General Questions

[beneale2003]

Hi Keith

This is my first post, and I have a number of questions.

I am lucky enough to be involved in a family project to build three houses
- one
for my
immediate family, one for my sister's family and third which will be let
initially, but will
ultimately be my parents' home.

I've been looking into home networking, X10 automation and audio and video
distribution
over the past month, and I came across Kat5 a number of times. Since we are
planning to
cat5 the three houses extensively, Kat5 would appear to be an a very
flexible
and cost
effective way to distribute video throughout.

I am planning to have a Sky+ in each house, placed in a central area, along
with
DVD,
video etc, and patch that through to the appropriate rooms using IR to
remotely
control
the equipment. Do the Kat5's support IR at them moment, or does this
require
auxiliary
equipment?

I am extremely interested in the Switcher, which I undertand is under
development. Will
this also be remotely controlled via IR? Lastly, I know that this is an
ongoing
project, but
could you give a me a rough idea when the switcher is going to be available
and
a ballpark
figure of the price. Obviously we are in the very early stages of planning,
but
it would be
good to have some idea of whether Kat5 is a feasible option, given
everything I
have
mentioned.

I am hoping to spend a day at UKHA2004, so maybe we could have a chat then.

Regards

Ben Neale