PRE-WIRE LONG ISLAND
Who Lives At Home?
The best pre-wire plan to accomplish your smart home and entertainment goals begins with an audit of who will be living in the home. Unfortunately your infant or 3yr old will not stay that that age forever and will be complaining soon enough about slow WiFi for their video games. Teenagers will hopefully' move out on their own so that room may become an office or home theater. If you are taking care of elderly parents you have to consider their special needs as well. The amount of people in the home is important as well because of bandwidth demands. A family of three is much more lenient on a home network than say a family of five with a couple of hardcore gamers' and Netflix fanatics.
Wiring For The Future
With technology rapidly changing we look for the most flexible connectivity solutions emerging for tomorrow. A thorough pre-wire should be completed to satisfy needs over the next 10 - 20 - 30 years. In many homes today there are only high voltage electric cables, some obsolete RJ11 Telephone Jacks and hopefully an RG6 for your cable signal, that may be running up the exterior of your home. ATTYWON suggests a minimum of two conduits that run from your lowest floor to the highest (basement to attic) for future wire runs. These should be accessible at the head - end (rack area) and an opposite point of the dwelling. These conduits should also be accessible on all floors via a closet or hidden panel. You should also take into consideration the value of a proper wiring job when selling your home, it will be an attractive selling feature to technologists.
Depending On WiFi
WHY WIRE WHEN YOU CAN WiFi?
WiFi is amazing technology but it is not an unlimited resource. The more devices you connect to WiFi the less stable it becomes until something crashes or dies, ask any gamer, bad WiFi can get you killed! Any connected device that can be hard wired should be hard wired, especially streaming video and gaming systems. 4K content takes up massive bandwidth and if a few people are streaming it at the same time you will notice lag. Learn more about our WiFi Solutions here.
TV Back Box
Today's Smart TV's have everything built in and extremely thin but to get it close to the wall as design you will need a back box. The back box allows for the TV power plug to be recessed . It also gives room for surge protectors, power conditioners and other TV accessories that can be hidden including small cable boxes. We recommend running two or three cat6 or cat7 cables, an rg6 and a twisted pair for IR connectivity. Remember to hard wire your TV to the home network and not use the WiFi option, you will thank us later. Learn more about our Long Island TV Installations Here and Samsung Frame TV Mounting Here.
In-Ceiling and In-Wall Speakers
Having whole house audio or multi-room music starts with a proper speaker prewire especially on the first floor if there is a second floor. Once your home is built there will be zero access to run a wire up the wall and across the ceiling without major renovations. We suggest at-least pre-wiring the kitchen, bathroom and any other rooms people will gather in. Music moves us and even music at low levels creates a nicer ambiance for any occasion. In-ceiling, in-wall and invisible speakers disperse sound a lot better than a speaker on the counter and eliminates clutter. Does anyone ever have enough counter space? Learn more about our Home Audio solutions, Outdoor Speakers and Bollard Speakers,
Smart Home Keypads
Lighitng dimmers and switches are pre-wired by your electrician but smart home keypads / touch screens may need a Cat 6 / Cat 7 connection as well as 110v. We can help you understand the role of smart home keypads and touchscreens so you know where they should be located for optimal use. Learn more about Home Automation Here.
Motorized Shades
Motorized shades are one of the most missed or underrated devices on the pre-wire schedule. Smart shades can be either 110v or low voltage but a majority of today's popular motorized shades are pre-wired with a cat 6 / cat 7 cable and a low voltage power wire. Even if you are not immediately looking for motorized window coverings its best to run the wire for future use because battery shades over time cost a lot more. Learn more about our Lutron Motorized Shades here.
Smart Lighting
ATTYWON is your smart lighting experts who can prewire your system on Long Island. We can help you with Control4, Savant and Lutron lighting systems. These solutions are extremely convenient, make your home safer and save energy, which means reduced utility bills. Learn more about our Smart Lighting systems here.
Smart Appliances
You may have heard the buzz words, smart fridge, smart over or smart washer and dryer but they have not hit main stream yet. We recommend running a Cat 6 / Cat 7 cable to each appliance, its inexpensive enough now while your pre-wiring your home but once the kitchen or Landry room is complete it will be pretty costly to add those connections via copper wire.
Cable Modem
Many people over look the cable modem location or leave it to their cable service provider. A great pre-wire plan will keep this utility hidden but accessible. This is the device that brings intenet and cable into your home from the pole outside. The modem then connects to your TV and router.
Router
As mentioned above your router receives a network signal from the modem and then "routes" it to other devices through your home. This creates a LAN (Local Area Network) enabling devices to communicate through cat5 / cat6 wires. The router is also responsible for your WiFi traffic with optional WAP's (Wireless Access Points) throughout your home.
WAP Wireless Access Point
Most routers are unable to cover your entire home and need a little help. You will need to pre-wire for WAP's with a Cat6 / Cat7 cable that connects to the router (or network switch). WAP's give you a stronger signal in the local area away from the router. Power is provided through the Ethernet cable as well.
Media Sources
Cable / Satellite boxes, media players and video games should all be hard wired as we have cautioned before. Remember, you can also hide smaller units in the back box behind the TV. Most of these units require a cat6 or cat7 connection that goes back to the router or network switch.
Home Theater Receiver
Pre-wiring for your home theater receiver is a task all in its own. Speaker wires, video signal wires, network cable and other signal wires need to be planned well ahead. We always recommend wiring for a 9.2 speaker system so you leave room to grow over the years. Dolby Atmos is still in its infancy and as we spend more time at home its probably better to prepared for easy upgrades. Learn about our in house Long Island home theater solutions here and our Luxury Home Cinema Designs here by TKG, The Theo Kalomirakis Group.
Security Cameras
There are plenty of outdoor cameras that connect via WiFi but pre-wiring for security cameras will save WiFi bandwidth for devices that do not have a direct copper wire connection. There are two typical wires used for cameras, cat6 / cat7 or coaxial with a twisted pair. Cameras that use POE (Power Over Ethernet) need a cat 6 / Cat 7 that will provide power, video and adio if available. The coaxial and twisted pair wire are used for powering the camera and video signal. Learn More about our security cameras here.
Security Sensors
Window Sensors, Door Sensors, Water Sensors and other security sensors all play a critical part in your home security system and these should be pre-wired when building your home. The more wireless devices you have the more susceptible you are to hackers.