13th May 2003 - Home Networking - an installer's view

Bruce began his lecture on Tuesday, 13th May, by showing a video produced by BT, showing a home networked family. The family were shown enjoying video, audio and data networking in different rooms in the house.

Why bother having a home network? There are many new sources of media: Satellite TV, Cable TV, Digital terrestrial TV, Internet, DVD players. People want to be able to play back these sources in different rooms in the house, on demand. House builders are reacting to customer demand; 15 of the top 20 builders are including network wiring in new houses. Greater than 30% of homes have a second telephone line for data access. Some technology trends are signals carried by digital rather than analogue means and the resulting convergence of audio, video and data. Some newer carrier methods include fibre optic public networks; power line carrier techniques in the home; ADSL, ISDN and ATM data networks and wireless networks like IEEE802.11b.

Some trends in the home include using a home office for teleworking, and entertainment provided by home computers, for example gaming and Internet radio. Another home trend is networked security, for example being able to monitor cameras in your house over the web. Home management is also becoming more popular. Some of these systems can increase house resale value.

Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning (HVAC) control systems are becoming more popular. They allow zoned control for any room, compensation for solar gain, and external sensors to accommodate latency in modern underfloor heating. Automatic systems to run your bath water, control swimming pools & spa/hot tubs are now available. All can be controlled by phone or computer or a house management system.

Home security systems are increasingly popular. They include smoke, fire and intruder sensors, along with CCTV with recording. The CCTV output can be modulated on the RF TV distribution system, allowing monitoring from any TV. The TV picture can also be available via the house web site. You can check if your nanny is mistreating your children. Security systems can include automatic gates and barriers, along with automatic car number plate recognition, which would only allow certain cars to open the gates. Also available is a panic zone, which is usually a separate room with all the connections available. The security system can be integrated with the house system.

Home automation can include electric curtain closers and electric blinds, integrated with the home system. One use for such a system is to close the blinds when the sun may damage works of art, or may overheat the house.

Telephones are no longer just installed in the hall. DECT phones are OK, but can have limited coverage. The POTS (plain old telephone system) has now changed to PANS (pretty amazing new stuff). Telephone wiring is still necessary because DECT phone don't work very well through steel reinforced concrete floors found in many apartment blocks. Telephone lines are also needed for many types of set-top box. Bruce is installing telephone lines in every room: 2 in bedrooms, 4 in offices.

Data networks are mandatory in houses today. Most popular is Ethernet (10BASE T/100BASET), for sharing all kinds of stuff. Some examples include videoconferencing with grandma, gaming with kids, Internet radio. Wireless LAN allows a notebook PC to replace your old transistor radio. Now you can have roaming Internet radio in any room in the house. Wiring is still important. Bruce installs at least one data socket in every room.

Infrared networks can be used to pass infrared control signals from remote controls over wiring to different rooms. This can be used to control lights, audio, and TV. This can also be used to fire off events via contact closure or RS232 connections. Philips Pronto is a good universal remote control that can replace many separate remotes, but it is a little delicate.

Home cinema is available from Dixons for £499.99, or is available from Zebra for £100,000.00. The final choice depends on available funds, available space and the needs of the client.

For TV and video, RF coax can be used to share sources throughout the home. Segregated sources allow different sources to be displayed in particular rooms simultaneously. Some uses include seeing who is at the front gates and sharing SKY or Freeview television. A very useful box is a Personal Video Recorder (PVR). One example is called Sky Plus. This has 2 receivers, which allows watching and recording a different channel simultaneously, using the built-in hard drive.

Major sources of audio include CD, hard drive/audio server, tuners, satellite, digital radio, Internet, television, and gramophone. Audio distribution schemes include basic single source impedance matching, which uses transformers. Better are two source systems, for example Music Q. These include an IR path back to source for control. Multiple source systems with a few source capability, for example A Bus, from Russound, use Cat 5 cable. These are not hi-fi, though. True multisource, multizone systems are available, for example, the Opus system. Your home security system can be linked in as well. This uses Cat 5 cable, can have up to 4 zones and costs about £4000. Ultimate systems are available which can implement a large number of zones, for example the Linn Knekt system.

Various types of audio network cabling is used. The cheapest is unbalanced screened cable, used for Music Q; OK for short distance use. Also possible is Category 5 UTP, which is the favourite today. Also category 5 STP is used. Loudspeaker cable is usually "normal" cable. High margin interconnects are usually not used, but sometimes are used for selected clients. The Crestron scheme uses Cat 5 for everything. Ceiling speakers are popular today, but are expensive for good quality. In-wall speakers are also popular. It is possible to get speakers which are plastered over, but they sound like you are in a shopping mall. Flat panel speakers disguised as pictures are also available and sound OK. Sometimes, the appearance of the speaker as a work of art is important to the client, for example the Nautilus from B&W and high end B&O speakers. External speakers are popular for gardens. Shapes available include rocks, mushrooms, and frogs!

Integration of audio, video, lighting, heating and security is certainly possible. Some key questions to answer when designing a system include: