RE: Money to Burn...Your Dream HA System?

[nigel@xxxxxxx]

On 04-Jan-2001 Ruairi wrote:
> I have a HA budget of about ?8,000, is this too much/too little?

Not sure what the ? before the 8 stands for, or currency conversions,
but I'd suggest you put in a good cabling system even if it means
that you don't get any equipment yet.

I'd suggest you run cat5 from a central location to near each socket
outlet, and if possible install empty ducting (anything from 20mm to
100mm whatever can fit in) for future changes.  A couple of runs of
CT100 type co-ax would be useful, at least one or two to each room.
Cable is cheap, installation is difficult- all the other equipment is
expensive and installation is simple, so save it for later!

After that, I'd suggest the essential would probably be comfort or
homevision as a security system (I'd recommend Comfort highly, I've
not used homevision but others on the list recommend it).  Probably
budget around 1000ukp for that (1500 euro?)

> But my question is what's good/bad in these HA areas.  What
> products to go for/avoid.

In my experience, buy good quality equipment, you won't have all
gadgets immediately but after 5 years you'll end up with a much
better system.  That goes for AV, control systems, etc etc.

It doesn't mean go for the top of the range in everything, but don't
be tempted to buy the cheapest of everything just to have it
immediately.

> get it right and leave scope for expansion.

Think of how many cabled connections you could possibly need- keep
each function on a separate cable (security, control, audio, video,
phone, computer network) and double it.  Seriously.

> The contents of this message should be read in conjunction
> with the document found at:
> http://www.rutlands.com/signature.htm

I don't read email online, I hope there's nothing important there!

Nigel
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