Re: New to home automation - can you help, please?

["mark_harrison_uk2" <mph@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "martinpalmer8" <martinpalmer8@y...>
wrote:
>
>
> Since my house is being totally rewired for power, I'm taking the
> opportunity to cable up for as much home automation as I feel I
> might require in the future.
> [...lots of stuff deleted...]
> Thanks for reading this, guys.

Martin,

A few comments / suggestions / points to consider.

1: I don't believe that you are specifying enough CAT6 cable. I would
suggest that, as an absolute minimum, 4 points per room, and ideally 4
points in each corner of each room. (Additionally 4 to any potential
location for a future projector or plasma.) The bulk of the cost of a
CATx install is in the termination points. If cost is an issue, then
at least have 4 runs of CATx cable pulled and leave unterminated
behind blanking plates in-room to facilitate relatively quick
provisioning of extra points in the future.

2: CAT6 is relatively tricky to install and terminate. Many, many,
people have installed CAT6 cable and believe that they therefore have
a CAT6 installation - not so - unless you are comfortable that your
installers can mangage things like bend radii and termination
distances to the full CAT6 spec then you will end up with a CAT5e
network. For this reason, unless gigabit ethernet is a requirement, we
recommend CAT5e (but more of it - see point 1.)

3: From a camera perspective, I would always use hardwired cameras
back to a central DVR (if you want a turnkey solution) / PC (if you
want to play), and let that manage the distribution onto either TVs or
remote PCs over a network. Rather than running shotgun cables to the
camera locations, I would also consider using passive baluns on CAT5
(which have a better signal quality than shotgun over longer lengths,
without the cost of active baluns.)

4: I don't believe that you'll have a problem with the UHF solution
you suggest. I likewise believe that the solution of Freeview boxes in
each room/zone is eminently practical.

5: The IR control of cameras to TVs is still in the land of relatively
custom solutions. I, personally, would use something like a Xantech IR
distribution system which controlled a PC using something like Girder
which in turn controlled a video matrix switch.

6: The audio server will rather depend on the hardware player you are
using. If you go with the SliMP3 then I'd recommend you start with
SlimServer and then ask questions about alternatives once you have
that in place and working.

7: Smoke alarms. Depending on how much kit you end up with in Node 0,
it may be worth considering a smoke alarm either in, or directly
outside it. Obviously, this should be loop-connected with the rest.

8: Intercoms. I am always wary of separate intercom systems. Domestic
switchboards, based around either IP phones, or analogue phones, or
both are surprisingly cost-effective these days. It may be cheaper to
have a single switchboard which allowed internal dialing in place of a
separate intercom system.

9: The wireless door strikes can be very effective, however you need
to talk to your insurers about the implications of this. We have
installed them, but only for a very disabled customer who was unable
to manually operate a Yale lock. The integration with the lighting
will, obviously, depend on the choice of system and lighting system.
The wireless strike we have used would be relatively straightforward
to interface with, say, Homevision as a hardware HA controller, but a
little harder to interface to a PC without custom hardware.
(Homevision has the massive advantage of supportability.)

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Mark Harrison