RE: Re: quick advice for new home build

["Mark Harrison" <Mark.Harrison@xxxxxxx>]

By now you will have spotted a pattern emerging. Namely that we have
ALL, at some point in the past, done a careful calculation of how much
CAT5 we would need, then installed that, with what we believed was a
healthy safety margin... and all then discovered that we could have done
with more.

As others have said, first-fixing cable is very cheap, even if you only
terminate a fraction of it at second fix.

I hold up, as exhibit A, a list of things that you might want to use
CAT5 for. Maybe you won't do any of them now, maybe you won't do many of
them ever, but the cost of retro-fitting... The top of the list is stuff
that is being done by UKHA members NOW.... Futher down the list is stuff
that's too expensive at the moment, but will get much cheaper

- A laptop in each room, with a shared internet connection, so you can
surf from anywhere
- A phone in each room
- A thermostat in each room
- A baby camera, routed back over KAT5 to TVs in the living room, and
your bedroom
- A PIR in each room, separate from your alarm system, to give occupancy
detection for automated lighting
- A small, LCD TV, in your en-suite loo, so you can still watch telly
- A pair of speakers in your shower
- A networked MP3 player in each room, playing MP3s off a central server
- A video feed from your PC to a TV in your bedroom, so you wake up each
morning to an on-screen display of that day's calendar
- A surround sound system in a room with lots of doors, so the rear
channel cables go back through the walls via KAT, to a rear amp at the
back of the room
- An NXT transducer in your bathroom, which turns you bath into a
loudspeaker
- A camera in each room, feeding a central PC with motion recognition
software for occupancy detection

As Patrick said, a minimum of two points in each corner of each room
will give you flexibility about how you lay out your home in the
future... four points in each corner would be better, even if you
terminate 90% of them with blanking plates!

-----Original Message-----
From: PatrickLidstone [mailto:patrickl@xxxxxxx]
Sent: 4 January 2002 12:08
To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subject: [ukha_d] Re: quick advice for new home build

[...]

And don't skimp on the Cat5 either - I'd run at least double what you
are planning. Mark H's philosophy of at least a couple of cables to
the corner of each room has a lot going for it.

[...]