The house connectivity is all based round a central rack situated in the office. This ‘node zero’ is situated in a 19” data cabinet inset into the wall. The main equipment in the rack consists of a Blu-ray equipped HTPC, Sky HD, Onkyo Amplifier and HD-DVD player. A PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 reside in there from time to time. The rack also contains an ADSL Wi-Fi router 24 port patch panel, 24 port Ethernet switch and a 2:6 speaker switch. As it was built…
The rooms directly supplied by Node Zero are the kitchen, garden and family bathroom (audio only) and Lounge (audio & video). Other rooms that connect to Node Zero via the Ethernet to access online content are the family room, den and master bedroom.
There is a total of 4Tb online storage consisting of a NAS and external hard drives, the online content consists of over 450 films (High & Standard Definition) and a large music collections. The primary method of accessing the content is via Windows 7 Media Center (7MC) on both the HTPC and Xbox 360 Extenders. The secondary is via the Twonkyserver (DLNA) on the NAS serving the PS3, Netgear MP3 player and Xbox 360s (DLNA Clients), this secondary method is used in the event of a problem with the pc and ensures that all the music and some video content is available.
A number of different applications are used within the house to serve up media and is much dependant on the occasion, for example if we were having a party then we would use 7MC and control the system either directly in the family room or lounge by using the vmcMote iPod Touch app or Logitech Harmony universal remotes. If we are having a Barbecue in the garden or soaking in the bath then we can use the iPod Touch or iPhone and using the excellent vmcMote app allows 2 way control of Media Center and the ability to select the artist, album or genre.
The other applications in use are Total Media Theatre 3 for online Blu-ray and HD-DVD movies, My Movies 3 for browsing the Movie Library, Tuner Free MCE for online TV content and Heatwave for the weather.
The lounge consists of a 42” Plasma TV, Bowers & Wilkins in-wall speakers and a Kef Subwoofer, the cabling into the room consists of 2 HDMI cables (5 & 10M), VGA , component and coax cables, the room also has 3 Ethernet ports, one behind the plasma and the other two in the rear of the room. Control in this room is via a Keene IR controller and utilising an iPod Touch, Media Center Keyboard and Logitech Harmony One.
The family room has a 32” LCD TV, a 5.1 amplifier (set up as 3.1) and Xbox 360. The Xbox 360 is used as a games machine and 7MC extender, the kitchen part has in-ceiling speakers and an in-wall volume control with 2 Ethernet cables. The family room has a coax cable, 2 Ethernet cables and also a 5.1 speaker run pre-cabled in the ceiling. Although the best gadget by far is the wine cooler!
The den has a wall mounted 32” LCD TV with an Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii. The room is also a spare bedroom which is good for locking the kids in there when hosting our annual Eurovision party (11 kids so far in the room!).
The family bathroom has in ceiling speakers and is controlled via another in wall volume control; music is served via the zone 2 of the amplifier in Node Zero.
The garden has a pair of ‘rock’ speakers and the audio is controlled by the iPod Touch.
The master bedroom has a Netgear MP101 Music streamer connected to a 2ch amplifier and in ceiling speakers; on occasion an Xbox 360 finds its way up there along with the spare LCD monitor to watch specialist films…
All bedrooms have the standard wiring fit of 2 Ethernet cables run in along with coax and 2 speaker cables in the ceiling. A future aspiration is an Octava 4X4 HDMI switch to pipe Sky HD, Media Center, and the PS3 to the lounge, family room, den and master bedroom/other room via Cat5e HDMI baluns.
These are the wiring layout diagrams for audio, data and video. Hope they make sense!
