Home Theater Prewire Basics - Introduction

[admin]

Pre-wiring homes for today’s complex home theater systems can often times be a very frustrating task even for the highly skilled A/V professional. There are many factors that need to be considered before a home is wired for video and sound. This basic tech tip article may help guide you through the rigorous process, thus turning this project from daunting to fun and educational.




Discuss "Home Theater Prewire Basics - Introduction" here. Read the article.

[phand]

I am very disturbed by this statement "I prefer the romex staples because they are faster to install".

Electrical staples are sharp, can tear the sheath and possibly cut through to the conductor. I don't care how 'lightly' you staple them. Pull on one end of the cable a little too much and you cut it.

Get an Arrow T59 with insulated staples. If multiple cables are in the same run, use a zip tie through the staple and bundle them 'lightly'.

Just please don't ever use something that will cut the very wire you are trying to secure.

You will find it is much faster to use a stapler instead of hammering in an electrical staple.

[Clint DeBoer]

All Romex staples I've ever used are large, thick, and typically insulated. They are very safe to use and protect against typical friction. You can get them at Home Depot or Lowes and they are very inexpensive.

Since you have to hammer them in, the depth is up to you, but at most they will only "crush" the cable - and that's if you simply keep hitting it down after it's already secured.

You must have used a very different kind of staple than what Ray is describing.

[phand]

Thanks for the clarification.

This is a common electrical staple used in all electrical around here. No insulation. You can buy them with insulation but I've never seen an electrican around here use them.

[RLA]

use a zip tie through the staple and bundle them 'lightly'.

The use of zip ties in the stud cavity is not code and they can fall apart over time in a hot attic. Romex staples either insulated or not are very effective if installed as outlined in the article. I have been using them for the last 18 or so years with no trouble at all. Another alternative is to use a cable tacker but this is more time consuming. Click on the photos of the wire runs to see an enlarged photo of the correct way to use Romex staples.

Electrical staples are sharp, can tear the sheath and possibly cut through to the conductor.

I am not sure how to respond to this statement. This can happen, it can also happen with romex and cause a short to ground in 15 and 20 amp electrical circuits but that doest stop electricians from using romex staples to secure romex you just have to know how to use them.

[phand]

Thanks. I guess the difference depends on where you are.

No insulated staples here, but use zip ties.

Insulated staples there, but don't use zip ties.

I recently saw another installers work where he had an RG6, cat5e and cat6 all suffed together under uninsulated s1 roomex staples, tight. That's all I could think of when I read the article.

[clthoma2]

In the article, there is an outlet above where the projector will be mounted. Assuming that you don't want the projector plugged directly into the wall, will you be using some sort of surge protection on it? If so, how?

I guess one way would be to terminate the romex near the equipment rack and put a plug on that end that could be plugged into a surge protector? That would make it look clean from the projector to the outlet on the ceiling. Would that be acceptible?

[MDS]

I like the alternative idea of hanging the cables with additional wire fastened to some kind of support instead of staples.

The reason I'm thinking that would be better is that in my house I had one CAT5 wire that was dead and the installers that were suffering in the hot attic told me that it was punctured by a staple. They pullled a new cable but could not get the old one out. I know it really doesn't matter but I don't like the idea of having wires that are unuseable hanging out inside the walls and attic.

[RLA]

In the article, there is an outlet above where the projector will be mounted. Assuming that you don't want the projector plugged directly into the wall, will you be using some sort of surge protection on it? If so, how?

If you want to keep it clean then terminate the rack end side of the romex with a heavy duty grounded plug. This can get plugged directly into a rack mounted line conditioner or suppressor. Another alternative is to use something like the Furman AC-215 mounted in close proximity to the projector.
http://www.furmansound.com/product.p...&id=AC-215_PRO

[RLA]

I know it really doesn't matter but I don't like the idea of having wires that are unuseable hanging out inside the walls and attic.

This is a very common scenario when builders use so called "low voltage specialists" to install complex wiring in today’s multi-media homes. I get many calls a year from frustrated home owners complaining about wire that was installed in correctly, wire in the wrong locations or the wrong wire installed. Unfortunately once the sheet rock goes up its hard to fix mistakes. All wiring should be tested before sheetrock is installed. Cat 5 wiring if fairly delicate because it is high gauge and is a solid core, even introducing a sharp 90-degree bend in the cable can break a conductor. If you have just one or two conductors that are dead in the CAT-5 wire the other conductors can still be used for audio transmission, video transmission up to 75- feet if shielded or trigger wire. If you read the article it will guide you through the wire install process. Installation of conduit in the stud bay is very cheap insurance, but many builders will scoff at this idea because they haven’t a clue about pre-wire.