Quadplates and LAN cables

[matt1882]

Hi,

Looking for some advice on the best way to do this.

We are looking to add quad plates and LAN to rooms throughout the house. Most rooms will have more than one quad plate and LAN points in each room. For example:

Living room: 3 quad plate points and 3 lan points x4 in each corner of the room.

The cupboard under stairs was going to be a multimedia hub where I was going to put the aerial multiswitch, lan switch.

So there are two ways I thought of wiring the quad plates and was wondering if they are right or wrong or guides on how to do this and what the best option is:

Quad plates first:

Sat dish and TV Aerial on roof so going to run the cables from there to the aerial multiswitch which is in the cupboard under the stairs from there I was going to run a shotgun sat cable through the floorboards to each quad plate for example living room: will have 3x shotgun

Cables running from the multiswitch under the stairs and to the living room.

OR can I do this.

Sat dish and TV Aerial on roof so going to run the cables from there to the aerial multiswitch which is in the cupboard under the stairs from there run a shotgun cable through the floorboards to the room I want to feed the multiple quadplates which then I would put a non powered splitter under the floorboards to split the cable coming into that room to the quad plates.

With regards LAN I thought it will be like this.

LAN wise I was going to run the cable from each LAN plate back to the LAN switch in the cupboard under the stairs.

Example: Living room has 3x quadplates with 4 LAN cables on each point so there would be a total of 12 cables running back through the floorboards to the switch in the cupboard under the stairs.

Any advice on how to wire the quad plates and/or the LAN points would be great.

Thanks.

 

[freddo]

That's a lot of outlets! If the rooms aren't all that big I can soon start to look cluttered.

Quad plates first:

Sat dish and TV Aerial on roof so going to run the cables from there to the aerial multiswitch which is in the cupboard under the stairs from there I was going to run a shotgun sat cable through the floorboards to each quad plate for example living room: will have 3x shotgun

Cables running from the multiswitch under the stairs and to the living room.

Do this way, it will prevent problems if someone for some reason connects 2 sat recievers in the same room. If you don't want to buy such a large multiswitch just connect one set of cables for each room to the multiswitch, then they can be swapped around if the TV position is moved. Multiswitches with large numbers of outputs can be expensive.

With regards LAN I thought it will be like this.

LAN wise I was going to run the cable from each LAN plate back to the LAN switch in the cupboard under the stairs.

Run them all back to a network patch panel, then buy a network switch suitable for the number of points you are likely to use and patch the rewired points in with patch leads.

You can buy keystone patch panels that accept satellite F modules if you want to add all the TV points as a patch panel in the same cabinet then patch in the points you want to use to a small multiswitch.

 

[Mark42]

... Any advice on how to wire the quad plates and/or the LAN points would be great ...

I know nothing about the Tv stuff but LAN points I did in my own house a few years back. As Freddo says, run a UTP LAN cable (? CAT 6) from each RJ45 jack back to a IDC patch panel in the cupboard. This can be a rack-mounted item on either a simple open frame, or a short 17" rack (EBay is your friend!)

That way the structured wiring is finished and terminated before you even have to think about what switch/hubs etc to install. If you have loads of RJ45s all over the house, you don't of course need to buy a huge switch with enough ports for all of them at the same time. Simply swap the patch cables about as needs change.

And don't, as I did, forget to put some RJ45 jacks up at ceiling level - perhaps behind curtain rails etc - so you can add wireless access points, IP cameras etc without needing to run patch leads up walls. Especially if you have a PoE switch, adding kit later is dead easy.

Below is what I did, quite a few years ago now.

Good luck!

 

[Leesparkykent]

Are you having sky q?

 

[freddo]

Are you having sky q?

That's a load of laughs for this type of wiring, SCR mode and and a dSCR adaptor to the rescue!

Edit: unless you can afford one of those expensive Sky Q multiswitches.

 

[matt1882]

Thanks Freddo and Mark.

That's a lot of outlets! If the rooms aren't all that big I can soon start to look cluttered.

Thanks for the heads up the rooms are quite big.

Do this way, it will prevent problems if someone for some reason connects 2 sat recievers in the same room. If you don't want to buy such a large multiswitch just connect one set of cables for each room to the multiswitch, then they can be swapped around if the TV position is moved. Multiswitches with large numbers of outputs can be expensive.

Yeah i had thought this way is probably best. I suppose the the only issue i could potentially see is the amount of legs of sat cable and lan cable i will have to get back to the switch cupboard. Especially on the upstairs landing as this main route for cabling and is quite narrow it already has lots of 240v running through the joists at this section, so making new holes in the joists at this point could be challenging.

Are you having sky q?

No. well not at present. We are doing the house up room by room and i am trying to future proof as much as possible. So if there is anything you think i could be missing please let me know.