Re: AV & Media Room Design

[RickH <passport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Jun 16, 2:54 pm, "Robert Green" <ROBERT_GREEN1...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I've come to the somewhat sad conclusion that a media closet just isn't big
> enough, especially when Father Time means less agility and willingness to
> move around on one's knees or in tight spaces.  My next house will need a
> whole room devoted to PC's, DVD players, etc, etc.
>
> Since I'm going to be moving soon, I would like to be more proactive in
> designing a whole house AV system than in the past, when things just sort of
> grew together as I acquired them.  I envision starting from scratch.  About
> the only specification I know about in advance is that it will have to be a
> "wheel-friendly" house like a rancher, preferably with a basement, but not
> necessarily.
>
> While I realize the end design will be very closely coupled to the space
> available, there are certain concerns that are universal.  For me, the
> primary concern is good access.  Has anyone turned a large-walk in closet
> into an AV media room?  Was it large enough to allow swing-out or roll out
> equipment racks?
>
> I was also thinking that large "frames" like doors made out of pegboard
> could divide a room in half so that I could swing them open and access the
> back panels of the AV gear and provide storage for cables, adapters and
> other gear.  A normal bedroom split in half would work, with the second half
> of the room a place for an exercise bike or something that could be easily
> moved to one side of the room to allow a panel to swing open.  The biggest
> problem I see is that a room that had good access to the front and back of
> the equipment stack would really have to have two doors.
>
> Another consideration for me is that my dad (who helps with setting up on
> occasion) is in a powerchair, and although it's got a pretty narrow turning
> circle, it needs room.  My dad's chair and my new Roomba's gotten me
> thinking about how important unimpeded access for wheeled devices will be in
> my future.  I'll have to measure the height, but I think the wheelchair arms
> are
>
> I hate the idea of having to give up a whole bedroom-sized room for AV gear
> but there seems to have been a never-ending parade of new formats and
> advances that overloaded the garden variety stereo "console" a long, long
> time ago.   I've got CCTV and other AV related gear dispersed throughout the
> house and when I move I'd like to centralize them.
>
> I'll be looking at houses today and I thought I'd pick everyone's brain as
> to how best design an accessible AV center.
>
> Any input would be appreciated.
>
> --
> Bobby G.


Are you building from scratch or buying an existing home?

If you are buying an existing home then the main concern will be
location (and maybe not access) so that any wires do not have to be
pulled so far.  The home you get will make this decision in spite of
what may be ideal for you.  You can "pre-think" all you want, but you
really wont know what to do until you get into the pre-existing house.

If you are building it yourself then you can do anything you want.  In
that case dont make the mistake of "pre-wiring" the house.  You want
to "pre-conduit" the house with minimum 1 inch (or 1.25 inch even
better) plastic conduit to each room and 1.5 inch (or even 2 inch) for
runs that you know will have to carry more wire, then install all your
wires after you move in.  I home-ran a conduit trunk line to a box
near the floor in each room, then inside each room I ran .75 inch or 1
inch conduit to each phone jack or wall controller, and even ceiling
speakers.  As for the central connection room, I used the space under
the stairway leading to the basement.  In there I used plain 19 inch
relay racks (with no box cage or cabinet behind them) available from
network suppliers.  The panels are all std 19 inch and punched out for
multimedia jacks, some panels are dedicated cat6.  I like these free-
standing racks because you have full walk around access front and back
and the 19 inch standard offers many shelf and cable management
options.  I stay clear of the made-for-home structured wiring setups
like Leviton, etc only because you are stuck forever using their gear
in them and they get drywalled over and they only allow a few pipes
in, and are just too tight.  My under stair media closet has all the
conduit terminating directly over the center line of the racks which
are lined up in the center of the area which is about 6 feet wide by
12 feet deep, this gives me almost 3 feet of walk around space on both
sides of the rack row.  With all wires dropping in from the ceiling, I
can repull new wires any time I want from any room I want.  In fact
some of my rooms are not even wired up yet because we have not needed
a tv there yet.

In our area electrical code requires conduit, my electrician installed
all his conduit and no wires until the drywall was fully installed.  I
got the idea from him to do it this way and its the best decision I
made.  As it always seemed silly to me the way HA consultants tell you
to "pre-wire", then the day you need to get new wire in the wall
you're screwed because you didn't use conduit.

Just my .02 cents from a do it yourselfer.