I am in the process of building a home. The home is currently framed and closed in, and the subcontractors are working on electrical/plumbing with at least 2 months to go before insulation.
I would like to install the wiring for the computers and a/v system. I know how to do the data wiring and plan on installing Cat-6 throughout the home. However, my audio days are a little simplistically outdated.
There are two primary floors to the home, however, there is also attic space that is being built out with full electrical, insulation and A/C for mechanical purposes. I have also made sure there is plenty of room for chase, including 2 foot trusses between floors that will handle chase throughout the home. Basically, I can wire almost anywhere.
I have a long way to go on researching A/V solutions, however, I definitely want to do a multi-zoned system. So, here are my questions:
1) I was thinking of running all the speaker wire to the amps in the attic. I was thinking of using an IP based solution (e.g. Netstreams or other) for control. From the attic, there would be chases to the media room where receivers, jukeboxes, etc would all be located for ease of access. Is this a good move? The media room is on the first floor, about 40 "cable feet" away from the attic location.
2) I would run Cat-6 throughout the house. I know I can run less, however, I just figure run Cat-6 for the future. This would include runs to the controllers. Will this work? Or do I have to run the speaker wire from the speakers to the controller? I was hoping to avoid this step to provide more flexibility in the choice of controllers and amplifiers.
3) Can I centralize the amplifiers away from the controllers and media equipment? Or will this complicate things? The home is fairly large. If you include the outside speakers, I ultimately plan for about 70 speakers, so I believe multiple multi-zone amps will be required.
4) If I have several multi-zone amps, do you have a recommendation on solutions to drive the amplifiers? We are already going with a Lutron lighting control system, not that it matters, just fyi.
I do plan on eventually hiring a consultant to do the equipment installation, however, I want to learn as much as I can to get caught up before hiring someone.
