Plasma Power hook up

[redaudi78]

Hello all,

I'm in the process of building my house. I want to be able to hang my plasma on top of the fireplace. What kind of connectors do I need to have on top of the fireplace? I hear that you need a power kit for the plasma? can someone explain it to me in laming term?

thx

 

[BMXTRIX]

I'm not lame, so I'll avoid the laming terms... but, how about I give it to you in layman's terms? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layman (just kidding by the way)

One of the best things you can do besides running the necessary cables is to run a piece of (at least) 1" conduit from above the fireplace to a location where you might put your A/V gear, such as your cable box, dvd player, vcr, gaming system, receiver, etc. At least a 1" piece should give you the access you need to pull MORE cables when things are done and drywall is in place. Do not run the cabling through there now as it will eat up space you will likely need later.

Things to consider: Do you want to have surround sound in the room? If so, then you need to pick a location NOW where your surround receiver will live. This location will be called your head-end, and all the cables in the room will be pulled to the head end. I personally have mine in my basement, and a secondary location at the end of my couch where I put my DVD player and PS2 at. It doesn't have to be right next to the fireplace, but you have to decide before any wires can be put in place at all.

Now, let's say you are going with surround sound. You then have to place EVERY speaker you are going to use in the room. Read some of the excellent articles on Audioholics about speaker placement and figure out the speakers you will be using. Once you have it figured out, you will be pulling wires from those speaker locations to your head end.

Now, if you ARE using an A/V receiver you should pull the minimum cables from the head end to your plasma:
1 - HDMI cable
1 - Component Video Cable
1 - Composite Video Cable
1 - Coaxial cable to carry digital audio from TV to receiver (fireplace to head end)
1 - Piece of CAT-5 (ethernet) cable
1 (or 2) - Piece(s) of RG-6 quad shield for a possible cable/satellite/antenna connnection - this will go to where your cable/sat/ant hookups are.

and that conduit we spoke of before

If you do NOT plan to run surround... You still will likely have a DVD player in the room right? What about cable/sat? Those boxes still have to go somewhere. Now though, you need to run the video, plus the audio from those boxes directly to the TV. The cable list has grown...

1 (or 2) - HDMI cable(s)
2 - Component Video cables
2 - Composite Video cables
4 - Analog audio L/R cables
2 - Coaxial cables for digital audio
1 - piece of cat-5
2 - pieces of RG-6 to feet the TV cable/sat directly.

REGARDLESS OF SETUP:
Pull at least a couple of pieces of CAT-5 and RG-6 from your networking hub (CAT-5) and your cable/sat/antenna feed location to the head end where your gear will go.

POWER: The best way, IMO, to run power is to have a power outlet behind the plasma location at the correct height (prior planning required so you don't hit the mount). Instead of feeding it directly with power, use a piece like this one: http://www.panamax.com/products.cfm?group=1&sec=detail&id=221&ly=h
It will allow you to put the display on the same surge supressor as the rest of your gear is on and should help to eliminate ground loops.

SECOND: Make sure they pull at least one DEDICATED 20amp circuit to your head end so that your gear gets enough power and the lights don't dim. The last thing you need is a bunch of dimmers on the same circuit that the rest of your gear is on.

Don't forget the every cable should be properly marked and IDed so you know what you are looking at when the drywall is up.

There is nothing worse than having a cable outlet behind your TV and then finding out you need to use a cable box - which must be 10 feet from the TV and no feed for cable at that location. Or a TV with CableCard built in and no cable feed to the TV location. Conduit helps, but pre-planning is critical.

FYI: Home builders are clueless 99% of the time on this stuff even though they see it every day and sell it every day.

Also a good time to consider conduit throughout the house, distributed audio, etc. if you haven't yet.

And some people wonder why they should consider having an A/V consultant...

 

[A/VUSMCSGT]

I was gonna say pretty much the same thing as BMXTRIX...hahaha. Good luck

 

[redaudi78]

BMXTRIX,

You are the man. Thanks for all your help. The link you gave me is exactly what I was looking for. I'm going to have the builder pre-wire all the speakers for my surround with 16/4 gauge wire. Is this what you would recommend? I'm also going to have pre-wired for the rest of the speaker in the house. One of my friend told me to have them run 16/4 gauge along with a cat 5e line to a volume control box and back to where I will be housing all my component. With the cat5e, I would be able to control all my speakers independently from each other. Is this correct?

thanks

 

[BMXTRIX]

I'm going to have the builder pre-wire all the speakers for my surround with 16/4 gauge wire. Is this what you would recommend?

I would use a more robust speaker cable in your primary surround zone. You can pick up 12/2 wiring from a number of places online for not a lot of cash. This will give you enough capacity for some very nice speakers and future growth should it be necessary. On the other hand - 16/4 cabling can be doubled up to give you added capacity as well - so it'll work fine if you run a single 16/4 to each speaker location.

I'm also going to have pre-wired for the rest of the speaker in the house. One of my friend told me to have them run 16/4 gauge along with a cat 5e line to a volume control box and back to where I will be housing all my components.

This is a good plan. Obviously (hopefully) you will be running the speaker wire to the volume control location then to the actual speaker location in each room... Otherwise, you don't have a spot for speakers. The CAT-5 is sufficient for control in the future.

With the cat5e, I would be able to control all my speakers independently from each other. Is this correct?

Not necessarily. You need to have separate amplification, volume control, etc. for each room. There are a number of items out there that can accomplish this. But, if all you have is one amp and a basic volume control you don't have enough. But, the CAT-5 cable is generally all you need at a volume control location to allow for a controllable keypad, IR transmitter, etc., to be installed and used in any room. I personally use Crestron 12 button keypads with their stuff, which is fairly pricey, but gives me full control in each room that I use it in. I just ran CAT-5 to all my keypad locations and it works great.

If doing distributed audio (you are) then most DEFINITELY consider the future! Conduit, conduit, conduit if at all possible. You can purchase Carlon brand conduit for low voltage applications (orange conduit) online, and then run it from your head end to the attic, basement, etc. For example, in my basement (unfinished) is my head end. I have two 2-inch pieces of conduit from the basement to the attic. I also have several pieces of 3/4" conduit going down walls in the attic to rooms which may utilize them. In my basement, I have conduit going up into walls of several rooms that I may want to add cables to later on - or add more cables. Of the dozen or so pieces of conduit I put in place, I probably have run cables through no less than half of them already!