Pre-wiring a house. What cables and where to run them?

Posted by Felipe Penaloza on

I've been reading a lot on here about wiring our new construction for audio/computer/video....but I just want to make sure I get all my wires straight.
We're hoping to do some of the audio, security, etc wiring ourselves so if someone could tell me if I'm not missing anything I'd really appreciate it.

What we want to do:
~Hook the TV up to a cable or satellite service.
~Stream things from our computer onto the TV (if you can do that)
~Multi-zone audio with multi volume and source control (preferably using a smart phone or ipod/ipad) (want my sources or audio to be TV, music from ipad/smart phone or computer)
~security system with cameras
~be able to connect a computer to the wall and have internet access or access files on other computers
~wi-fi throughout house

My question is what cables do I need for each of the things on my list?

Main TV viewing area:
What would I want to run to this area? I've read people suggesting 2 coaxial, 2 cat6...etc.
What should be in that panel?
My guess: I know that there needs to be a coaxial cable to hook the tv up to cable or satellite and a cat6 in case your tv needs to be hooked up to the internet. What else would you put here?
Would your speaker wires run to here to be able to use your tv as a source in your whole house audio or would a wire come from the volume control or would it come from the central location (in our basement)?

Office:
So assuming the box I get from the cable company is in the basement, I'm assuming I'd have my wireless router down there too?
Would I then have another wireless router in my main computer area on the first floor?
So what cables would I need?
My guess: 1 cat6 to get internet for the computer, 1 cat6 for a wireless router??, 1 coaxial in case I want a tv there, 1 cat6 for a phone if I want it there.

Additional computer area:
So lets say I wanted to hook a laptop in the kitchen to the internet and also be able to print to my printer in the "Main Computer area" what would I need.
My guess: cat6 for internet, but what to be able to print (does that just work when you network the computers with the cat6)?

All Bedrooms:
So I'm guessing the in the bedrooms I'd want 1 cat6 so everyone can hook into the internet and 1 coaxial for a tv. In the master bedroom I'd do an extra cat6 (or cat5?) for a phone.

Connecting computer to TV:
what would I run and where to be able to see my computer screen on the tv and from what locations would I run it?

Whole house audio:
My understanding is that I'd connect each speaker in the room to the volume control and then a cat6 would run from the volume control to the basement where it would connect to a amplifier/controller and is it there that I would connect a piece of equipment that would allow me to wireless control all of the sources and volume in the whole house?
What would I run from my tv to use it as a audio source? Would a cat6 just run from the tv and connect into the amplifier?
How would I play music from a playlist on my computer/smart phone/ipod?

Additional Phone locations:
Run a cat6 or cat5 from anywhere I want a phone hard wire down to my central location in the basement.

Hooking up the Cable/satellite:
I know our area doesn't have cable yet but it probably will one day so I'd want to be prepared for both. I'm assuming I should have a Coaxial? running from attic to basement that could be used to hook in the sattelite. Does it need a plug too?

Security Cameras:
I haven't done much research here yet so any suggestions are welcome, I'm assuming that we'd run cat6 from camera down to our central location and plug it into something?
but if we want to see it on the tvs would we then run a cat6 back up to the tv even though there is a cat6 already there?

Security Systems:
haven't looked into this yet either. I was thinking the system that detects if glass was shattering since a motion detection system wouldn't work with pets.

HDMI - is there a reason to wire a house with HDMI cables? where would it go? (Would I use this to run from TV to the cabinet where the dvd player will be located (to hide all the wires))? if so how many should i run for whatever electronics i might want to add? Are there any other cords I should run from the tv to this cabinet?

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