to 100 meg
@@paulweaver7426 I’m 53, old enough to remember when only Ma Bell could run a phone wire and an extension was a luxury. Coax came and basically went. Now Cat 5 and 6 are essentially useless because wireless is so cheap and good. Hard to know what’s next.
You could save some money by ditching the coax all together unless you plan to run MoCa thru them later...everything is going wireless so would just not even bother with it since you know your running fiber.
I would just like to say that the most efficient "mesh install" would include cat six to the mesh repeaters so that they can enjoy a hard line to the switch. This improves signal quality and speed coming from the mesh repeaters and in the case of a fully enclosed theater, I would have a hard wire to the projector as well as to the mesh repeater in the room if you needed that kind of redundancy.
I agree that without a hard wired, physical connection the mesh would not work well in this house. Especially in the theater. Everything is hardwired with Cat6 cables and POE powered in this home just like you suggest. This home did have coax pulled just in case they wanted cable boxes and weren’t ready to cut the cord. Moca is fine when you don’t have any other options IMO.
Just to be that guy:
_Mesh_ is essentially a marketing term (popularized relatively recently) describing network topologies that use radio signaling _instead of cables_ to connect wireless nodes to clients as well as to one another.
Standard WiFi access points with wired connections to the switch are by definition not a mesh, and there's no need to throw "witless mesh" in scare quotes.
Happy to see you installing a rack downstairs in the basement. I am not a fan of the in wall on-q style network boxes. I would run several drops of Cat6 to each room. Network cable is cheep and on drop room usually is not enough.
Thanks for the comments! Appreciate you watching.
What about making it easier to replace the cables? Through time surely they will need replaced?
One other thing you mentioned putting in tubing for future proofing and great advice however I would of added putting rope through the tubing so you already have a pull through for the cables from one end to the other. Would definitely be advisable if you are unable to go straight up the way.
I would also add access points on every floor, all cables running to that point and tubing splitting off in those access points so you can replace the cables if needed to down the line, instead of having no way to easily do this once all walls etc are covered.
I like how you think... You're not wrong, but I will say this boils down to personal preference. I'll share my 2 cents. You can go as crazy with future proofing... And many people do. I simply want to plant the seed in their minds so they can think through their own setups and planning...
The pull string is a great idea. Typically, they are best used for adding new cables though. When replaceing a cable, in most cases, you can use the old cable as the pull string. So it depends on what you are preparing yourself for!
I will say that if a user is pulling Cat6 or Cat6A, the need to replace cables might be slim. Both cables are rated at 10G speeds so unless a cable breaks - which is rare - I don't know that you would do that... In my eyes, the more likely scenario may be a new type of cable being introduced for home networking and someone wants to upgrade to that. We just don't know what the future holds in that area so planning for this is a great idea.
Thanks for your input and for sharing your thoughts. All smart ideas.
I like to terminate my primary conduit into the back of a weatherproof service box mounted on the exterior wall of the house. The telcos install their own boxes and then jump to the house box, which goes to the main distribution panel / cabinet / rack.
I like my main conduit to be at least an inch in diameter, especially if it has to twist a few times en route to its destination.
This makes it easier to pull fiber down the road without having to disturb existing services like cable and analog phone.
Wanna come work with me? LOL. All great tips. Thanks for sharing. I know comments like this help the viewers!
@@ethernetblueprint Ha, thanks, dude. Thirty years of stockpiling tips ensures that I've always got an opinion ready if necessary.😂
Great video! Learned tons! Thanks! Still have a few questions about the network head-end and the exterior termination point. Is it ideal to have the coaxial lines also go to where the network headend is too? It seems like in the video they're in the same location as the network head-end. Is that right?
Yes, absolutely. That is a good logical place to have coaxial lines run too..
Excellent suggestions on future proofing. Would you say that COAX is no longere needed in the home?
Depends on the home owner and internet/ cable options. Sometimes it is but many times, it just gets abandoned.
Yes it is. Why? For no other reason than in many sections of the country if you lose the internet you still have broadcast TV (DTV/ATSC) that can be used. On top of that, for weather emergencies, every area I've been to has at least one local station with a dedicated weather channel. A *good* DTV antenna is not that expensive, can be mounted in the interior attic space, and can be split in a centralized system to every TV in the house, and all of those TV's will have an ATSC tuner.
However you can also add in the rapid rise of streaming costs, and the introduction of commercials in some platforms, streaming is becoming less price competitive.
Hey Tim, can I ask what you typically charge a client to do their network, a/v, and cable design?
It really depends on the space. I try to be very fair. If you'd like to email me at tim@ethernetblueprint.com, I'd be happy to talk through it with you. I don't charge anything for that part. lol
$75 - $100 per drop give or take.. this covers cabling, connectors, wall plates, keystones, low voltage mounting plates, smurf tubing and misc items plus labor
Another key issue I've seen design woes with - in-floor heating! We had a client with in-floor hydronic (hot water) heating no only in their basement, but 1st and 2nd levels as well. Moving water and WiFi don't mix. Had to have multiple WAPs for every floor!
That’s a good point. Never ran into that issue but that makes sense.
Does having data and electrical wires did not affect the signal for Ethernet in that house? I get that the wiring wasn't going through the same holes on the studs, but it appears that some of the wires are overlapping.
Typically, they can overlap. Just shouldn’t run in parallel. If they do run in parallel, they are should be at least a foot apart.
Out of curiosity why didn't you do a full size plastic structure wiring panel or even a half size. Also do you guys normally do your rack bundles down low not up high?
Are you talking about the boxes built in the wall that comes with some homes? If you are, I strongly dislike those boxes. IMO, they are not practical for "most" unifi network gear - especially if you plan to have a UPS. As far as rack placement, it really depends on the home. Some are high, some are lower... I try to find the happy medium between not needing a ladder to access them, but also having them out of the way... It really depends on the home though. For this house, this location made the most sense based on how the fiber was entering the property.
Great video, thanks.
Thanks for watching!
Thank you for this great video!
You are so welcome! I hope it helped you out!
Thank you
You bet. I hope you found it helpful!
You had some great explanations. Ive got about 8 wires that i ran from the isp drop (modem room) to my new living room (router location). Whats the best way to choose the fastest ethernet line to go from the modem To the router?
I noticed some are slower than others and im not sure why. Theyre a mix of Cat6e and Cat7 cables.
Can I ask how you are testing the speeds of these cables? Cat6e at lengths less than 150' can do 10Gb speeds. So as long as your router is rated for less than 10Gb speeds and your distance is less than 150ft, you should be maxing out your speeds from the modem to the router.... Now, I will say that not all cable is created equal and cheaper cable usually has less quality. I typically recommend Cat6, Cat6e or Cat6A - pure copper, UTP Riser Rated Cable (CMR), non-plenum for residential homes.
Hey Tim, great video. I'm currently having my house built in Tenn and my electrician is old school and doesn't know anything about ethernet, so I'm doing all the wiring myself. I saw that you used single gang fully enclosed boxes vs the open boxes that you can get almost anywhere. Is there a reason you went that way ? FYI, I am running cat6A cable throughout the entire house.
Good catch... You can use LV open boxes for your runs, no problem. If you are doing WAPs, you may want to use a solid box for the ceiling locations though. They are a bit more rigid and won't sag at all from the weight of the AP. I'm sure either would work. That has just always been my preference. Thanks for watching!
14:58 y’all didn’t want to support that corner of the landing? I understand you’re using fab joist and all but that’s going to be the first failure point and I think about after a year that’s where you’re going to see the most cracks in drywall and mud due to settling and lack of support.
Not my area. I hope it will be ok...
Great video. I have concrete home theatre as well. I had a mesh system that worked ok not greatest wifi in theatre. I then upgraded my mesh system to Asus XT-9 that comes with two units wifi was very weak in theatre so I added a router that joins mesh system and put it inside theatre now wifi is great. Why don't you just put an access point in the theatre?
I am installing a hard wired AP in the theater. Sorry if that wasn’t clear. Mesh and concrete don’t mix. Glad you found a fix.
Use eero wifi and run a cat 6 cable to every access point a.k.a "backhaul data over ethernet" for way better performance and reliability
Should I run wires through conduit before the drywalls are up or run the lines outside of the conduit and have a clear path for future just in case purposes? How do you do a y in Smurf tubing?
I dont think you want a Y in the smurf tube. I have seen it where people will create an access panel and then run multple tubes back to that location. That allows them to run cables just about anywhere they want by jumping from tube to tube in the junction box. A "y" would not work well for fishing cabling. I like my LV cabing in the walls... but every project is different. I may need a bit more info before I can offer further advice.
Home wifi that is all I've ever needed to stream video/TV and access internet. I've occasionally used wifi cameras like google Nest or Wyze, though this is more a novelty than necessary.
I plan to run a single coaxial cable to a central point in the home to connect a wifi router.
I've never used hard-wired networking in a home and don't see a need for it today. Why run Cat6 or any other cable when wifi is adequate for home needs? Why run Coaxial to TVs when streaming has taken over? Is it for gaming (which I don't do)?
Well I would argue that if Wi-Fi is important to you then it may be a good idea to wire in a nice system however, everyone’s needs are different. Your home may not require a mesh and a single unit works well for you. Or, you don’t think you’ll ever need Wi-Fi outdoors away from the house.
I’m basing my content off my experience in people’s homes attempting to make standard Wi-Fi or Mesh systems work where there is no cabling. The options are extremely limited. And a home owners need change over time. Having wired infrastructure in place can make a huge difference in cost when that unknown thing that you didn’t know you needed comes along. I do, however, respect your opinion on this manner and appreciate you commenting.
@@ethernetblueprint Thanks for the reply.
My contractor had initially specified a couple of access points, but agreed that a centrally placed wifi router may be adequate. He said we could at Mesh later if needed. The current home build is 4000 sq ft open floor plan all on a single level, and the router will be in the center of the home. However, my last home as a little larger at 5000 sq ft on 2 levels, and the single wireless router located on the second level supplied good wifi in all areas of the home, even the back patio.
But as far as cat6 cable, I just don't understand why that would be needed with good wifi.
I am having low voltage wire run for motorized shades and distributed audio as well as home theater speakers (though wireless sonos is a good option as well, just not as clean a look as wall or ceiling installed speakers.
I'm also running conduit from the rack to the crawl space and figure I can run wire in the crawl space if something ever comes up.
I certainly wish you the best. I hope it works well for you.
take the pedestal conduit direct connect with the MDF conduit using a right angle conduit body with cover.. it will look cleaner and professional without havting any exposed wiring out side
Good tip. I didn't install this one... the builders electricians did. Good tip for the listeners though...
I'm a contractor with Cox Communications, they would literally cut the conduit in order to place a house box on the side of the house which is protocol so I wouldn't bother with that.
What do you think of those flat ethernet lines they sell on amazon? I ran about 12 of them Through a diy flashing conduit i made in 2020. Are they just as easy to re-terminate as the standard?
Personally, I don't care for them at all. In my experience, from a functionality aspect, they work fine, but aren't super asthetically pleasing. I haven't bought a spool of cable and tried to terminate, but I have snipped a flat prebuilt patch cable before and tried to re-end it.... Unsuccessfully, I might add.
Should low voltage be run next to conduit? Or just run it through conduit for the hell of it? Can you put a y in Smurf tubing? Would speaker wire be better to terminate with connections or leave a brushed pass through faceplate for connecting directly? Doesn’t quality downgrade based on increased quantity of connections, especially HDMI?
When I talk about LV cabling, I am talking about network cabling (Cat6, Cat6A...). I don't know much about AV cabling to be honest and have been looking to team up with someone on my channel to help with questions like this...
I will say this.... Different city/states have different rules for this. In Nebraska, we can have LV run next to power conduit with no problems, but you don't want to share a conduit with power. Typically it is recommended that LV cabing that is running horizontal to power lines (not in conduit) should be 12" away from it to avoid interference. I do like using smurf tubing for LV cabing and future proofing.
Btw, if you have floor to ceiling tile like in a bathroom, wifi doesn’t even like that! I have a laundry with 4' tile against a bathroom with ceiling tile, and the laundry room gets bad connection even though there is an access point directly on the other side of the bathroom.
So true... The materials in the home, thickness of the drywall, metal beams, insulation... all play a factor in your signal.
Something I dream of doing on new construction or heavy renovations is to bury PVC conduit to the property line where the service provider has their trunk.
Too often a cable fails en route and since burying it properly would be either too expensive or too difficult, the replacement is either buried hastily or not buried but rather strung along the property in some crude, unsightly manner.
A conduit is cheap insurance against this.
Smart. Anytime you can protect the line in the ground, its a good option. Make sure you talk to your provider first, some of them have issues with running their cables through other peoples conduit. Wouldn't want it to be all for nothing...even though it makes more sense to do it that way. ISPs can be funny about that sort of thing!
Also, I would use POE to run my mesh AP's
Agreed, hard wired POE APs are the way to go.
What kind of waps do you use?
For this job, we are using U6 Pros for the ceiling waps and U6 InWall for the wall mounted ones. For the Outdoor AP, I think I am going to use a U6 Mesh Unit. All Unifi APs.
The cat6 comes straight out of the ZIP sheathing and the hole is filled with spray foam…. Ouch that hurts to look at. Matt Risinger would not approve! Needs to have the ZIP liquid flash.
Lots of installers install it differently.
You need to wire for PoE presence sensors now. Why do coax at all anymore instead of HDMI over CAT6???
You bring up a good point on coax, but there are many people out there who use it for OTA TV... Also, I think when you get into more complicated builds that require HDMI over Etherent, or other special AV needs, then a home owner should consult a professional to make sure all the cables are getting pulled to the correct locations.
@@ethernetblueprint I haven't used OTA TV since 2008, so I guess that's why I didn't even consider that. 😂 You can just pull from the rack to all the TV locations, same as coax (assuming the networking closet is where that is located). If they go HDMI over CAT6, it's pretty simple from the rack. All the switching also happens there if they want to get fancy later on!
I personally wouldn’t rely so heavily on wifi especially where network security is concerned. WiFi has it’s place but nothing surpasses hardwired connections both for reliability and security
100% agree. 👍🏼
9:44 - there is no reason to run coax to a TV in 2024. Just HDMI and ethernet. I would run two of each. Coax is useful to were the setup box is but they aren't mounting a set top box above the fireplace.
I hear what you’re saying and agree when it comes to my personal setup but many of my homes like to have an OTA antenna in the attic and run to the TVs… especially with cable and streaming costs rising all the time. While I would never run coax in my home, many still have a need for it.
Wrong. I just ran new coax to a patch panel in the basement of my house. My wife and I watch sports in OTA antenna, and streaming for everything else. We're not paying for extra sports we can get for free. Also, local news is a thing.
@@112428 What "streaming" apps do you pay for?
Cat6 is so versatile but if you are a real low voltage company you do not use electrical boxes you use low voltage boxes so the wire can not get kinked up
I hear you and agree that LV boxes can be used... For me personally, I like the extra support of an electrical box for a ceiling mounted AP. The wiring doesn't have to be "kinked". It can still can be pushed through the box similar to a LV style. I typically use LV boxes behind the TVs and for vertical mounted wall jacks.
Technology that uses wires is evolving so rapidly that I question how much we can future-proof anything involving wires. The only thing that seems likely to be useful long term is roomy conduit so we can easily take out the outdated tech and put the new ones in.
Yes, the only way to 100% future proof a home is to run conduit everywhere. Not sure how practical that is... depends on your home's layout for sure. I typically recommend choosing a couple locations in your home to pull conduit to... WAPs, Cameras and possibly your main entertaining areas just in case. Those areas would be most likely where you may need to upgrade down the road. And make sure you have one to the attic for any future pulling...
1 gig has been the standard for the past 20 years. Run Cat 6a, 10 gig will be the standard for a while. Most devices are 1 gig, some new cameras went back to 100 meg
@@paulweaver7426 I’m 53, old enough to remember when only Ma Bell could run a phone wire and an extension was a luxury. Coax came and basically went. Now Cat 5 and 6 are essentially useless because wireless is so cheap and good. Hard to know what’s next.
@@twestgard2CAT6 useless?🤔
@@fasteddievh2072 Knob and tube isn’t useless either, but we don’t install much of it anymore.
You could save some money by ditching the coax all together unless you plan to run MoCa thru them later...everything is going wireless so would just not even bother with it since you know your running fiber.
Replied to other comment...
americans seeing concrete walls: WHAT IS THIS ABOMINATION
Wi-Fi and Concrete. Not a match made in heaven.
"Theater"....more like a safe room/bunker/storm shelter.
Ha... So true!
Not very future proof, still leave a lot to be desired.
You can definately go crazy with this stuff... I try to cover a baseline. There is always more you can do if you have the money.