By 2006, nearly half of all housing starts will include “built-in wiring.” With this specialized “smart” wiring package, you can connect multiple computers within your home, multiple satellite channels on multiple TVs, monitor security cameras from your TV or PC, and control your home energy consumption from anywhere in the world. A structured wiring package uses a high-speed cabling and distribution center to network electronic devices within the home. Typically, two runs of RG-6 coaxial cabling are included, along with two runs of Communications Category 5 cabling.
A standard telephone wire does not have the bandwidth required to handle today’s communications. It’s like trying to shoot a train on a dirt road. Category 5 or “CAT 5” as it is often called, moves your information around the home 10 times faster than the usual telephone copper wire. A distributed home network can also be supported by Category 5 cabling, so you can share computers and printers and access the Internet.
RG-6 coaxial cable is a high-performance cable, especially for satellite and cable TV for transmitting multiple TV signals throughout the home. However, it has a greater bandwidth than the traditional RG-59, and the wider band means a better TV picture, as well as the ability to support high definition signals. Because RG-6 coaxial and CAT 5 communications cables often run together for multimedia outlets, they often simplify installation.
But the wire is only one part of the equation. Someone has a business reporting the roads directing home runs around your home. That service distribution hub. (It can also be called “wiring closet” or “service center.”) This metal box is the destination point for all cabling: Install it in your basement or utility room, an intelligent audio center, video and data signals to multiple devices around your home
The system is similar to that used by electrical breaker panels in controlling the flow of electricity. Extra services, including cable TV, telephone, DBS satellite and internet, are centrally located and distributed throughout the home. By removing the wiring to everything, security and other systems in the home are terminated by this central distribution system.
The signals and information that go from the center and distribution are terminated by high-speed cabling to the multimedia output. Installed in each key part of your home, these wall plates can be customized to your specific needs, including the services you want in each room (cable, internet access, telephone, etc.).
Do we need more fibers?
Fiber-optic cable is the hot buzzword of the moment. While expensive and difficult to install, fiber nevertheless adds significant bandwidth to any home. In fact, a single optimized fiber optic line could carry every telephone conversation in the United States simultaneously.
Fiber-optic cable can carry voice, video and data signals simultaneously at an astonishing 60 gigabits per second (Gbps). Compare that to the 100-megabits-per-second (Mbps) speed of some CAT 5, and what once seemed like a herculean now seems to be crawling at a snail’s pace. And the fiber will never collect electromagnetic interference, because provisions of light, not electric current.
Fiber optic cabling now costs a little more than category 5 high quality cabling. Many providers of structured wiring, such as Futuresmart, are bundling fiber optic with category 5 and coaxial cable.
Do you need this type of band inside your home? Maybe not now, but you might in the future. And yet you will live long in your house.
How do I buy?
Wiring is expensive. Now you are making an investment that will pay off in the long run. For CAT 5 or RG-6 cable in your house you will pay for computer networking and allows PCs to share Internet access speed; another to distribute television satellite signals to various rooms in the house. Modules can be added and upgraded easily, just like the wire itself, allowing you to use new technologies as they become available or as your needs change or grow.
With so many options available, it can be difficult to determine the cost of a structural wiring system. Generally speaking, phones range from $750 to $2,000, but packages vary widely by manufacturer. UStec, for example, has a starter package that costs about $500 (not including labor) and can be upgraded with modules that support telephone, video, satellite or PC networking. Instead, OnQ includes 350 feet of CAT 5 and RG-6 cabling in the starter package, along with a module for telecom (four incoming lines to six extensions) and a passive video module (one signal can be transmitted to four televisions). The OnQ package costs about $600 installed.
What about Wiring Upgrades?
The best way to prepare for wiring upgrades is going to be to have an in-house installer run. This empty pipe or tubing can be placed behind the walls while they are still open so that new wiring can be added later if needed.
Obviously, it is much easier and less expensive to integrate wiring into a newly built house while the walls are open. But existing houses can be rewired or upgraded. Just be prepared to spend more money for the labor costs of running the wire and wait to live with the dust for a while.
New technologies are being developed to make it easier to access existing home networks. Cable operators and other manufacturers are working on solutions to integrate home systems through box sets, since new technologies such as IEEE1394, also called “FireWire”, could finally make the home network as simple as wiring in a lamp.
SIDEBAR: Recommended Wiring
A structured wiring system should consist of the following:
• two CAT 5 networks
• two RG-6 cards of flattering grids;
• one dual CAT 5/dual coax outlet in every room in the house, including the home office/den/study, kitchen, home/great room, each bedroom, multimedia room, master bathroom, utility room, prepared basic and advanced services, including multimedia and interactive communication services. This package supports both current and developing technologies, including many communication technologies in the home office (multiple computers, fax machines; lines phones, etc.) and extensive home theater capabilities (DVD, etc.).
