[Falcon2915]

First off, I want to say hi, and a big thanks to all of the posters on this forum. You've saved my skin many times!
I'm new to the wiring and IT business and still a novice, however I quite enjoy it.
Anyway, down to business.

My parents are in the process of planning a new build home here in the UK, and I have taken on the job of supplying their IT and AV needs.
A lot of the prehiperals are already owned, however there are some more I'm sure might be required. SIMPLICITY is key here, as they are not totally tech savvy.

Basically I want to run ideas past people with more experience for corrections and suggestions

This is the basic framework as follows;

Main Server room (Central Location)

BT Main Line in (only need one phone line)

1 x 8u 10" Mini Office Cabinet - 350mm Deep
1 x 1U 6 Way Surge Protected Power Unit
1 x 1U TP-Link TL-SG1024 24-Port Gigabit Rackmount Switch
1 x 1U 24 Port Cat6 UTP Elite Patch Panel
1 x Voice patch panel supplying to approx 6 locations (Using CAT5e probably for future changes)
ADSL Router - Asus RT-N66U

ADSL router _>Rackmount Gigabit 24 Port Switch>24 Port Patch Panel

I wanted to use the remaining 3 Ethernet ports on the Router to connect a Synology DS213J and maybe a small PC to handle transcoding and additional horsepower required tasks.

The Various CAT6 cables will serve different rooms of the house, still up in the air a bit just now, but I was thinking;

Kitchen -
Sonos Connect AMP (hardwired) connected to 2 pairs of in-ceiling speakers
2 x ethernet Ports

Living Room -
1 x Telephone
4 x CAT6 outlets
6 x Power Outlets
1 x Multimedia plate - (consisting of; 2xsat, 1xTV, 1xTelephone, 1xRadio
My intention is to wire all of the ports on the Multimedia wall-plate for their corresponding purpose.

There will be a large Plasma TV, Home theater, SKY HD, PS3, Skype Conferencing Camera, and a Raspberry Pi running Plex.

I also intend to run a CAT6 cable from this location to a sun-room and pipe SKY HD to their using a HDMI wall Plate with IR control. (This will be done on 2 SkY boxes to effectively serve 4 rooms)

These items might be in a cabinet too, hence perhaps an IR repeater.

That's really the main guts of the operation.

Bedrooms will likely have a Multimedia Plate and some ethernet ports.

The main office Will require plenty of ethernet and power I guess, but that's about it.

As for additional prehiperals, there will be 2 Security Cameras (front and back porch), An intelligent thermostat, and security system to be installed.


I'm basically making this up as I go along or find good hardware which will work with my base software solutions, being Synology DSM and or a Windows Machine.

I intend to run shotgun COAX for SKY+ to each bedroom, main living Room and Sun Room. Just for future expandability.

Any suggestions of clarification needed then please tell me. I'm a total newbie, and want to get this right.

 

[FlyingDiver]

I'm not an expert on most of this, so I'll only comment on one thing. Put the Synology and the PC on the main gigabit switch. There's no advantage to forcing all the traffic to/from those specific devices through an extra hop to the router port. In fact, if those are the devices with the most traffic, you're more likely to impact your router performance. The only devices you should have on the router, other than the main switch, are ones with primarily internet (not local) traffic. I'm not sure you have anything like that.

Personally, I'm using separate router and Wifi Access Points from Ubiquity. The router has only two ports - one for the modem, the other for the switch. And the access points connect directly to the switch as well.

 

[Falcon2915]

okay, thanks, good to know. I was wondering about that. I don't want to run into too many issues regarding IP conflicts, as there may need to be an additional Wireless access point.

 

[Falcon2915]

Also, I was wondering if people have experience with HDMI over CAT6 with IR. Is it reliable?
for this specific part, I was going to get a smaller ethernet switch so that it is possible to re-arrange which HDMI goes to which room

 

[FlyingDiver]

okay, thanks, good to know. I was wondering about that. I don't want to run into too many issues regarding IP conflicts, as there may need to be an additional Wireless access point.

As long as you only have one device doing DHCP (handing out IP addresses), you should never have any IP conflicts. Where things are actually connected is irrelevant.

If you need to add another Wifi access point, look into a WAP only device. If you need to use a consumer router/WAP combo unit, you need to turn off any and all router functions.

 

[FlyingDiver]

Also, I was wondering if people have experience with HDMI over CAT6 with IR. Is it reliable?
for this specific part, I was going to get a smaller ethernet switch so that it is possible to re-arrange which HDMI goes to which room

HDBaseT devices should be reliable for HDMI over Cat6. But you do NOT use an ethernet switch for those devices. HDBaseT connections are not ethernet, and must go point to point, no switches.

 

[Falcon2915]

Thanks, so I can't really hot-swap the ends then?

 

[FlyingDiver]

Depends on what you mean by "hot-swap". You could reconfigure source-destination pairs by swapping around patch cables. Not a very user-friendly solution. If this is something you mean to do on a day-to-day basis, then you want an HDMI matrix switch. If you need HDBaseT, then maybe a combo unit is what you want. I don't know what's available in the UK, but something like this might be what you need:

http://www.monoprice.com/Product?c_id=109&cp_id=10914&cs_id=1091403&p_id=10226&seq=1&format=2

It has four inputs and two outputs. One of the outputs is plain HDMI for a local TV, and the other is HDBaseT for a remote TV.

 

[Falcon2915]

I think that's roughly what I had in mind. I was just wanting to keep the ability to change which destination TV each box went to.
I may just leave it with 1 box serving 2 specific Televisions. and the other doing likewise

 

[Neurorad]

If this is someone else's home, you should be familiar with Synology already. Somewhat steep learning curve.

 

[FlyingDiver]

If this is someone else's home, you should be familiar with Synology already. Somewhat steep learning curve.

You think so? I didn't, but then I'm a geek anyway. I have a DS411 with 4x4TB drives in it. Nice unit. Way better than the Drobo I was using before.

 

[Falcon2915]

If this is someone else's home, you should be familiar with Synology already. Somewhat steep learning curve.

I have fortunately had a good bit of experience setting up the units. I set up a DS1513 for a small business and the unit I'm referring to for this home build is already set up. It's a DS213J.

I've always found the synology software pretty intuitive.

Now that DSM 5 is available it's actually getting easier and easier to troubleshoot.

 

[Falcon2915]

I've been reading around and trying to decide on a way of distributing multiple sources. I was looking at a HDMI over CAT6 multiplexer.

If I understand this right, you get a box with 4 HDMI inputs, and 4 Ethernet Outputs (8 if it's paired).
At the termination of Rooms, I terminate the ethernet outputs to HDMI and into the TV.

My question is this, Is it possible to easily set this up to switch between sources and the TV?
i.e. how do I swap from say Sky+ to Playstation at the TV end?

 

[SMHarman]

That is a combined HDMI matrix and HDBaseT distribution.
It uses Ethernet cable for the transfer but as point to point tech. Not Ethernet packets.
It will have IR, Serial or IP control to define which source reaches which destination.
This will normally be part of a HA solution e.g Control4 and be invisible to the end user as the user as the ha controller will do the switching as part of any watch yhis logic.

 

[Falcon2915]

okay, but my question is how would the end user change input at the Television. Say switch from PS3 to Sky+ without access to the HDMI multiplexer?

 

[SMHarman]

Without HA
Another remote control for the matrix. Select source 1 destination 1 or source 2 destination 1.
With HA solution.
Tell HA to watch sky
Ha turns on sky box and tv and switches matrix.

 

[Falcon2915]

Without HA
Another remote control for the matrix. Select source 1 destination 1 or source 2 destination 1.
With HA solution.
Tell HA to watch sky
Ha turns on sky box and tv and switches matrix.

sorry for my ignorance. What is HA?

 

[SMHarman]

Home automaton. From a harmony remote to full on Crestron, Savant, Control4 systems.

 

[Falcon2915]

There is a Harmony touch already present in the main living room. Would this suffice?

And as for other TVs maybe use a Harmony Hub in the main AV Closet and use iPad to control the various inputs?

 

[SMHarman]

Possibly but you are building a system all users will hate.
To watch tv I'd need an iPad and a remote! Ugh.
Harmony can probably do this.
Of course it would not track whines watching what to avoid conflicts etc