Structured Wiring

The standard home today features wiring schemes initially designed 50 years ago to provide such things as telephone, cable TV, and security. These wiring schemes are already inadequate and will become even more so as home technology advances. The answer is Structured Wiring. Structured wiring is rapidly becoming a commodity item; builders and manufacturers predict structured wiring will become as common and as expected by consumers as regular wiring within the decade.

Structured wiring systems let homeowners control the high-tech systems or elements of their homes, including computers, home theatre entertainment systems, security systems, lighting, utilities and environmental controls. It is also the infrastructure required to provide a home automation system. Structured wiring consists of high-performance cables connected to a central distribution hub using multimedia outlets with connections for multiple phone lines, entertainment options and data access.

The following reflects some of the benefits this implementation provides the home owner:

• Multiple computer sharing of an internet connection
• Sharing digital photos on the network and displaying them on television and computer screens
• Recording and viewing video entertainment via cable and pay-per-view video on demand.
• Closed circuit video within the home including access to video cameras externally via the Internet
• Homeowners will know their homes are "Future Proofed" and that new technologies will be easily accommodated by their new home.

A Structured Wiring System consists of three main components:

Central hub
The Central Hub is the point that accepts incoming services and distributes them throughout the home. This Central Hub is housed in a panel box. The wiring system consists of star wiring where all cables are home run to the central hub.

Wiring
A structured wiring system uses a wider bandwidth wiring system — typically CAT5E for phone, fax and high-speed digital computer transmissions and IR control and RG6 Quad Shield for cable TV, digital satellite, cable modem and high-speed interactive video services. The rule of thumb is the Home contains a minimum of the following:

• Two strands of Category 5 cable for each room for voice and data
• Two strands of RG6 coaxial cable for each room for video distribution.

The numbers of these cables would be increased for special considerations like a home office or a home theatre.

Wall plates.
The last, and most visible, component of a structured wiring system is the outlet. High quality wall plates — also called terminations — ensure a high performance end-to-end system. These wall plates make an attractive complement to the finish of the structured cabling in each room.