Newbie advice for simple home network/entertainment system

[man_boobs]

Hi all,

I am in the middle of doing a new kitchen diner on the ground floor of a 3 storey townhouse. I will be creating a stud wall to hide all wiring and want to know what wiring I should have so that its easy to get it in place before its plasterboarded over. On one wall of the kitchen diner I am looking to site a LCD tv screen, but because the speakers on them are so useless I am looking to put say 1 ceiling speaker in each corner of the room so that the sound can be heard everywhere. I am thinking a cinema sound-type amp would be required to run the speakers. In one of the kitchen cabinets I would like a freeview box (although I hate damn freeview, BBC channels are cr4p and always cutting out!), DVD player for films, and also a mini stereo so that CD's and the radio can be played, through the ceiling speakers ideally.

I would also like to wire in cabling for a data point so that I can connect my laptop when I'm working in there. I do use wireless but sometimes its so flaky I can't be bothered with it, so I guess I'm not ready to let go of the wires yet.

The room above this is my office which I'd like to wire up with 4 data outlets. Only thing is my office can't be done until the kitchen diner is done as currently its the kitchen!

I am unsure of costs for the sound equipment needed as home cinema has passed me by (no time to watch films!) so if anyone can help me with ideas/costings for a budget>medium cost (lets say under a grand all in) that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

[toscal]

Re: Newbie advice for simple home network/entertainment syst

Take a look at the Abitana home network system. This would give you not only a computer network, but you could distribute audio, video and TV via the home network. www.abitana.com Minitran is Abitana's distributor in the UK at www.minitran.co.uk.
For a whole house audio type setup you could try the Sonos system. This is quite reasonable and very upgradeable. www.sonos.com . The Sonos system is primarily an MP3 based system but can also stream music from say a CD player to any other sonos unit.

[vex]

Jamo make a great little DVD Player / FM Tuner and surround sound amp, called the DMR60. It even has a usb port on the front to plug in a MP3 player. The problem with surround sound amps is that while they will provide you with 5 speaker locations + a sub, when you listen to the radio or a CD you will only get audio through the front 3 speakers (Frond Left, Right and Centre)

From your post I don't think you are looking for a full Home networking system, just to wire up the kitchen and expand it into your study later (correct me if I am wrong)

To this end I would run a couple of CAT5e and coax cables from the Freeveiw/DVD cupboard to the tv location so that we can run either UHF (ok), composite (good) or even component (better) signals to the tv

One question, where is your current BT/ADSL point?
I would also run another couple cat5e's from this point to you prefered PC locations in the kitchen and then do the same again for the study.

Then you can install a ADSL router / switch which can share you ADSL connection over 4 or (with another switch) more PC's.

Hope that helps

Chris