By Steven Totolo, President, Total Voice Control

Home services locations

Nowadays, wiring terminations are normally run to two locations in the kitchen and each bedroom, one in the bathroom, and 3 in the living room, family room, and den/computer room. Each termination point has two CAT5 and two RG-6 cables with optional fibre connections in the living room, family room, and den/computer room. Figures 8 and 9 illustrate typical access point placements in the home.

A network hub, located in a service closet, furnishes connections from the home’s Internet provider from either a cable/ASDL modem or a connection to a PC phone line modem. This allows connections to be effortlessly added as new computers are brought into the home, creating a home computer network. Additionally, moving a computer to another room is made simple, requiring wiring changes in the service closet only.

Another equally important device located in the service closet is a cable television distribution amplifier that provides an individual signal to each access point in the home, where necessary. It may also include a video modulator that can be used to place a front door or baby’s room camera to a selected channel available throughout the home. This enables homeowners to view a person at the front door when the doorbell rings, or to peer into a baby’s room when she cries. Video equipment in one room can also be viewed throughout the home by sending its output through the second RG-6 to a video modulator. Selection and control are enabled through infrared (IR) receivers and transmitters via twisted pair wiring to devices through an IR repeater installed in the wiring closet, shown in Figure 10.

Part 3 - Installation of wiring
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Steven Totolo is president of tvcAutomation, a home automation specialist and a member of the CABA Standards Committee. He can be reached at (613) 795-7117; fax (613) 737-5323; email: sales@tvcAutomation.com