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New Home Construction Questions

2K views 29 replies 11 participants last post by  XJBaylor 
#1 ·
Thanks for all of the information already out there, and I appreciate any feedback you guys may be able to provide.

My wife and I will begin construction on a new home in June. I've gone to a few different AV specialist companies and have been blown away by the prices I've come across. (No disrespect intended to the specialists out there, it's just a bit out of my price range). The most complete quote I've received ran a little over 30k, and that included prewiring, trim out, and programming of a Crestron based 8 zone WHA controller and processor, 6 zones wired with speakers, installation of a $10k budgeted media room and programming to the Crestron processor, as well wiring and installation of a security alarm for the home.

Even though this Crestron system has the ability to be added to in the future, my concern is the fact that I won't be able to work on or make adjustments to the system without calling the dealer. So, I'm trying to put together a more DIY solution.

WHA
Lync 6 system with keypads and the DMA-1240 amp (120 watts per zone)
GW-SL1 Smart Gateway
2 Door Interface Intercom System
6 Zones - Master Bedroom, Master Bathroom, Study, Dining Room, Kitchen, and Back Porch
Sources - Sonos Connect, Media Room AV Receiver

Living Room Set Up
5.1 AV Receiver
Hd BaseT 4x2 Matrix Switch and Receiver - Will distribute video from the living room components to the back porch television
HDT or Monoprice in ceiling speakers and a subwoofer

Media Room
Epson Homelite Cinema 5030UB Projector
Silver Ticket Screen
7.1 or better AV receiver (possibly dolby atmos, is it worth it?)
HTD or Monoprice In wall and In ceiling speakers, subwoofer

Satellite
We will have DirecTV with the whole home set up. The DVR will be located either in the media room components or in the living room, with the smaller boxes mounted behind tvs through out the house (except outside)

Structure Wiring
I'd like to have as much centrally located in my media room closet as possible. This will include the media room components, the lync 6 components, the sonos connect, and the cable/telephone/ethernet distribution hardware.

I'd run to each TV location 2 RG6, 2 CAT 6 for video, 2 CAT 6 for ethernet. I will run 2 Cat 6 to computer locations, and 1 Cat 6 to phone locations. I will also run 1 Cat 6 to each Lync keypad, and intercom location. Everything will be homerun back to the media closet.

Aside from that, I will run 2 Cat 6 (or do i just need one?) from the Living room to the back porch tv location for the video distribution. I will also run Cat 6 to locations that I will want to install security cameras in the future if not right away.

At a minimum, I would run the wire for all of this, with the hopes of installing the majority of the components right away. Am I missing anything? Anything I could do better and more efficiently? I'd say my budget would be $15k max including wiring.

Thanks for your help!

Billy
 

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#3 ·
Budget for my home is $350k. Paid cash for my land.
Cost of plumbing - unknown yet, but will require septic and well.
Cost of 110v electrical - one quote I've received so far is $12k.

Is $30k out of line to the comparison? When $8500 of that is labor, yes, I would say so. Just because I have $350k to spend, doesn't mean I need to. Plus, I look at it this way, if I can save $15k, that's either a reduction in my mortgage payment, or a little extra money I could put towards something else.

If you've been offended by something in my post, I apologize. If money was no object, I'd love a smart home with a central processor like Crestron and the ability to control my Tvs, home audio, media room, blinds, lights, and so on with just an iPad. Unfortunately, that's just not in the cards right now.

On to my original questions...will what I have detailed in my original post meet my needs and have an infrastructure in place for future upgrades? Is it a sound plan? Am I missing anything?

Thanks,

Billy
 
#4 ·
Not offended at all. Just wanted an Idea of the size and scope of the overall project.

Often posters are happy to be paying their HV and their plumber 50k each for their McMansion but balk at paying the same for LV because they can go to BestBuy and get an HDMI cable.

Getting it done properly and terminated and tested and with a 2 year warranty on the install all costs money. Having just punched down and terminated my homes 40 Cat5 and yet to get to testing them I fully understand the $100-200 a port math that is out there to pull the cable, buy the terminations and LV wall plates and punch and terminate. This stuff takes time and skills.

I'll try to look at your pretty long list of quesitons and give some constructive comments soon.
 
#6 ·
I totally understand. There's a good chance that I will go with a pro to at least get the wires run and set due to my lack of knowledge. If that's the case, I'd like to have a thorough game plan of what I need done.

I guess I'm not necessarily balking at the price, I just need to be reasonable and try to balance out want vs need so my wife and I can get as much out of the house as we can. Having the infrastructure done correctly is what I care about the most right now.

Thanks for your help!

Billy
 
#5 ·
A couple of thoughts. You can do better than HTD or Monoprice for theater speakers. I will concede that they will do for distributed audio, but I would upgrade (significantly) for a dedicated theater. Look for an in-wall featuring an enclosure. Triad, Totem, Atlantic Tech and Monitor Audio are some that come to mind right away. At least wire for a pair of subs.

Good choice with the 5030.

Running six cables to each TV location might be a little much. An RG6, 2 Cat6 and a Cat5e would be fine. Run an RG6 and 2 cat cables to the patio.

Plan on programmable remotes for any zones that feed off a matrix, as well as someway to communicate back to the equipment (IR repeater or RF base station.)
 
#7 ·
Thanks for the feedback. I'll definitely look into those brands of speakers. I plan on a sub in the living room and two in the media room. Still in the researching phase for that those though.

I was thinking that 6 may be overkill, thanks for the suggestion for the cables.

IR repeaters and that stuff are still Greek to me. I was content with just changing the channels from the doorway to the back porch. Does the hd baset pass sound, or just video?

Thanks,

Billy
 
#11 ·
On the WHA system - and this is a question I don't know the answer to, but want to make sure you're covered. Does the Lync show Metadata from the sources you have proposed (in particular Sonos)?

Other questions; is your intent with the AV receiver to play something that is on TV throughout the zones? Do you have any need/desire to play multiple streams of a streaming music source (eg, Pandora) in multiple zones?

Matt
 
#12 ·
On the WHA system - and this is a question I don't know the answer to, but want to make sure you're covered. Does the Lync show Metadata from the sources you have proposed (in particular Sonos)?
The Lync will only show metadata on the keypad from the internal MP3 player...
 
#19 · (Edited)
Check out the post I just wrote in this Sub-Forum with a very similar question. In that post I have diagrammed out how I plan on accomplishing basically the same thing you want to do but on a much bigger scale (12 zones, 5000 sq ft house). I also have listed out the equipment I think I need and the prices. I think I can do it for around $14k... so I think you absolutely can stay within your $15k budget.

In my equipment list I have just listed a simple Audio Matrix for distributing the audio. In the end I probably will go with a NuVo or HTD system with keypads (which will up the price) but I'm pretty sure your smaller scale offsets the cost so you could stay within the budget I've outlined.

Here's a link to the post:

http://www.avsforum.com/forum/36-home-v-distribution/1892961-new-build-am-i-getting-right-equipment.html
 
#21 ·
I'm a big fan of over-wiring.

You have one very unique opportunity when you build a home to get everything right. What you do now, you will have to live with for years, and while interior designers are often living 100 years in the past (look at that fireplace RIGHT WHERE YOUR TV SHOULD GO!), they remain clueless about A/V.

So, plan very carefully on this and if you are wiring, or hiring a consultant to help you out, you want to look at the wiring above all else. You see, once the walls are up, you can install 100 speakers and all the electronics you want to, but if you are missing a wire, you can't easily get in into the wall without damaging it and it taking 3 times as long to get it in place.

This is even more the case if you are wiring yourself. An extra cat-6 and cat-5e won't break the bank. It's actually dirt cheap overall. You don't need to terminate it, you don't need to do anything but coil it up in the equipment area for future use.

Pick an equipment area! This isn't a system you stuff into a cabinet. The equipment will be hot, it will demand rear access, and it shouldn't be moved around every time you want/need to gain access to it. So, pick a good location, preferably in a storage area, where you can properly access everything and it has good ventilation.

But, it's the wiring that counts.

Are there ANY locations that should be wired now which you can't get to later? Are there any locations which should have conduit run to them for ease of access for the cabling? Is there a reason why you are putting gear in the family room location at all? I ask, because you could put that gear with all your set top boxes in the media room closet and control them via remote control. Have you thought about using HDMI cabling between locations instead of HDBT? HDMI often works at distances of 75+ feet and is a lot less money than HDBT is. Likewise, a two zone A/V receiver w/HDMI may be a better choice than an outboard HDMI matrix switch.

I recently did an installation with 10 zones of audio and 2 surround zones and we put everything into a closet in the basement. There was a lot of wiring done which is for future use, and several runs of conduit are in place to allow for future wiring to the projector and television locations if necessary. While there is a fair bit of 'extra' wiring in the corner, there was plenty of wiring to get done the desired tasks, which includes about 20 cat-6 network drops throughout the house, all of which are hot. There is only one HDBT extender in use, and that's to the bedroom on top floor. The rest, including the family room, projector, and exercise room all have direct HDMI feeds which work fine.

You have to consider the HDMI lowest common denominator issue with audio as that may come into play if you use a standard HDMI matrix switcher.

Likewise, I would avoid in-ceiling speakers in any location where audio matters. I know I'm not the first to say it, but you want something a bit better than Monoprice in-ceiling speakers in rooms where audio matters. BUT - I have used their 8" 3-way in-wall speakers and they actually sound very nice. So, if you can use those models in your family room setup, it may produce very nice sound. In-wall... not in-ceiling! Also, be aware of bleed-over sound to adjacent rooms when using in-wall speakers. Might be better to go on-wall, or in-room. Wire accordingly!

Nothing wrong with the HTD Lync system. The 1240 is 40 watts per channel for 12 channels, not 120 watts per channel (FYI). There are a number of systems out there which perform similarly to this and the wiring you intend to use is sufficient. Though, cat-6 to keypad locations can be overkill.

There is no obvious reason to run dual RG6 to TV locations, but certainly not the end of the world.

If you do have components inside a room, then be sure you can run new wiring to that location and to televisions.

There is a lot of long term planning in a home A/V setup, and it's not easy to get it all figured out. Never a reason to run 2 network drops to one location. You can get a network switch if you need more ports at any one location, so running to two locations in a room makes a lot more sense, if you need them. A lot is wireless these days.

You have a lot to consider, and I wish you luck.
 
#22 ·
I would tend towards the Cat 6 as you suggested vs a Cat5e, with potential 4k on the horizon, always increasing data sizes, etc., a few extra dollars in cabling is probably well spent. I could see the Cat5e for the WHA, but I would likely go Cat 6 anyway.

I like 4 of the Cat 6 to each Room location.... my plausible uses... 2 for some versions of HDMI over Cat 5/6; 1 for Ethernet, 1 for 'extra' , which could be used for IR transmission, etc.

I might be inclined to run another Cat 6 'source' for your WHA from your Media Room and maybe even the Kitchen or Patio or even study (stream music from your PC). In our home, the "Kitchen" hook up is used probably 80% of the time as my wife wants it very convenient and plays it via her phone. My WHA system has 12 output zones, and 4 input sources. I have probably 8 input source 'option' locations through-out my house, run to the main panel. I wired cat 6 into the main panel, and then put a cat6 female receptacle/plug on the other side. My incoming wires are all terminated with Cat6 connectors, and I can swap out easily whichever ones I want to. I am just now finishing my basement, and my upstairs had 8 output zones, and for now, I haven't hooked up my basement zone main panel yet, but have plugged my wires into the existing panel with the 'plug/unplug' approach. I have another few 'output' locations, such as my two garages and under the front porch , which I don't use real often, but sometimes will and just plug/unplug as needed. When I added the 4 zones in the basement, I almost didn't add additional main panels (to allow 12 outputs at once), but frankly, by the time I would have bought the keypads - the price was almost the same for my whole system. My system also has the option for 'how wattage output' if you run a separate 16 gauge wire from the panel to the keypad, as this helps power that keypad location vs power being carried only over the Cat-6.

I have built three homes, the first two I did all the low voltage wiring myself and for how we used the rooms, i 'over-did' it. I did 2 or 3 locations of tv/cat-5 (back then) in each room, and only ever used 1 location. I really though through possible room layouts on this latest house, and only did one. However, this last house - I used a builder, and they wouldn't let me do any of the initial wiring myself, so, I just had them run all the wiring for WHA, as well as the Cat-6 & RG-6.. I was shocked they didn't terminate any of these things, but given I knew how, it wasn't a huge deal.

Depending on what your "Sub" plan is, and whether they will be Active (i.e., amplifier in the sub) which requires a RCA/RG6 cable run, or Passive (i.e., an amplifier in your rack) which requires Speaker Wiring - you need to make sure that is included.

We end up watching a fair amount of movies in our bedroom, so, I had 5.1 system wired up in the bedroom as well... not the best audio experience, but better than tv speakers!
 
#28 ·
I would say wire 3 Cat6 and 2 RG6. I am about the moved into my new house. I pre-wired 2 x 2 thinking that I would use 1 of the Cat for HDBaseT. However, HDBaseT equipment is still very expensive. I can use HDMI over Cat solution (cheaper) but it requires 2 Cat wires leaving none for my smart TVs.
 
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