Re: New Home Construction

[nobody@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave Houston)]

pebrinic@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

>Hey guys,
>
>I have been lurking in these groups for a while.  Thanks so much for
>all the interesting answers and thoughts, definitely has given me a lot
>to think about.  I am about to start building a new townhouse on a
>research campus here in north carolina.  I am interested in what advice
>you guys might have particularly for HD Video distribution.  I have
>worked up an initial set of functional specifications to send to the
>installer for quotes.  I figured that the most important thing is for
>me to get the infrastruture wired in and then I can work with the
>electronic components at a later date (if cost is limiting).  I was
>wondering what strategies you all might use to distribute HD video and
>digital audio to any of about 6 rooms from a several HD sources
>rack-mounted in a central location.  There seem to be SO many options
>for video and audio distribution and I am sort of ambivalent about the
>right way to go.  Thanks a lot for any suggestions!

I'm not at all clear on what you are asking. Do you want recommendations for
how to wire the system or are you asking for recommendations for specific
hardware to go in your rack and in the 6 rooms?

IEEE-1394b (current Firewire version) can handle 100Mbps over CAT5 with a
maximum length of 100 meters.

HomePlug AV (HPAV) can do 200Mbps over the powerline. The standard has been
approved and hardware should appear shortly.

There are 5-6 manufacturers offering proprietary (and non-interoperable)
wireless systems rated at 108Mbps although the IEEE-802.11n standard is
unlikely to be approved until 2006.

I think all need to be derated to about 75-80% of the raw rate for actual
data throughput. This still leaves HomePlug AV as the fastest but I don't
know how bandwidth might be affected by multiple HPAV townhouses sharing a
utility transformer. There may also be bandwidth and/or interference
problems with multiple townhouses using wireless systems.