located, areas where Wi-Fi hotspots need
to be strong for laptop or high-speed use—
don’t forget IOT devices such as doorbells,
security cameras, outside Wi-Fi access,
and streaming boxes (for example,
Amazon Fire or Google Chromecast).
Depending on your home’s construction
(older with internal brick walls or newer
with drywall), you’ll want to plan Wi-Fi
routers or Mesh systems. Don’t overlook
powerline options to extend network
reach at lower speeds. But our main
issue is routing Cat5/6a cabling between
key locations. Talking of cables, even
if you’re running Gigabit kit, you might
want to consider upgrading your cables
to Cat6a, as this supports 10 Gigabit LAN
speeds, if you should ever upgrade your
core network kit. You can largely ignore
Cat7(a) it seems, and Cat8 is for 40Gbit
applications, which is more suited to data
centers rather than your home.
Going 10GbE is a viable home option
as PCIe add-in cards are around the $100
mark and a suitable 10GbE switch with
two ports and eight Gigabit ports will cost
around $250, though it remains a good
chunk of outlay you could probably spend
elsewhere to better effect. A middle-
ground option would be to opt for 2.5GbE,which has gained momentum of late with
NICs at $30 and switches around $100.
Plenty of people will opt for a switch
and server (sometimes a blade) in their
garages, alongside other networked kit,
such as a CCTV recorder, which is a good
option, though bear in mind the security
issues, as your garage is more likely to
be broken into. We are planning to use the
dead area under the main staircase, so
ventilation is a concern, though it would
be simple enough to integrate a small fan.
Here, we will put the main cable router,
switch, a home server, CCTV recorder,
and powerline network box.
We will chase a two-inch deep narrow
trench across the concrete entrance
hall to route networking and power into
the main living area. The LAN is to be
extended to the home theater room and
the downstairs office area, and we’re
using the powerline to supply further
lower-speed Wi-Fi routers around the
home upstairs.
Concentrating on the theater room,
we have a dedicated LAN connection and
gigabit switch, with a WiFi5 (802.11ac)
base station plugged directly into this.
We have our “kit area” of the theater
room planned out, this will contain theCABLES
MATTER
One problem with home cinema
is that the source of the digital
stream is over there, while the
display is over here—‘there’
could be any distance from a
couple of feet to hundreds of feet,
so you will need lots of cabling
to connect here and there.
The problem is that HDMI 2.x
specification is pretty confusing
for consumers, and HDMI doesn’t
specify supported cable lengths
either. Many say 10 feet is the
maximum and, while that may be
good advice for buying random
Chinese HDMI cables from eBay,
it isn’t really accurate enough.
Part of the issue is that when
HDMI was originally created,
1080p was high-end and HDMI
connected a DVD Player to the TV
sat on top of it. Combine that with
the HDMI 1.x (max 4K @ 30Hz)
days and timing wasn’t as critical
over long(ish) cable lengths.
With the release of HDMI 2.0
supporting 4K at 60Hz data rates
jumped from an already high
10Gbit/s to 18Gbit/s and with
HDMI 2.1 to 48Gbit/s. Suddenly
blasting all of those bits, even
with quality twisted-pair
shielded cabling, over more than
10 feet becomes an issue.
Running a wall-mounted
projector, even with the player
kit directly below, is likely to
require a nine-foot HDMI cable.
For our installation, we’re more
in the 30-foot region, something
a casual read online might make
you think is impossible.
Cable experts, such as http://www.
infinitecables.com, certify their
cables and offer full refunds if
they don’t deliver. It supplies
passive 8K HDMI 2.1 cables up to
10 feet (for $8), 4K HDMI 2.0 up to
10 feet, and HDMI 1.4 capable of
4K at 60Hz up to 40 feet.
To retain full HDMI 2.0 support
beyond 10 feet, you’ll need an
active HDMI cable. Active HDMI
2.0 18Gbps capable cables go up
to 50 feet, a reasonable 35-foot
one will cost you $45. If you need
to go longer then active optical
HDMI can take this up to 100 feet
in length. It bumps the cost to
$170 but is worth every cent.The latest LG C1 models
offer a superb OLED
display for awesome color
contrast and fast refresh.Upfiring speakers can
be added to expand
your soundstage.Don’t skimp on your
cables, you’ll regret it.maximum theatre!
54 MAXIMU MPC MAR 2022
© LG