"HOME WIRING GUIDELINES ABOVE THE BASICS"

Structured wiring is becoming standard in many new home's being constructed, but most include only the basic systems like CATV and telephone distribution. All homeowners should be aware of his or her options beyond this basic "starter" system. Below are some additional recommendations for wiring a home above the TIA Level-1 or Level-2.

Front Door Camera
(1) RG59 coax and (1) 18/2 from the distribution panel to the eve or roofline. Eliminate 18/2 if camera is powered thru coax.

Satellite Receiver
(2) RG6 quad shield coax cables from the dish location(southeast side) to the distribution panel and (2) additional RG6 quad shield from the demarc to the home theater room. The previous RG6 theater room cables are reserved for video modulation etc.

Front Door Intercom/Entry
(1) Cat5 or Shielded 2pr from front door to telephone or intercom demarc as appropriate. (1) 18/2 wire from control demarc to door strike location.

Home Theater Surround
(6) high-grade 16/2 or 14/2 speaker cables from media center to designated points in the family/media room with solder type banana connectors at each end.

Multi-Room Audio
(1) Cat5 cable from media center to a wall switch junction box in every required room. (2) 16/2 wires from each junction box to the room's speaker locations.

Home Automation Touch Screens
(1) Cat5 from the media center to these areas: inside the front door, inside the garage access door and the master bedroom.

Security
(1) 22awg solid 2-conductor from every outside access door and window as well as every motion detector location routed back to the main distribution panel.

Fire
(1) looped 18 awg solid 4-conductor plenum jacketed wire to all smoke detector locations (as per local code) back to the main distribution point.

The 1960's brought CATV to the rural neighborhoods and dominated all cities. It was simple to install in your home. A roll of RG59 and a few F-connectors with a splitter or two, pocket knife and a pair of pliers you could get the job done. There were a lot fewer Televisions per household, so one or two connections were common. Then there was a pay for TV through a box connected to your phone line which advanced to even better cable boxes and so on.

Now the new century has brought us a totally new transmission from our cable TV suppliers- broadband digital service. The old way of running coax will not work anymore, except for a very short distance. The higher frequency (up to 1 Ghz) is more difficult to confine and loses its' signal strength easier at longer distances.

High quality RG6 cable and compression type F-connectors are required to distribute the signal throughout your home. Proper assembly is also required to assure minimal signal losses. Splitters and amplifiers have to be of high quality and meet certain specifications. If you have a large home in need of many active outlets, a professionally designed system may be required.

Anybody that is designing systems and installing coaxial cable for high frequency RF needs to have a broad knowledge base of its' characteristics and limitations. Ask questions of the service company that is doing your home or office cabling. They should be able to give you ideas on what you need and tips on the latest technologies that is available for your use. A good job will also provide a good warranty.

Statistic: Parks Associates believes that 48% of all new homes will be prewired with structured wiring solutions by 2004.

Statistic: The Yankee Group estimates that 21 million U.S. households are interested in networking their homes, and that 12.4 million of these households want to implement home networkiong capabilities within the next year.

The Information Superhighway is no dream of the future. It is in place right now. We have telephones, cable and satellite TV, home offices with a PC, fax, modem and the Internet at our service. Not to mention home shopping, banking, and other convenient services that are coming soon.

That's why homes today need an improved wiring method to handle all of the new electronic equipment and services, now and into the future. The OnQ Home Network System is one of many that provides this critical wiring infrastructure for whole house distribution of multiple telephone lines, high-speed data, cable and satellite TV, all in a flexible, modular fashion that accommodate future changes and additions. The OnQ System gives you a complete quality system that is assured with local factory trained installers and system support for service or upgrades.

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