Kicking Off My Massive Home Network Install! - Part 1: The Plan & Finding Cable Routes

[@camerongray1515]

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[@Sarge92]

the coax makes sense yeah you can setup something like mythtv and some tv tuner cards but you could also do both and add in mythtv later which makes sense because if you go pure mythtv the first issue your gonna slam face first into is tuners for 4 people to watch 4 different channels your going to need between 2 and 4 tuners in the rack depending on what multicasts there watching if there all recording something that number goes up again or just run coax to the tv's they can watch whatever they want there on the tv with the tvs tuner you already paid for inside the tv then if you want the fancy features like streaming to mobile devices or recording live tv you can do that seperatly in the rack needing only tuners for channels you wish to record which reasonably 2 maybe 4 would be more than enough to handle that and you dont need a monsterous gpu to do transcoding and all that joy so yes coax to the tv and if the desire comes up later for mythtv add that in later

[@k.hussain360]

Congrats on the new house, I love the fact that you've split the videos into a series, so each video isn't too long and the first video is 1 hour 37 mins. Absolute legend.

[@aRndBelgianGuy]

Haha.

[@MrMonero]

👌

[@zxcxcsdfasdfasf]

Your enthusiasm for all the hard work ahead of you is inspiring!

[@checksumcharlie]

As someone who currently has her entire apartment gutted to the brickwork and is installing power/data/alarm/speaker cable behind metal-suspended plasterboard, this is inspiration porn - none of the dirty construction work, but all the cabling joy. ❤

[@amateurwizard]

This kind of enthusiast video is something I love to see. I live vicariously through some of these vids.

[@NealDunstan]

i love all your videos but only 1 thing i can't ignore is you're keep moving here and there 😁

[@JakeRonaldGirard]

What you’re looking for in the attic for wire hanging is J hooks / J hangers. Neat, easy to install and maintain, and significantly cheaper than any cable tray setup will be.

[@surmo]

This is brilliant! You're very talented, I've learned so much from this video, thank you!

[@pn8902]

From an AV and CCTV engineer. Very good planning and thought with the 4 core to 2 core speaker cable. I've always wanted to push people when able to, to run these things as homes become smarter

[@TheDropForged]

Oh yeah, I am definitely waiting. We too are moving into our new house in few months and I too have elaborate plans for network install. Your videos are perfect as they are very detailed and don't mind the duration.

[@trevelvin7455]

This video series gonna be great. Not enough detailed home network installs. One of the things I enjoy about your videos Cameron is the attention to detail. Looking forward to the next instalment..great work.

[@adriancobon7501]

I agree with you completely on the coax cable... My husband and I maintain a good antenna configuration, paired with an OTA DVR and a media server, for those lovely times the Internet goes down. As long as the house has power, we have access to some things at least!

[@James-King]

Best of luck with the install Cameron! I have done something very similar with my new build immediately after moving in. After the developers refusing to let me install while they were building the house, I had to retro fit the lot after moving in. It's a lot of hard work to make it all perfect, but so worth it having connectivity in every room and enjoyed researching and learning a ton of new stuff along the way! Look forward to seeing the videos from you getting it all in and set up!

[@AnnaWithAWish]

Dude, your house is so clean and good looking that it almost looks like a 3D render. Nice job with the stuff you do, got me hooked after some videos and now I'm excited about your future videos!

[@nelizmastr]

Having a house built mostly from wood really helps when doing cable runs. If you have a house build from concrete and bricks with no empty space between walls like our 1978 house, everything has to be done with trunking on the outside of walls. Not terrible, but not ideal. Congrats on your new place, can't wait to see the final result!

[@lawrencemanning]

@@nelizmastr you can gouge up the wall and fit the cable in that, but yes it makes a lot of mess and work decoration etc. Plus coving, just to complicate things more. Trunking looks horrible in my view, which is why I’ll likely never get my house wired.

[@callum8184]

Concrete downstairs/block upstairs here, people before have put in trunking for power and I can’t wait to channel all of it into the wall even if its going to be a heck of a lot of work. Same for data cables, can run strips behind the plaster to make fishing for cables easier too.

[@david1977m]

Could be worse my house has lime plaster from the 1860’s and if you try chasing anything out it all starts to crumble. I want to rewire my house however I know that means removing all the walls and rebuilding the internals of my house which I just don’t have time to do.😢

[@tramcrazy]

Glad the video is out and looking forward to all the future updates… this house is going to be quite something once it’s finished and it will be amazing to see what you do with all the new possibilities of a house! Smart garden lighting?? Automated plant irrigation?? Locally controlled Valetudo style lawnmower?? Driveway ANPR for customised announcements inside the house?? The list of possibilities is endless…

[@labbiee]

Ive been waiting for this video - I can tell it's gonna be absolutely brilliant as your videos are always so high quality. Very exciting to have a full hour and a half of a video to enjoy!

[@Ror0c]

My electrician did the same method in my new build for cutting holes in the floor to run data cables. He opted to use galvanized steel discs to fill in the gaps instead of making up a plug like you though. Exciting stuff, looking forward to seeing the future videos in the series.

[@pn8902]

For the sub, sometimes when Ive had to desperately hide a cable to go from one end of a room to the other, ive suggested to remove the skirting board and create a channel behind it, usually there already is one because the plaster doesn't go all the way to the floor. Increased work but still less work than basically any other option, with hard flooring.

[@timtjtim]

It’s a lot of work, but building a full CAD model of the house can be really helpful. Means you’re measuring the house once, and then you’re good forever. Really helpful to understand quirky wall alignment etc

[@camerongray1515]

Defintely a good idea. Fortunately I have a copy of the technical drawings of the house. Admittedly they're from a photo of a screen but I was able to square them up and adjust them to be pretty much perfect. I have then overlayed them in an image editor to let me view wall alignment between floors. That said, it could be interesting to use these to build a more accurate CAD model!

[@mrjamerst]

I've installed cable basket in my loft for cable management, I would definitely recommend it. It's very easy to install and pretty inexpensive really. Realistically you can't use it to get everywhere, but it keeps the main runs accessible and tidy.

[@4andy6hedges]

Could you post a link to the basket you used, I really need to do this?

[@Holdeenio]

Congrats on the new home Cameron. Nothing wrong with coax runs to TVs 👌🏼 most of those complaints aren’t from the UK I’m guessing, so unfamiliar with how ubiquitous it is here 🇬🇧

[@conorsvideos]

Recently moved in a 10 year old UK home and it's interesting to see not much has changed in terms of preinstalled cables. Will definitely follow along on this series.

[@lawrencemanning]

My house is 20 years old, south of England, though not built by a national firm. If that matters. 5 bed detached. Exactly the same wiring; phone sockets in most bedrooms, aerial in the loft disturbed to the living room and main bedroom. So I think this has been the “standard” for a long time. Just wish I had the enthusiasm for DIY as Mr Gray here! Sadly I’m content with mesh wifi and some home plug.

[@tramcrazy]

Interestingly a couple of (non technical) friends’ new builds had quite a few cat6 runs pre installed

[@DPerdy]

Awesome video, very informative. I think the noggins over all the stud walls are firebreaks

[@ArturoRubio-h3i]

Im building out my network, much props , you got networking skills

[@LifeUnfilteredwithDale]

I have been looking forward to this one

[@samuelhulme8347]

Same!

[@DaveOnACarpet]

Same too, looking forward to this

[@prkatzman]

I would highly suggest looking into using baluns for a long run to your sub. Balance the RCA feed at the receiver end, run with whatever cable you want (could even be leftover cat6!), unbalance at the sub end, terminate to RCA, easy. Super cheap off the shelf products available, but you could also pretty easily DIY.

[@varno]

If you do this, don't skimp, a balun is often an audio transformer, and small ones often don't have the low frequency extension.

[@pnuema1.618]

As a network engineer, I am always amazed at the speed goals of most people's builds. They design their network as if they are a Google data center. Listen, obviously, faster is better, but most people don't need anything faster than 100/1000mbps. I would bankrupt most companies if I didn't design within their realistic usage requirements. I have seen large enterprise companies with a metro e through the city (own private fiber uplink to other campuses) that linked 6 campuses together with only one location being the demarcation and it used on adverage less than 10gbps. We did, of course, make it a 100gbps link, and it does peak around 40gbps, so they needed the extra on-demand bandwidth, but that is 6 campuses with hundreds of hosts. Most clients are still on fast ethernet ports (100mbps) and have no issues.

[@camerongray1515]

An important part of network design is understanding the end-user requirements and building something that meets those within the budget you're working to. I also deal with network design in a professional capacity so this is not just a hobbiest thing for me. Sure, in a large business, the average staff member's workstation doesn't really need beyond gigabit or even 100mbit and kitting out such a large network with 10gbit switching would be extremely cost prohibative. However, for my setup here I regularly transfer very large video files between my workstation and my NAS and therefore a 10gbit link is benefficial. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely don't NEED it but it's definitely a noticable improvement over gigabit. I only need a single 12 port 10GbE switch for all my 10gbit requirements so therefore the cost isn't a huge issue. It's not like I'm blindly running 10gbit to every single device, most devices will be connected to standard gigabit switching! The reason I'm running CAT 6A to everything is simply because the cost difference isn't huge and it made more sense to buy 4 boxes of CAT 6A and therefore be able to pull 4 runs at a time instead of mixing both CAT 6 and CAT 6A and need to think more carefully about which cables to pull where. The CAT 6A is not just for 10GbE, I'll also be heavily using it for HDBaseT video distribution to various TVs and if I were to ever upgrade to an HDBaseT 3.0 system in the future, this would require CAT 6A to handle with the 16Gbit data rate.

[@alitheg]

I'm excited for this one, because I've been dreaming of cabling my house up and most of your new place looks very like mine!

[@NaokisRC]

“And I’ll be installing some ceiling speakers.” Is the greatest Cameron Gray meme Ive so far heard…. Because of the ceiling speakers.

[@carlrobson5745]

A great series I thiought the install in my house was big your's is another level you are very lucky to have a bare shell of a house doing that in a lived in property with fixtures and fittings would not be a nice. I was lucky I have strammit walls with holes at 600 centres so feeding cables down was'nt too bad used the old flue pipe to feed cables from the living room in to the loft.

[@makinganemone]

Nice videos and very inspirational! I agree with the modern standards for networking/data in new builds in the UK, they need updating but at least they stopped allowing new builds without FTTP(H). The phone line extension to behind the TV is a hangover from Sky/Sky+/SkyHD which originally required a phone line connection to make sure it wasn't being used portably (the boxes used to "call home"). This hasn't been the case for a number of years now.

[@kieranpfeffer]

Looking forward to the upcoming videos on the new house! Always love your long form content. I often get ideas watching your videos, or spot that you’ve tackled a problem the same way I have which reassures me it’s probably a good solution (eg sticking Shellys behind light switches and using onboard scripting to handle detached vs relay switching when using smart bulbs and Home Assistant). I see a few comments about how much you move on camera, I wouldn’t worry too much - for me it just shows how much energy and enthusiasm you have.

[@paulhyland3528]

Great idea with the basket, at least you cover regs with for cable suspension. I did the same in my loft with tray. Look forward to the Upcoming install.

[@duncanwhite2837]

Congrats on the new house and thank you sharing your plans in such engaging detail. You'll be loving the benefits of having a full fibre connection in this place. As an Edinburgh person with a similarly cabled house, if you need any off camera help with the install I'd be happy to get involved. Looking forward to next in the series.

[@VW_Fan]

The video I have been waiting for! I am glad I am not the only one who is installing coax! Just installed some last week! Nice vintage computers in the garage! For those discovery holes, I use a metal kebab skewer. It gets through and is quite long so easy to find in the loft.

[@manufc2006]

great video, looking to do similar when I move into a new build next year. The only thing I will add for other people watching, as I see you''ve checked the flooring joists. but the direction of the floorboard will not always be opposite direction to the joists. This is going from my experience where I replaced broken / creaking floorboards for a friend and in my current place, you might find the floorboards are toungue and groove, so slotted together, and ran with the direction of the joists.

[@jonjohnson2844]

I paid for an electrician mate (who is also fine with plastering chases) to do my cables, it wasn't ridiculously expensive but the fact it's all in place would definitely be a factor on any decision to move in the future!

[@kawawete]

The Samsung washing machine at 1:22:56 reminds me of mine waking me up at night when it finished, I quickly found the mute function on it after that.

[@diogor420]

Can't wait for more videos! I'm particularly looking forward to the automatic audio switch - I had the same idea, just couldn't find anything related on YT or google

[@impopet]

Man! been looking forward to this!!! let me grab some popcorn. Right. Let's go! Well done Cameron and best of luck with the new house

[@jackipiegg]

8:05 You should double up the speaker cables to rooms/bathroom as well. Recently installed mmwave presense sensors to all rooms and found a great hack using speaker cables to power all of them. They need 5V to power on, from my testing, 10m cables to rooms work fine on 5V power supply. But from 10m> some sensors don't turn on. To solve this I got 5-10V variable power supply, used a multimeter and measured from source to end for 5V while adjusting the power supply. Adjust the power supply so the ends get 5.5V or so. Also this could be avoided if you have different 5V power supplies for different rooms, but I prefer to keep everything at one place. This "hack" also work on 5V/9V/12V devices like ONT/cameras.

[@kieran.stafford]

Cameron, I would advise others to drill the inspection hole using a masonary bit. It's blunt and won't immediately burst a pipe unlike a sharp pointy spade bit.

[@alanjrobertson]

Haha loved 35:10 when you appeared in a network cage 😂

[@colin79666]

Be sure to correctly seal the cable entry into the garage. There are strict fire stopping requirements, even if you don’t plan to keep a vehicle in there.

[@camerongray1515]

Yep, that's on the list, plan on using a proper fire seal (which is more than can be said for the cable holes behind the original light fitting)

[@MrTommymonk]

@camerongray1515 Also worth pointing out that the additional circuit you mentioned adding will need doing by an electrician even though it's an easy job as it meets one of the criteria as notifiable under part P of building regs.

[@lawrencemanning]

“Requirements”? It’s his house though, not a rental, nor is he selling it tomorrow (I assume!) I suppose it might invalidate some insurance policy, or his mortgage small print not to do whatever remedial work you are talking about, but your language is a bit strong in the context of someone who has bought a house to live in.

[@camerongray1515]

Things in a private property still need to be done in line with the relevant regulations. However, Part P doesn't apply here in Scotland and generally speaking, the vast majority of electrical work in a house under 3 stories is non-notifiable.

[@br3nd4n]

Congratulations on the beautiful new home! How exciting! Have you considered running fiber with media converters or SFP switches for those longer runs (like a backhaul network). I’m considering a similar upgrade. Can’t wait to see the progress.

[@jonesyFX]

Great video, good luck with the plans ahead Cameron

[@chuckdillingham]

18:52 For the sub, just run coax and either terminate it with RCA or get adapters to go to RCA for either end. The coax has better shielding and should help cut down on interference.

[@camerongray1515]

Yeah, think I'll give that a go as long as I have some coax leftover. Then just test the hell out of it before closing up any access holes since if I do need a balanced connection I'd need to swap the coax out for something with 2 cores.

[@boogiemooney]

Watch yourself with ceiling speakers. The noise leaks upstairs and can annoy the life out other people in the house. Suggest you get additional sound proofing around the speaker installation. Otherwise you'll rarely have them switched on

[@camerongray1515]

Definitely something to be mindful of, the downstairs speakers will all have fire hoods above them which will help dampen the sound, if it's an issue I can always shove even more insulation above them.

[@wjnr1]

I would suggest a door contact with a vibration sensor built in on your external doors. Also if you fit vibration sensors on all your down stairs windows. If you then set these with your doors as a part set it means you can still walk around your home but have the potential break in point covered. Also add PIR’s and make that a full set with the vibration sensors for when you’re out.

[@camerongray1515]

Vibration sensors are interesting, although I'd particularly worry about the front door for people knocking on it while I'm out - don't want that triggering an alarm. Windows are an interesting thought although getting cables to them all would be awkward. Will likely at least add ZigBee sensors to them all to notify me if a window is left open so while they wouldn't trigger the alarm itself, I could set up notifications based on them.etc. I also plan on adding a fair bit of person detection stuff to the CCTV (i.e. if a person is in the back garden which is normally locked, immediately phone me)

[@jamiecullen9075]

The front door won’t go off unless you set the gross and pulse settings correctly on the sensor via the keypad To install the window sensors KZbin and google are your friend. What you can do is wire the sensor in series if you need to cover a larger window with 2 openings and wire them in series. If you need any help let me know 😊

[@wjnr1]

@@camerongray1515 you can alter the setting in the vibration sensors, I drilled through the edge of the ceiling made a slim channel down to the corner of the window filled in the channel over the cable. The cable runs on the inside corner edge on the top of the window recess then clipped along the top of the window with adhesive clips & the sensor is placed in the middle of the window. The window blind hides all the cable over the window frame & the curtain covers the 4 inch actually on the corner. Plus you only need one sensors for the window.

[@Nevexo287]

Congratulations again Cameron, really looking forward to this series!

[@finlays-crazy-life]

I so love your videos, I’m buzzing about this! Please could you show us the full programming of the alarm system maybe? I’m going to be fitting a wired Texecom premier on my new house in the next few months, have already done networking / cameras but very new to wired alarms so a bit stuck 😂

[@donaldhiles_k9sgz428]

As long as you are waiting I suggest ip phones and a small pbx. Makes calling from room to room easy. 😊

[@ted-b]

Nice one! Well planned out. Good luck in your new home.

[@TyroSean]

Just a heads up, Freeview is expected to be switched off in a few years (2030 I believe, but could be as late as 2034), so that coaxial cable sadly won't be as useful after that! You'll still get a good few years of use out of it but just wanted to mention that

[@sstudholme]

Fantastic Video, you should take a look at neutrik Speakon Connectors for use in the rack. That would be perfect for patching the amps into all the ceiling speakers. Great to see the face from behind the camera!

[@camerongray1515]

Yep, those are the plan - 4 pole speakons on a patch panel in the rack. One connector per room with the connector either carrying stereo or mono depending on the room. Might also fit a speakons faceplate behind the living room TV rather than needing to deal with binding posts/banana plugs.

[@kevinhughes9801]

Great detail watched whole vid looking forward to next vid. Brill job thanks

[@WizardTim]

Looking forward to the rest of the series, this one was filled with some excellent tips and tricks!

[@samosa111]

Congratulations on your new home 🎉. Like you, I'm refurbishing my home, so your video has been timely & helpful. Perhaps it's now time to consider Ajax (alarm) and Loxone (smart home)?!

[@peter65zzfdfh]

When I was in an apartment I got a 37u rack, it fitted under a standard door upright.

[@Rhythmman14]

looking forward to seeing the alarm install video! friendly suggestion: if the Texecom your installing is 100% wired, and if you want to put a contact or a PIR in a shed or other outside building, they do wireless expanders 😁

[@Luke-J]

Nice house. While you are sorting the lights, I highly recommend swapping out your wall based extractor fans for ones which are ducted through the ceiling into the lift and out of a soffit. Those cheap wall based units are loud and not the best looking things. The other benefit of the ducted units is you can have a far more powerful fan, they are silent and you can place the duct above the shower/bath which is far more effective at getting rid of the condensation.

[@Cablesmith]

Really interested in this! I’ll be doing similar when I move also, mainly interested in your audio system as I’m not clued up at all on a good system, but I know you will be 😃

[@theska8536]

Great video! Been thinking of running my own cabling in my house but a bit nervous of holing mistakes haha. Been working in IT for a while but cabling through walls is a part of cabling im afraid of doing myself Still, great video and i cant wait for part 2!

[@JamesTenniswood]

I did cat6a in my house 10yrs ago. Total over kill but nice to have them in place

[@Jingleboy14]

Good luck! I've also moved into a new place & have been using your vids as a solid reference for cabling.

[@alonzosmith6189]

Nice, waiting patiently for the videos

[@ChrisNe9]

This is great nice one! what are your thoughts on laying cables under block and beam flooring? Ive got an extension going up now, and thinking of a way to get my cat6 over to the far side, and one thought I had was to run it under the currently exposed block and beam floor and up and through the bottom of the wall. Its either that or going down the RSJ and running from the ceiling. Cheers Chris

[@1990tomjones]

Oh the envy I have of you with walls that are easy to run cables through. 1960's end of terrace and all downstairs walls are concrete blockwork, no studwork to be seen. If I wanted to run cabling ( and I do) I'd have to carve and chisel conduit through the walls.

[@cshizz22]

I’m planning on running cables in my new build soon also so really happy you’ve started this series. Quick question, for the cable routes into the downstairs, why not just drop from the attic into the first floor room then cut drill through the joist into the wall below to drop cables further down to the ground floor? Structural reasons? This way you’d just need to patch up plasterboard in the end.

[@RobinHilton22367]

Re 35:40 I managed to snag a 2nd hand 42U rack with a couple of shelves, full length pdu, top mounted temperature triggered fans and 24 port patch panel for $100 NZD (around 45 quid). Had to drive it home in the boot of my Mazda Demio with half of it hanging out the back and a shed load of ratchet straps to hold it in place but totally worth the bargain :)

[@joedry1774]

Cameron, the wired texecom keypads have 2 zones on them. You could just have one run from the panel to your cupboard and then run the contact off your keypad. Also, are you planning on getting some of the texecom smoke/heat detectors for your alarm system. I have them on mine and they are brilliant, phone alerts for fire events! I still have the 2 aico alarms that the fire service fitted though...

[@camerongray1515]

I definitely might do that, although equally I may just pull in extra cable if I have enough - just means that I'm not tied to always using a Texecom system with the keypad zones. Smoke detectors are an interesting idea, although I already have interlinked smoke alarms so that's lower priority, may run cables in though just in case I go that route in the future.

[@camerongray1515]

I've looked into the texecom smoke alarms and they look interesting although the wired ones don't contain sounders so I'd need those too, I'm also not necessarily a huge fan of introducing a burglar alarm panel as a single point of failure as part of a fire alarm system. However, what I may do is instead of adding in additional interlinked Deta alarms to match the existing ones, I may swap them all for Aico interlinked ones. That way I could use an Aico relay base and interlink this with the Texecom system. That way I'd get the benefits of remote monitoring and the ability to trigger the external alarm in the event of a fire alarm but still have a simple and reliable set of interlinked fire alarms at the heart of the system.

[@joedry1774]

​@camerongray1515 if only youtubes notifications weren't terrible, then I'd have probably seen your reply earlier! Yes I too wouldn't like only having the texecom smoke detectors which is why I kept the Aico interlinked smoke and heat detectors that are already in my property. I didn't realise the wired ones don't have sounders! I'm using the ricochet ones as I have a hybrid system so most of the alarm zones are wired apart from a few hard to reach areas where I have ricochet ones, and the smoke detectors are all ricochet and have sounders. I'm using texecom connect at the moment, but I do have plans for a custom set up, hopefully trying to get it integrated with my home assistant and other self hosted automation similar to your previous video, I just haven't found the time!!

[@tuppers7211]

Awesome stuff loads of help for me as i too have those ridiculous floor boards! Where did you get you cable from?

[@tezkidd97]

this is just in time for me moving out next week. i plan to do pretty much the same kind of work. thanks mate good video

[@ProtecVision-Security]

Cameron, get a reolink poe doorbell. Absolutely ace mate. I bought one replaced with the ring & it’s wayyyy better !! Plus runs ONVIF so can record 24/7 on NVR.

[@SBBUK]

They do a 12v powered WiFi version too so you can reuse your doorbell wiring (usually just needs changing to a 12v transformer)

[@camerongray1515]

It's definitely one of the ones on my list to consider - either the PoE one if I can get a cable to it, or the WiFi one if I can't.

[@danyalm10]

Another vote for the Reolink PoE doorbell. Really like mine. Good quality video & audio, no subscription, good app and been working fine with Blueiris as well as recording to local SD card.

[@andljoy]

Keep in mind if its U/FTP you should (if you want to get the full benefit of 6A) have a clean earth at the comms room end.

[@camerongray1515]

Interesting, I do need to look into that side of things more. Thankfully the rack is relatively near the consumer unit so I can pull in additional bonding.etc. I was planning on bonding the patch panels to the rack along with the PDU. Not sure what additional bonding I should add, a dedicated bonding conductor from the rack back to the main earthing terminal? I have a TNCS earthing arrangement in case that makes things different.

[@rebsdioramas]

Don't worry about having a rack that's to big, bigger is always better with racks especially if you're unsure what you'll be putting in it and if need be you can down size. I currently have 32u that I thought would be more than big enough... But 4u & 2u servers add up quick, It's full now and I had to buy a 42u which is the biggest I can fit, I also went for a 4 post for the bigger rack, weighs less, easier to move, easier to install etc. As for drawers, 100% put a couple of 2u drawers in if you think you'll have the room, makes life so much easier having screws, cables, tools etc right in the rack and not having to stuff around hunting for things. With the drawers most will only be about 400 - 500mm deep and be supported on the front and the back does sag so sticking a full length shelf under them will make sure they don't bind on any servers then you can also use the shelf for a place to stick other stuff, mini pcs, power boards etc or like what I'm doing, sticking inset PDUs behind the drawers so I can easily plug more stuff into the UPS (my UPS only has 4 battery out puts).

[@K2S01]

Congrats on the new house !

[@mysterious_czrs]

Damn you have it nice in the UK with those wooden and drywall walls. Here in Poland almost everything is in concrete and brick.

[@MhzUHF]

I Love Your networking / AV videos You're totally right on also installing Coax - The built-in TV Freeview Tuner is so much easier to use than starting an app like HDHomerun (If your set has the app) I have 2x HDHomeruns they work well but i mostly use them to Record on Plex or for phones/tablets With “CT100” (Copper - Copper foil) each manufacturer will sell their own updated version as the original CT100 is air-spaced not foam filled - RG6 (Copper - Aluminium foil) is crap these days its often coated Steel.

[@yellowcrescent]

Nice setup -- about to do the same in my newly-purchased home, plus fiber runs to the detached buildings (prob not totally necessary, but it's close to 300 ft). Why not use Cat7 or Cat8? The answer: there's almost no legitimate reason to do so. lol. In any case, anywhere you would have a legitimate use for anything beyond Cat6a, then fiber is considerably cheaper (even cheaper than Cat6a). For all of the datacenter uses I have personally seen, we always use fiber and then Cat6 for things like 1/10GBase-T, IPMI/PDU management, serial runs, etc.

[@wojciechkonowrocki37]

For the living room multi room sound you could run two coax which is great for RCA and setup an automation that’ll switch the ampilifier to a correct output when the need arises

[@camerongray1515]

That's true although I'd worry about running unbalanced audio over the distances involved without getting interference. With the audio over CAT systems, they are transferring the audio digitally so interference is much less of an issue.

[@lucidlx]

Watch out for the "factory splices" in that CPC speaker cable. We had a fault on a run of this stuff, and found a bump in the cable with a twisted mess and electrical tape INSIDE the outer insulation!

[@camerongray1515]

Ouch, that's rough! Thanks for the warning! Hopefully just a one off but knowing this I might do something like a resistance test of all my runs to look for any potential anomalys before putting any more flooring down in case any runs need replaced!

[@dilski]

I've got a UK new build that's 3 stories and I'm desperate to fit some cables going to every room - I just don't have the guts to drill out massive holes haha

[@mithrandir491]

It is much easier to drill holes and install wiring and equipment in a cardboard castle but when it comes to a brick wall construction things start to get a little more trickier.

[@benwilson2233]

I like this format of filming, keep up

[@DavidPelan]

Looking forward to seeing the project unfold! Hope the bend radius on your cat6a will allow you to terminate OK in the backboxes. I tried running cat6a(unshielded) but even with 25mm deep back boxes the outer sheath was too stiff and put too much tension on the connection or even just getting the keystones in the euro modules plates. Few ended up popping off.. That being said I had all brick walls to work on so had to chase everything out. You may have better luck with stud walls. Ended up switching to cat6 but invested in really good quality stuff rated up to 550mhz.. Either way looking to how you tackle it

[@camerongray1515]

Thankfully with stud walls I can install 47mm dry lining boxes everywhere. I'm also going to try drilling extra holes in the top of the boxes so each cable can run straight up from it's respective euro module rather than needing to bend them around inside the box.

[@marksapollo]

Ooh I'll have to make time to watch this later! Bet you got a few sore knuckles installing all that lot!

[@camerongray1515]

I'm in so much pain after doing all of this! Not to mention the state of my arms from all the insulation!

[@marksapollo]

@@camerongray1515 Finally got to watch your video today. I can certainly see why your arms ached so much! Lots of beams to get through. But I love the little holes you cut in the floor, very clever way of doing it. Looking forward to your next video Cameron.

[@yindunanhai4539]

Great work. Do you mind to share the brand and type of your CAT6a cable? Thank uou

[@TheRealHarrypm]

Sees copper in the 2020s, future proofing -1000. But I miss the good old content from your channel nice to see it in my feed again, I went with LC lines and CAT7A+ back in 2017 when I crawled though the attic with a respirator for 3 days.

[@rd806]

Major upgrade. Congratulations

[@DiogoSerrano]

Hi, thanks for this video, can you share the link and specification for all the cables?

[@MegaMastiffman]

I like the idea of bring them up

[@markhowells9612]

Interesting content - and timely for me as I'm just beginning with an audio and networking wire up in our house (that currently has little/no cable runs). Did you select U/UTP or F/UTP cat6a cable?

[@camerongray1515]

It's U/FTP (each pair is individually screened but no outer screen) With this type of cable, the crosstalk is partially mitigated due to the screening around each pair meaning that the pairs don't need to be twisted as tightly as with UTP cable. It also doesn't need the central separator that you'd need with UTP cable. This is a pretty decent summary: stl.tech/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/CAT-6A-UFTP-vs-FUTP_Application-Note.pdf

[@Frog3136]

Great video and thank you for breaking this up into smaller editions. One ask when you're videoing & standing try to stand still. You're weaving back & forth which is very districting to watch.

[@Liam-js6di]

Great video Cameron. Heads-up the Amazon link for the endoscope doesn’t look like the same one, at least on Amazon uk

[@camerongray1515]

It's the exact same listing I purchased however unfortunately it looks as though they've discontinued the 1M variant of it

[@essexphoenix]

You could take the skirting board off and use a router to cut a channel into it to hide wires that way

[@camerongray1515]

That would probably work for a couple of small cables but not really for the amount of cables I'm installing here. It's also outside of the prescribed wiring zones in the UK's wiriing regulations. Officially those only apply to mains cables, not data/AV but I still feel like it's best practice to follow them for any cables I'd be installing in the walls.

[@SproutyPottedPlant]

I’m catching up on your videos I missed 😊 with the PS5, will you be able to play it in any room just by taking the controller with you? Take your favourite games to you favourite TV 😀👍🌱

[@th3r3v92]

I have been planning to rewire my house over the last few months, so this video series is perfectly timed for me. Also, this might be a silly question, but do you know the name of your AV cabinet? I've been searching for a AV/TV cabinet with perforated doors in the exact same color combination for ages, but I haven’t been able to find anything with perforated doors (possibly combined with an open back for even better air circulation) in a grey and oak/other light wooden combination.

[@camerongray1515]

It's an IKEA "BESTA" unit - modular system using their "MÖRTVIKEN" mesh doors.

[@johnmorris7899]

If you recess the box for the dining room TV in the downstairs bathroom you could hang a mirror over it and you wouldn't see the box

[@Grow_A_Pair]

Intersting take on the CAT standards, i largely agree with everything you've said... however i opted for CAT7a purely for the increased bandwidth of up to 40gb on standard runs for (total overkill) future proofing... not only that but due to the hatred of the standard, i picked up a 1000m drum (not a typo meters not feet!) specifically rated for in-wall burial for £20. As the core size is slightly larger but not too much, it was perfecly backwardly compatible with CAT6a keystones that can take the larger core wire sizes which has worked out a treat as no proprietry fiddling with connectors ot keystones was needed as well. I also ran it shielded (although not necessary) just because it was available to me with the S/FTP cable which is a nice to have and all keystones carry the ground/shield core from end device to network port. Yes i've likely broken the standard, but it can be a cheaper and technically more performant cable to run over CAT6A. I did a similar house wire to you and in quite a similar way, one different route i went with the loft was to put in 20mm high softwood battens running in line on top of the joists to create sacrificial height which ment that i could chop sections out of the sacrificial battens wherever i wanted to efficiently keep the cable runs minimal to the different rooms. Then what i did was use a cavity master hole saw (similarly to you) to install maintenence panels in the OSB flooring so i could easily reach junction boxes, LED controllers etc without removing boards and labelled the top of each easy access. I boarded the whole loft out in the smaller sizing of OSB3 (avoiding tongue and groove boards!) so that each board was easily removable when i inevitably needed to run a new cable with minimal fuss and then did a 2D plan of where everytihng was for future reference. I considered cbale baskets but instrwad opted for trunking spanning both long lengths of the loft to avoid cables getting pulled or snagged when loading stuff into the loft. Lastly i terminated all 30 network runs to a small network cab in the loft as my loft is quite accessible and mounted the to the back wall to allow structured cable runs to be patched from the loft as necessary and offered up POE to each room which i find very useful for home made multi-sensors etc. It also ment that CCTV cameras were a lot easier as i just needed to route cabling out towards the soffits back to the cab. I also installed an extractor fan and ducting as i run a server/NAS alongside the network cab and felt this helped control the airflow during summer to the loft. The extractor i went for is bluetooth controlled through HA and allows manual override and has a nice low RPM circulation mode that uses a few watts and costs a couple of quid per year to create airflow. Enjoy the journey though and put in extra provision at every step. Including some pull rope for future fishing! Just my 2 pence! :) What kit are you planning on using to build out the audio distribution?