RE: Planning HA, AV, lighting, security and telephony installation

["James Hoye" <james.hoye@xxxxxxx>]

> I'm new to this group, but not new to the automatedhome.co.uk site
> which i check avidly for changes every day. I checked the group but

Mark must've paid you to say that ;)

> I need help with products. I've moved into a house which i want to
> transform with HA, AV, security, lighting, telephony, etc.. but don't
> know what products to go for. I am able to cable, program and install
> myself and am very technical (read techie!).

There's lots to cover here - depends on how deep your pockets are!  I'll
give you a start with a couple of pointers - others will doubtless add
more.

Lighting control:
X10 is easily retrofitted and is a quick win.  Downside is that it's not
100% reliable, being subject to interference, lost signals etc.

If you want to go the whole hog, then other than dedicated (read expensive)
lighting controllers (Futronix, Lutron et al) DIN rail mounted X10 modules
are quite good.  Mark McCall has consumer units full of these
http://www.automatedhome.co.uk/images/consumerunits.jpg
- it does mean
rewiring your lighting circuits to all run back to node zero (or other
common point).

HomeVision with the TW X10 interface thingy can then control these.  Other
control of X10 is possible with a PC, software (HomeSeer?) and interface.
HV is the daddy of dedicated HA controllers, and apparantly well worth the
450 quid asking price.

Comfort is a very capable alarm system, and can also talk X10.  You can
then
start to do some clever things with a PC acting as a gateway between HV and
Comfort, although it isn't essential.

For AV distribution, there is Keith Doxey's KAT5 modules
http://www.kat5.tv - they send SVideo and
stereo audio over CAT5 and return
IR, but at the moment are limited to point to point, or daisy chaining.  A
switcher is promised early next year - the good thing is that you won't
need
to bin your existing KAT5 kit - it will still be used.

James H