B4 drywall – what did I miss?

[HTnewbie]

This is a long post but I would appreciate your help. I am in the midst of a new home theater installation in a “great room” adjacent to our kitchen. I have pulled wire and I am getting ready for termination. Drywall will likely go up in a week or two. Before I close things up, I want to ask you all to tell me if I have missed anything. I would much prefer to catch it now than afterward.

Layout:
Great room (16’x30’) is adjacent to our kitchen as well as a casual dining room (large open space). The primary viewing location looks dead ahead at the wall where an RPTV and PCs will reside, windows to the left, open air to the kitchen on the right and a partial wall and opening to the casual dining room behind. This installation will not be a reference theater given the compromises, both acoustic and otherwise, that come with the space. Wife approval factor is key as well.

General setup:
Main wall is 16’ wide and we are installing a full width, built-out entertainment center that will house everything (don’t groan, WAF). Imagine the cabinetry divided into five “columns” of different widths. Columns:
Two outside – computer workstations
Left inner – AV equipment with a laser printer below.
Right inner - storage for DVDs w/ photo printer below.
Center – bottom will house subwoofer with storage draw above. Top will have shelf that will hold three main speakers. Centered will be 61” RPTV.
Additional audio – Surround speakers are in-ceiling above and slightly behind main seating area.
Kitchen counter – pull up bench seating area will have an LCD TV since RPTV is not visible from kitchen.
Distributed audio – The house is wired and speakered for central audio though the original owner never hooked it up. A closet adjacent to the kitchen includes speaker cabling and control cabling. Right now I have my 25 year old Pioneer SX650 driving six speakers.
Access - The main wall where I am doing the wiring is located above a open-ceiling basement hallway so I have easy access to run wiring, etc.


Hardware:
Yamaha Rx-V2500 receiver
DVD (tbd)
Samsung 61” DLP RPTV (thinking 68 series)
HD cable tuner with HD DVR built in
VCR
CD changer
Media hub (?)
LCR speakers are three BagEnd MM-8H
BagEnd INFRA-12 sub
Three Atlantic Technology ICTS-6.3 as in-ceiling surrounds
Two in-wall BagEnd MM-6.5s as Presences speakers (Yam 2500 DSP feature)
In-wall wiring done with Ultralink CL-414
Kitchen TV will be a 15-20” LCD on a pedestal hooked directly to cable line

What I’ve done thus far:
Torn down sheetrock & insulation from wall
Installed three dedicated electric circuits back to breaker box
Set up one shared circuit for printers and non-critical equipment
Installed low voltage gang boxes for each PC, each printer and an eight-gang box for all the AV & info lines for the AVR.
I have also added two 1" diameter flexible conduits for the main PC and the 8-gang box for future needs.

AV & network wiring already done:
My basement utility room is the connection with all the coax and cat5 connection originating there. In addition to cable signal distribution, the home network router and switch are there and connected through a 24-port patch panel. Wireless access point is in upstairs closet. FM/AM antennas in attic will also run to basement before distribution. Actual connections currently run between main wall and utility room distribution:

Six coax lines (three cable, one OTA HD signal, one each AM & FM)
Eight cat5 – one for each printer, two for AVR/Tivo/HD DVR, two for each PC
Three cat3 – one for each PC (fax modem) and one for Tivo dial out
S-Video & audio between main PC and AVR connection plate
5-line BNC cable (thanks Kurt of Blue Jean Cables) run between AVR plate and box for LCD TV in kitchen (Yam 2500 Zone 2)
One 4-conductor speaker cable between AVR plate and central audio
One electric wall box switch to control power to sub woofer in cabinet.
One switched outlet for use with above cabinet lighting if needed.

If it works, I have attached photos of the wall before the work, two shots of the gang boxes and a look at the cable carrying rail that I built.

That’s it and if you have read this far you have my thanks. More importantly, what did I miss? I have no IR repeaters but can’t figure out why I need them. The Yam 2500 zone 2 is going to output to the kitchen LCD and won’t require remote control. What else? Thanks again.

 

[HowY]

perhaps a rethink of the workstations....

Been consolidating my 'puters into ONE system
remotes (office / kids desk) access the main
with an ethernet KVM the hick-up (wiring wise)
was the need for printing etc... USB!

so much USB cable also ran along with the cat5

nice to just maintain the one system (pvr - pc)
and know soon I'll need to give the kids their own
box...

Dont forget the IR and trigger runs.... youll need them
eventually....

 

[BMXTRIX]

If you have basement access, then you might consider just dropping a few pieces of 3/4" conduit to several locations now. It will make access that much easier should you need it later on. Blue 3/4" flex conduit is available from Home Depot for about 3 bucks for 10 feet. I picked up 100 feet at www.smarthome.com and put it to use.

I would stronly recommend lighting control and looking at low voltage (IR) control of lighting which may mean that you will want an IR emitter at the light - run CAT-5 to each light switch in the room. Likewise, if there is a gas fireplace, you may be able to add control of that to your remote - or upgrade your remote to allow it.

While the drywall is important to consider, I have to say that the built in really is the true drywall and it is much more. It is going to force your position on every speaker, the size of the TV, the access to your equipment, and the ability to wire in the future. This is the single most important thing to think out and ask about before it is built.

How will your equipment receive ventilation? Will it just be open air, sitting on shelves, or will it have cabinet doors on it?
How will you access the equipment? Do you know how much fun it is to try to wire up a 5.1 (or more) system by holding a 40 pound receiver in one hand and putting the speaker wires in place with the other... then trying to get it all back into cubby hole on the shelf? You may want to consider a slide out equipment rack from a company like Middle Atlantic (www.middleatlantic.com) so that you can properly wire up your system and change compnents as necessary.

How will wiring be handled within the built-in? The best way I have seen is having shelves that have a 2-3 inch gap behind them so that wires can be put down or up as necessary. Much better than holes that get filled up with a lot of wires.

How are you going to tie all the equipment into your home distributed audio system? Will you buy another CD changer, tuner, etc. for the house audio? Maybe consider runs between the two locations now.

IMHO doing a custom room and putting all of your equipment right up at the front of the room is distracting. You used to have to put all your equipment at the front of the room, like your receiver, DVD player, VCR, etc. Now you can put it in the basement or the equipment closet and just put the DVD & VCR in a cabinet next to your couch if you want. But, with the built in, it may just be better to put it all where everyone else puts it.

Anyway, conduit most definitely is your friend and takes about 5 minutes per location to install and makes adding wires later much, much easier.

 

[HTnewbie]

Sorry about the delay in replying (disconnected vacation).

HowY:
I have four sons, my wife and myself - consolidating workstations is not viable. WS will be hardwired back to a AP/router and all printers will be run back there to a switch (I have all the hardware already). Wireless AP covers the whole house. Difficulty was wiring my wife office which is on far end of house and does not present an ease pull of cat5. Decided to use a wireless bridge/switch from LinkSys that connects via 802.11g and provides four ports in her office for printers, workstation, etc. If you have not run USB cable yet, you may want to check out HP's new inkjet all-in-one. Great review in latest PC Mag and can connect via ethernet, USB or 802.11g - wireless server built-in! Very cool.

BMXTRIX:
Blue flex conduit is in (from HD).

No fireplace but considering IR control of lighting.

Access is key and sliding & pivoting rack is on the wish list and I think I will get it done. Cabinetry will have "cut outs" for running cables to full width and height of the units. Shelves will either have a full 2" gap at rear or will be cut out in back so that a 2" gap extends across the middle 2/3s.

I am conscious of ventilation issues. Still battling with wife over smoked glass doors versus solid wood or open face. I won't settle for solid wood and she is protesting that glass is "so 80's". Still pushing but will address one way or the other. A rack makes is easier than shelving will. I am considering specifying ventilation holes on top and installing thermocouple controlled fans. I will have the wiring for the electric available.

Yammie receiver has both Zone 2 and Zone 3 outputs which will run to distributed audio center in closet. Have not even considered hardware for that yet.

Hardware will have to go in "built out" for now for a variety of reasons.

 

[matyjo]

I to am pre-drywall and in the process of building home theater. I found a ton of info on prewiring for speakers, but what about a wall mounted plasma? What should I be prewiring for hanging the plasma?

 

[HTnewbie]

Lessons learned

I found that no matter how well you plan things, you will inevitably forget some run of wire or another. Like IR repeaters or an extra cat-5.

Depending on your set up with access, etc., you need to build in some redundancy or flexibility. By redundancy I mean running some extra lengths of cable like cat-5 which gives you all kinds of flexibility. Or running a length of conduit for future use.

What I found useful was getting all of my equipments' manuals together and making copies of all of the diagrams of the back panels. Then I spent some time "tying everything together" so that I had an idea of all of the cabling I would need. Then I ran it by a friend who pointed out some things I had not considered (it is easy to get stuck in a pattern). One thing he mentioned that I had not thought of was an audio connection between my DVD player and the RPTV since I was going through my AV receiver. Why was that important? So the kids could toss a DVD in without having to crank up the big amp - watching Barney does not require 7.1 surround.

For the plasma, I would look at the back panel and decide on every connection you could conceive of and them some. Better, if the studs are exposed, I would install conduit connecting the termination box behind the plasma (I assume you will have one) and the origination of all of your signals (wherever the cable/sat tuner and other devices will be). I would not fill that conduit now but run the "known" cables alongside the conduit leaving the conduit free for future use.

One thing I did think of that was not apparent at first review - running a D15 computer cable to the termination box behind the TV. My kids have hooked that up to their new PC and really enjoy playing their games on the big box. Even my conduit would not have helped there given a D15 is too large unless you are running 1.5" diameter stiff PVC.

Good luck.

Tom

 

[HTnewbie]

One additional thought

Don't forget on how you are going to power the plasma. If you are going to plug it directly in to the home's electrical system then you only need to have an outlet behind the plasma.

However, if you plan to plug the plasma into a power conditioning unit then you have to have a way of routing the TV's power line to whereever you will have the power conditioner. This gets a little complicated since you are now dealing with building code issues.

Do you own a home or is this an apartment?

BTW, however you are going to run power, keep the path of the electrical wiring as far away as you can from the audio and video signal cables (at least 18-24"). To avoid interference issues, do not run them parallel and limit the number of 90 degree crosses to a minimum.

 

[matyjo]

Yes, I own my home and the home theater will be set-up in the basement. It is already framed, though the TV will be mounted to a brick wall, not studs. The cable and electrical will be in the ceiling. The placement of the bose satellites are all set and I'll be running the speaker wire this weekend.

When you mention "tying everything together", do you mean you bundled all the monitor out cables together? Sorry, if I sound uninformed (because I am) but I'm trying to get up to speed on all that is involved.