Hi Chaps,

a big thankyou to theatreworks for the symbols - most appreciated indeed.

which now leads me onto wiring diagrams ... moreso the diagram to show which kit is connected to which - like a flowchart to explain eg; cd player --> amp --> speakers

rather than a diagram to explain white/black cable connect to white socket on cd player, red cable connects to red on cd player and which cable to use.

apologies if this doesnt make much sense, im bunged full of cold and high on cold remedy (well.. not high.. but i cant seem to think as straight as normal..)

would anyone be kind enough to email me a sample of a *standard* home cinema install - purely as i've never seen one before and i'd like to create a professional looking document (which is a little difficult as i havent anything to reference my document to be)

kind regards,
Jonathan.

The idea of creating a STANDARD home theater installation has been the unholiest of grails for quite a while. Every client wants something slightly different, so the diagram that has been slaved over is now just a relic of an earlier day....

What I have found most worthwhile is to adopt standard thinking procedures so that you can look at an installation you did three years ago and recognize what was done. Your example of red to red and white to white is one example of this kind of thinking; we have added to it for habits of which digital input to use for which component (do nothing creative, but instead hook it up the way the instructions say) ( ! ), what the speaker color code is, where the power strip goes (behind the VCR because it is rather shallow and easy to move out of the way)...things like that.

My drawings contain...

AUDIO - analog unbalanced (black), balanced (blue), 5.1 (magneta), digital (orange), speaker level (red)

VIDEO - baseband (black), balanced (blue), digital (orange), RF (magneta)

CONTROL - serial (black), IR (red), LV or relay/contact (magneta), 120VAC (green), IP (blue)

POWER - all black, but do specify connections as AC (other), IEC, PS, etc...

This has worked well for me and the technicians that I work with. I'm less concerned about specifying color codings and what not, as I'm confident in the techs' capabilities to hook stuff up, but I do provide enough detail that there is no question as to what manner the equipment should be connected. I work in Visio as it seems to be most streamlined for drawings like these. Is there a way that I can attach a PDF to this message as an example? Otherwise people are free to solicite me directly for examples.