Wiring - Part I

 The front wall - garage side

This is where most of the cables come to (to hook into the A/V gear). There are 2 double power points, 3 quad shielded antenna cables, 2 Cat5e network cables, 4 rear speaker cables (12 AWG), and a component video cable (for now).

 Taken 5th June 2004

 The front wall - HT side

Here you can see the roll of speaker cabling for doing the 4 rear speakers and the 10m component video cable. On this day I attached the wall plate mounts.

 Taken 5th June 2004

 The front wall - speaker + network cable

This Saturday, was the day set aside for wiring the entire house in Cat5e network cabling. I ended up doing 10 double outlets (20 connections). The home theatre room has two double points. I also managed to put up the speaker cables while up securing network cabling in the roof.

 Taken 12th June 2004

 The front wall - speaker + network cable

This is the same as the previous - just showing the cables going through the wall noggins and the ceiling frame.

 Taken 12th June 2004

 Speaker cabling in ceiling

This is the right surround and right rear speaker cables. I made every effort to keep them away from electric cables and when unavoidable, having the cross at 90 degrees.

 Taken 12th June 2004

 The right surround

The right surround cable in place. I have added a support for a shelf to sit the speaker (which I never used).

 Taken 12th June 2004

 The right rear speaker

The right rear speaker position in place. The support was a pain to nail in due to the extra thick wall section on the left.

 Taken 12th June 2004

 The left rear speaker

More of the same.

 Taken 12th June 2004

 The left surround

Note the speaker position here is to the left of the light switch cables. This later changes, as does the other speaker positions (to follow).

 Taken 12th June 2004

 The front wall - extra antenna cabling added

Today I added another two runs of the quad shielded antenna cabling to the existing one. The plan here is to have the TV signal on cable #1 go to the VCR. Cable #2 goes from the VCR to a distribution unit in the roof which send #3 back with TV+VCR signal (also to 4 other points in the house). The VCR will be receiving an AV signal from my AV receiver, so by setting the VCR to Line In, basically anything showing in the home theatre will be watchable from any of the other 4 points in the house (study, kitchen, family room and master bedroom).

 Taken 14th June 2004

 The right surround - relocating

After rethinking speaker positions and the limited room I had to move them I decide to bring the surrounds forward. Another factor is that I decided to install wall lights (sconces) at the rear of the theatre room. These would run on 150W halogen bulbs. The one here I considered too close to the window (curtains), so I reversed it's position with the speaker.

Due to the new position of the surrounds, this also impacted on the rear speaker positions. The next three photos show the new placements of the remaining surrounds/rears.

 Taken 26th June 2004

 The right rear - relocating

For the rear surrounds, for a wider sound field in 7.1 Dolby surround, I figure the would sound better further apart, and yet their new position stills conforms to the "official" position of a rear speaker (taken from the Dolby website).

 Taken 26th June 2004

 The left rear - relocating

As per above.

 Taken 26th June 2004

 The left surround - relocating

Again, I'm moving the speaker forward and the wall sconce back. As you can see this will also involve moving the light switch and the cables the electrician installed (as the speaker is right over where the electrical cables are at the moment).

 Taken 26th June 2004

 The right surround - relocated

Two weeks later and the external walls are up and all external walls have insulation batts added. The speaker positions are now in the new spots as shown in the next shots.

This right surround was the most restrictive one as I had to position it along with a wall light between the back wall and the window frame. It's position determined the others placement.

 Taken 10th July 2004

 The right rear - relocated

Moving this one makes adding a support even more difficult with the existing one in place.

 Taken 10th July 2004

 The left rear - relocated

This position was the one that changed the least. The speaker cable is repositioned closer to the side wall equidistant with the right rear - no need to move or add shelf support.

 Taken 10th July 2004

 The left surround - relocated

This speaker position was moved to line it up with the right surround. Note the electrics have been moved from the current speaker position to the left of the shelf support. The data cabling is now where the speaker was.

 Taken 10th July 2004

 The front wall - component video added

Here I've added the component video cable to the same wall space as the antenna cabling. I wanted to add this at the latest possible time as this was my most expensive cable and the house was not yet at lock up stage.

 Taken 10th July 2004

 The front wall - noggin removed

After a rethink, I knew once the gyprock/plasterboard was up, future cabling would be difficult at best, I did the following:

• Completely removed one of the noggins and moved the component video to this position with a plastic strap replacing the previous position.
• Added a new plastic strap (from the brick pallets in the background) to where the component video cable was.

Now, regardless of what cable types I use in future, I can easily add them to the wall space. This is shown later when I add a 7.5m DVI cable.

 Taken 10th July 2004

 The right surround - shelf support added

Monday - I go back and add extra support to the new speaker positions and move the wall plates. Much harder with a support already in place to one side.

 Taken 12th July 2004

 The right rear - shelf support added

 Taken 12th July 2004

 The left rear - shelf support confirmed

 Taken 12th July 2004

 The left surround - shelf support added

 Taken 12th July 2004