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| EMagazine Volume 4 Issue 4 August 1999 |
Features
Interviews
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| Home Toys Article - August99 - [HTI Home Page] |
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Dawn Gordon has published over 2000 articles in the field of consumer electronics for such publications as Rolling Stone, Playboy, Billboard, Stereo Review, Video Magazine, and Consumers' Digest. She founded the Consumer Electronics forums on CompuServe in 1985, and currently manages Audio & Video Forums on the MSN Computing Central network. |
Thousands of people do it every month. The lucky ones escape the experience unscathed, while others require psychiatric counseling or the services of a divorce lawyer afterward. Can building or remodeling a home be that stressful?
Sometimes, but with the right contractor and some smart planning you can build your dream house and stay within budget. That very same approach works when planning a whole house AV system, and you can reduce the amount you spend on such a system tenfold if you are willing to do some of the work yourself. My husband and I did it and the results were remarkable.
The easiest way to design an AV distribution system for your home is to start from scratch with new construction, but adding the necessary wiring and electronics to an existing structure is quite doable - you just need to be a little more creative. Keep in mind that there are high-end electronics installers who will be glad to do the work for you. You can hire them to install the entire system, or just some of the wiring. However, the systems carried by many installers are very, very expensive and could cost you as much as $10,000-$30,000 or more depending on the complexity of the project. With a little work and the right distribution electronics you can put a really nice system together for as low as $1,500 (not including AV components such as TVs, DVD players, VCRs and an AV receiver). The idea behind inexpensive whole house AV distribution is to run or make use of "standard" wiring without having to use expensive proprietary wiring and its accompanying components. How do we do this??? Simple, we use plain old RG-6 cable TV wire, and a device called a modulator to send video signals from a VCR, DVD player or DSS receiver to any TV in your home. The modulator takes the video source and inserts it onto an unused channel in your TV or cable lineup.
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The more modulators you use, the more sources you can add. In addition, the same system you use to transmit audio and video signals can also send infrared signals, so you can control your living room VCR from your bedroom. Optionally, you can also run speaker wire for higher quality audio, provided you have the necessary electronics, and speakers. More on this later.
IT'S ALL IN THE WIRES
When we designed our home system we knew exactly which components we would need. Like most new construction in this country we wired the house with home run RG-6. Home run wiring is the key to making this system work, as each cable is dedicated to a specific room or location and then run back to a central location, rather than looping the same wire throughout the house.
At the "head end" all the RG-6 cables are connected to a distribution block. Think of it as a wheel with spokes that all lead to a central point. Here's where it gets interesting. We needed a high-quality distribution system that was designed from the ground up to work with modulators and infrared remote control. We found everything we needed from a company called Multiplex Technology, Inc. and its Channel Plus line of products. We selected a whole house distribution system (Model 3212A). This wall-mountable distribution block has the ability to connect up to 12 TVs, an antenna, or CATV, and multiple modulators. It also has an infrared engine built-in so you can operate your AV components from any TV in the house.
As soon as the roof was in place our electrician ran RG-6 coax cable to all the designated rooms including a cable to the attic space on the southwest side of the house for a future DSS dish. We also asked him to install flexible conduit to various parts of the house in case we needed to add wiring for future technologies. In addition, the electrician ran 14 gauge stereo wiring to the kitchen, master bedroom, patio, and the other side of the living room for the surround speakers. At the same time the telephone people were installing a bunch of Cat-5 telephone wiring for our phone system, but that's another story in itself. All AV wiring terminated in a media closet that separated the living and dinning rooms.
As a reviewer I'm constantly changing and testing audio and video gear and I needed a very easy way to get the components in and out of my system. I came up with a solution, we built a media closet with the components and TV facing the living room and mirrored bi-fold doors on the back facing the dining room. This makes it super easy to get to the back of the components. Just open the doors and the wiring is all there. On the other side you can have a carpenter give the system a built-in look as we did. After all the wiring was in place the drywall was hung, and I kept my fingers crossed that the drywall guys didn't accidentally shoot a nail into any of the wiring. I wouldn't know that answer for a number of months until the house was completed and we moved in.
While the electrician was "trimming out" all the lights, outlets and switches I installed eight special Channel Plus (Model 2100A) cable jacks in the rooms where we wanted to control our system remotely. These jacks would allow us to send infrared remote codes back to the media room to control audio and video components when we were finished.
VIDEO ASSEMBLY
Of course the house was six weeks late. We moved in, unpacked our stuff, and we were ready to get started. The local cable guy came by to start our cable service and was nice enough to terminate all our media closet cables with F-connectors. Even after 20 years in the business I'm still terrible at terminating those cables. Luckily I recently found some twist-on connectors at Radio Shack that work pretty well. Anyway, we mounted the 3212 distribution panel, and started connecting all the video cables. Before connecting the modulator and IR devices we thought it best to check out the standard cable feed to all the rooms. What we found was not pretty. The picture was a mess. There was a ton of interference, and really ugly grain on all of the TVs in the house. We disconnected the main cable feed and connected it directly to one of the TVs using a video coupler and the picture was somewhat better, but still fairly noisy. A call to Channel Plus got us right on track. The support technician figured out that we had a very "hot" (overly strong) CATV signal that we needed to step down. Before buying different strength attenuators and trying each one out, the Channel Plus folks told us how to disable one of the two signal amplifiers in the 3212 distribution panel. It worked, and suddenly we had a great picture on all our TVs.
The next step was to hook up the AV receiver, VCRs, LD player, DVD player, and living room projection TV. That task went pretty smoothly, and we were ready to tackle installation of the modulators. The Channel Plus line of modulators is extensive with at least a dozen models to choose from. The company had just come out with a new line of stereo modulators that were far less expensive than previous products, and even combined 2, 3 or 4 modulators into a single box. I opted for three 5625's, which are dual stereo modulators. So I now had the ability to send six stereo video sources throughout the house. Having cable channels into the 70's we tried to put two of our VCRs on channels 80 and 82, but the picture displayed some herringbone interference. We then tried channels 90 and 92 and got much better results. But we ran into a very unexpected glitch. Apparently, even if a TV's documentation says it can handle 120 channels or more, if it's an older TV (6+ years) you may be missing some channels along the way. We found that a couple of our oldest sets couldn't receive channels 92-99. So we went higher, and luckily the best picture for us was in the hundreds. We ended up using channels 100 (VCR1), 102 (VCR2), 104 (VCR3), 106 (DVD), and 108 (LV) with very good results.
INFRARED CONTROL
Then came the IR control wiring. The Channel Plus infrared repeater system is very easy to set up. The first thing you need to do is connect an IR interface box to the main video distribution panel with a standard coax cable. IR emitters are attached (via double-sided adhesive) to the IR windows on the face plates of the equipment you want to control, with the other end of the cables connected to the IR interface box. The other part of the equation is connecting the IR targets to the TVs in your home. The targets plug into the special (Model 2100A) cable jacks I mentioned earlier. The mini-target is then placed on the side of or on top of the TV with double-sided adhesive.
That's it! We fired up a DVD of "Twister" to test the system, and it looked fantastic in all locations. The IR control system worked without a glitch, and we could control the functions of all our audio and video sources from any set in the house. Just point the remote at the target, and the response is instantaneous. We did find that we needed to buy a couple of learning remotes that could handle 8 different components, as it's no fun to carry all your remotes from room to room. We saw an ad for a product called the Home Theater Master Remote Control (SL-9000), and decided to try it. We were very pleasantly surprised by the unit's functionality, ease of use, and layout. It has all the necessary DSS, program grid and surround keys, plus perhaps the best backlighting I have ever seen - all for an affordable $140.
AUDIO
With all the video connections finished it was time to start working on the audio. We connected the rear satellite speakers and subwoofer to the surround system in the living room and tested it with some DVD movies and a few music CD titles. Everything was working as planned. We then hooked up a Niles Audio SVL-4 speaker selector/volume control to the system and connected the bedroom speakers, patio speakers and kitchen speakers to the SVL-4. Although you can't remotely control the volume to each speaker, (remember this is a budget story) you can set the speaker volume levels for all speakers, and then use your remote control to adjust the main volume from any room that has an IR target. The SVL-4 is very reasonably priced and allows you to add up to four sets of speakers to an existing system with constant or selectable impedance protection. I have to admit to being a big fan of NHT speakers. We have the top-of-the-line 3.3s for our main system, coupled with NHT Super One bookshelf speakers and the new Sub 2 for the rear. The new AudioCenter 2 center channel speaker rounds out our home theater system. After hearing demos we also installed the great new NHT CS 6.3 Ci ceiling speakers in the kitchen. The 6.3's employ NHT's proprietary three-tweeter array, an innovative solution to the acoustic challenges faced by in-ceiling speakers. The array is designed to eliminate the "hot spots" you would normally find with standard in-ceiling systems, and it works as advertised. We also opted for the NHT Outdoor One speakers - the only outdoor speakers I've ever heard with a real low-end.
After hooking up all the speakers we did find a problem. As I initially feared, a set of stereo wires going to one of the ceiling speakers was shorted out by a drywall nail. As luck would have it, we did have extra wire runs available from the patio speakers, and we used those in place of the shorted wires. And just when we believed we thought of everything, we later realized that it would have been nice to have a set of ceiling speakers for the master bath. Fortunately, some of our compulsion to over-plan worked in our favor - the conduit we installed for future wiring could easily carry the necessary wiring for bathroom speakers.
DON'T FOOL AROUND WITH MOTHER NATURE
One of the things I learned first hand is that no matter how much money you invest in your AV system you need to protect yourself from the unexpected. I live near the lightening capitol of the country (West Palm Beach) and in the past we've been burned (literally) by mother nature. Lightening can produce enough energy to saute every transistor in all the components in your home, not to mention scramble your brain if you're on the phone at an inopportune moment. As damaging as Mother nature can be, there are other electrical nightmares to watch for, and they are lurking in the dark just waiting to strike.
There are three basic types of power problems you might encounter. Under voltages, over voltages, and noise. Under voltages are those that fall below the consistent 120 volts normally supplied by your friendly utility company. In these cases either a brownout (dimming of lights) or a full blackout will occur. Noise is another type of power anomaly, and it consists of RFI and/or EMI components. That's why it's important to buy a very good surge suppressor - one that not only protects the AC line, but the cable line as well. Like most other products, surge suppressor prices will vary a great deal - you can pay $5.00 or $500.00, but the relationship between price and performance may not be a determining factor. There are good inexpensive models, and overpriced do-nothing boxes. When choosing a surge suppressor make sure that the unit you select has a UL (Underwriters Laboratories) 1449 listing. This listing (always printed on the product and packaging) tells you that the unit meets the minimum safety requirements for its intended use. If you can afford it, buy a unit that comes with a warranty that protects not only the surge suppressor itself, but also the equipment connected to it. Of course it's important to read the fine print on these warranties, as special grounding, and/or specific hookups may be necessary for the warranty to be valid. Highly recommended are Panamax surge suppressors, which have protected my gear for the past 5 years during hundreds of lightening storms.
The final results of our efforts were well worth it. The system we put together is wonderful. We love being able to watch and control our AV system from any room of the house-and we did it without spending thousands of dollars. Now we need to save up for HDTV.
Equipment list:
Channel Plus 3212A distribution panel
(3) Channel Plus 5625 Modulators
(9) Channel Plus 2100A IR Interface Units
(7) Channel Plus 2130A Mini-targets
(4) Channel Plus 2172 Dual IR emitters
Channel Plus 2184 Emitter Expansion Block
Pioneer VSX-D1S Surround Receiver
Parasound HCA-1206 THX 6 channel amplifier
Pioneer SD-P450 Projection TV
Toshiba SD-3107 DVD player
Pioneer CLD-97 Laser Disc Player
RCA VR-725HF S-VHS VCR
Mitsubishi HS-U69 S-VHS VCR
Philips VR-6995 S-VHS VCR
Philips CDR-870 CD Recorder
Panamax Max 1000+ Surge Suppressor/Power Controller Home Theater Master
Remote Control (SL-9000)
Niles SVL-4 speaker switch/volume control
NHT 3.3 front speakers
NHT Audiocenter 2 speaker
NHT Super 1 surround speakers
NHT Sub 2 subwoofer
NHT CS 6.3 Ci ceiling speakers
NHT Outdoor 1 speakers
Kirksaeter Tower 260 speakers (bedroom)
Manufacturers:
Channel Plus
Multiplex Technology, Inc.
3001 Enterprise Street
Brea, CA 92621
714-996-4100
www.channelplus.com
NHT (Now Hear This)
535 Getty Court
Benicia, CA 94510
707-747-3300
www.nhthifi.com
Niles Audio Corp., Inc.
12331 SW130th Street
Miami, FL 33186
305-238-4373
www.nilesaudio.com
Panamax
150 Mitchell Blvd.
San Rafael, CA 94903
800-472-5555
www.panamax.com
Parasound Products, Inc.
950 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111
415-397-7100
www.parasound.com
Philips Electronics
One Philips Drive
Knoxville, TN 37914
423-521-4316
www.philips.com
Pioneer Electronics, Inc.
2265 Easy 220th Street
Long Beach, CA 90810
213-746-6337
www.pioneerelectronics.com
RCA - Thomson Consumer Electronics
10330 N. Meridian
Indianapolis, IN 46290
317-587-3000
www.RCA.com
Toshiba America Consumer Products, Inc.
82 Totowa Road
Wayne, NJ 07470
973-628-8000
www.toshiba.com
Universal Remote Control, Inc.
271 North Avenue
New Rochelle, NY 10801
914-235-2610
www.universal-remote.com
