A friend is building a house and wants me to do whole house audio, video, etc.

He's interested in making it computer network, phone, alarm, (and all that) ready.

I'm planning a central access panel, but wondered if you have a preference on a good system. I want it capable, but since it will be my first, I want it understandable.

I've picked up a project at a house with a Future Smart panel.

My local distributor (AVAD) has Open House.

Are one of these preferable, or are others even better?

I'm planning lots of RG6, and CAT5e, are there others I should run with future technology in mind?

Do you prefer bundled cables with the above, maybe even with optical included? Do these mean more work at termination and implementation time?

Thanks for any and all advice!

My A/V and cabling buddies run 2 Cat 5e and 2 RG6 to every drop.

I like Home Director and OnQ with HD being my preferred. Get the biggest can they have 48" I think or do two cans side by side for any future upgrades. The bundled cable is fine for this.. Run at least 2 Cat and 2 RG-6 with maybe an additional single phone line to each room depending on room. Also you could consider flex hose for any hard as hell spots just in case something needs to be retro'd in later you can just run through the flex tubing. Same thing for service line flex tubing for future.. Also consider cameras around the house, LAN networking, whole house audio with volume controls, IR ports, and a vacuum system...

We use open house and GreyFox, depending on application. We run ALL bundled cable including 2 RG-6 Quad, 2 Cat-5E and 2 multimode fibers. Makes for the ultimate in upgradeability.

I personally prefer the Greyfox (www.greyfox.com) over anything else because of the layout of their modules. I like the OpenHouse/Channel Plus if I need distributed IR control.

Look into Channel Vision's structured cabling components.
I am an ONQ and Futuresmart dealer. I think we are going to start using the Channel Vision.
It's high quality and much cheaper.

1 thing you'll is the high price of modules such as routers and hubs and KSU. They really seem to rape you on these. Usually the comapny will take a linkSys and bolt it to one of thier plates that fit in the panel and double the price. It's ard to pay so much for a hub just so it will fit in the panel. Channel vision doesn't rape you as bad on these type of items.

I like the stuff!
Jason Walter
electronics2you

We use the Open House stuff, for availability and pricing. They make a 36, 24, and 18 inch panel. In most situations I 'stack' a 36 and 24 inch panel(open house makes a coupler to connect the panels) this works great for most jobs, as I can put all the wall warts in the smaller panel with a surge protector. I can not stress enough the need for bundled cables. If you use Liberty wire get the CEBus cable with 2C5E, 2RG6Q, and 2 Fibers, for your Audio distribution use Liberty's AudioCat (14/4 with a Cat 5E) this will cover most different types of multi-room audio projects. At all entertainment centers go ahead and pull an additional C5E and RG6Q. Good Luck!

Tom, My company has installed many structured wiring panels. Personally, for my own house, I have installed a large sheet of ply wood and mount everything to it. If you keep the wire bundled and neat it will look just as good as a panel. Then you can buy the cheapest phone and video splitters and avoid the rediculous markup on OnQ and such. If you do go the can route, take the advice from the other replies and use multiple boxes to isolate sub-systems. It can get very crowded very fast. Good luck.

Another option to the "open plywood" panel is a Leviton Media Versatile Panel. This is a 6" deep, 24" high panel with plywood on the back. The extra depth and plywood allow just about anything that can be mounted (including 66-punch blocks), and still be covered. The panel will protrude from the wall about 1.5", and only comes in the 24" size, so for a big job you might want separate audio, video, and phone into their own panels.

I went the plywood way too, but I also have 19" equipment racks. Plywood is definitely the DIYer's way though. It's cheaper, and a hell of a lot easier to work with than a media box. The downside is the look of it. It looks like a piece of plywood with a bunch of splitters and wires all over it. I'm currently finishing a friend's basement and building a theater room, as well as cabling the rest of the house. I decided to go with the sheet o' plywood to save him money, and make it easier to work with. The media boxes seem...to me...like they'd only be good in a nice finished space, or when the wiring plan or distribution system is constantly being changed. Not upgraded....changed. It's like a multi-purpose patch panel. If it's going to be a permanent system, why install tons of jumper cables and little 5 port routers and ethernet switches? If he wants to spend the money on it, then by all means...give him what he wants. I just think sometimes they don't make the most sense.