Hi All,
I'm planning my system and believe I have got to grips with the HA side of things; I’m looking to implement Idratek. I'm now trying to work out what to do with video/audio, and more importantly, how to wire the system.
My original plans were to have a multi-zone audio system with a pair of speakers in most rooms, and to have multi-room video to a few rooms and also to use the audio speakers for the TV’s.
However, trying to work out how to wire all this as made me re-think about what I actually need. For example, I've realised that I can stream most of the audio from a PC by ripping the CD's and playing MP3's. Although, I'd still like to be able to play whatever / wherever.
This has led me to look at the Sonos units. I'm wondering about using them, but via a wired connections rather than wirelessly. (Because I have the opportunity to add data points and the property is old with thick walls). The only issues are that the speaker cables in each room would go directly back to the Sonos units and not to my "node 0" - I'm wondering if that's a good decision.
For video, I'm planning on a "simple" media room that would contain a flat panel TV and surround sound / DVD / Sky. In other rooms I'd like to install some smaller flat screens and be able to feed media from the media room (I'm also planning on some web cams for security, so may like to view those somewhere too).
I'd originally planned on using 2 co-ax cables with a distribution box in my "node 0" to distribute the video feeds, but have since been looking at using cat5. I'm not sure which is the best to use, and from there which hardware (I've noticed that a lot of people seem to recommend the Abitana and KAT5 units).
I'd appreciate any thoughts on my ideas; is there a better way to run things? Is there a better (cheaper!) option rather than using Sonos units, bearing in mind I can add wire where required at the moment? Should I stick to co-ax for video? Should I worry about HD TV at this point?
Thanks, Dave
I'm planning my system and believe I have got to grips with the HA side of things; I’m looking to implement Idratek. I'm now trying to work out what to do with video/audio, and more importantly, how to wire the system.
My original plans were to have a multi-zone audio system with a pair of speakers in most rooms, and to have multi-room video to a few rooms and also to use the audio speakers for the TV’s.
However, trying to work out how to wire all this as made me re-think about what I actually need. For example, I've realised that I can stream most of the audio from a PC by ripping the CD's and playing MP3's. Although, I'd still like to be able to play whatever / wherever.
This has led me to look at the Sonos units. I'm wondering about using them, but via a wired connections rather than wirelessly. (Because I have the opportunity to add data points and the property is old with thick walls). The only issues are that the speaker cables in each room would go directly back to the Sonos units and not to my "node 0" - I'm wondering if that's a good decision.
For video, I'm planning on a "simple" media room that would contain a flat panel TV and surround sound / DVD / Sky. In other rooms I'd like to install some smaller flat screens and be able to feed media from the media room (I'm also planning on some web cams for security, so may like to view those somewhere too).
I'd originally planned on using 2 co-ax cables with a distribution box in my "node 0" to distribute the video feeds, but have since been looking at using cat5. I'm not sure which is the best to use, and from there which hardware (I've noticed that a lot of people seem to recommend the Abitana and KAT5 units).
I'd appreciate any thoughts on my ideas; is there a better way to run things? Is there a better (cheaper!) option rather than using Sonos units, bearing in mind I can add wire where required at the moment? Should I stick to co-ax for video? Should I worry about HD TV at this point?
Thanks, Dave
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