I recently purchased a new home, and anyone serious about home audio/video (like me) knows that moving is an opportunity to "do it right this time." The home is new construction, but unfortunately the builder didn’t do obvious things like run CAT5, so I’ll be doing a bit of "remodeling" with the help of my brother-in-law (who’s a great electrician) to do a clean installation. I thought I’d share the process with everyone, including pictures, in case it is of any help. I’ll start this series with what my goals are, and my new purchases to get the job done.

My primary goals are to: conceal all wiring and make the installation look as minimalistic as possible (while also future proofing), preserve as much floor space as possible, and ensure the entire entertainment/lighting experience can be easily controlled. Because of these goals, I’ve decided to sacrifice one of three (the middle one) small windows on the only wall a TV could possibly be mounted. Using a piece of AV furniture would have been way easier, but remember, my goal is to maximize floor space. There is a lot of light from other windows in the room, so I’m not really loosing anything if the install turns out the way I plan.

Seriously, this place was not designed for a media enthusiast. As fate would also have it, the built-in shelving system next to the fire place, where I had planned to place my equipment, is not wide enough for AV components. I could put an AV rack in my garage below the living room, but running up-and-down the stairs in the event I want to watch a DVD would be a pretty bad experience. I’m up for the challenge, so decided to cut out the shelves and custom install a Middle Atlantic swiveling AV rack. This will definitely require some custom work to keep with my goal of looking minimalistic.

Lastly, I’ll have to mount my surround left and right speakers (dipole drivers) on the back wall because I’d prefer to not hang the right one from a roof mount to keep decent symmetry. As you can see from the above picture, the main floor is very open and I feel having a roof-mounted surround over the main walk-way would not be aesthetically pleasing. The rear wall is about 4 feet behind the main listening position, so I’m not worried about this placement.

Here’s my order from Blue Jeans Cable:

• (2) 25-foot HDMI Series-1 Belden Bonded-Pair
• (2) 25-foot 1694A component video
• (1) 30-foot LC-1 subwoofer cable
• (1) 35-foot 1694A RF (coax) cable
• (3) 3-foot 1505A RF (coax) cable
• (2) 3-foot 1694A (coax) digital audio cable
• (2) 3-foot optical digital audio cable
• (1) 250-foot spool Belden 12AWG 5000UE speaker cable
• (1) 25-foot wire for IR blaster in rack (1/8" jack)

Gulp! My next post will show how I run the wires and how I’ll mount the TV. Following posts will show the finished product with tidy wiring job. I’ll show off my Vista Media Center too.

Advice is always welcome (but you’d better speak up now because I have a lot of work to do and I’m moving in 4 days!)

I have to admit I love the new Mac Vs. PC claymation advertisement. The Bumble used to scare me when I was little, so I laughed. The only thing I would do to change it is add a clay version of Cousin Eddie from National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Tool continues to improve the visual depth of their show to the same degree of their music and lyrical artistry. Lateralus was nothing less than stunning many years ago and 10,000 Days topped it. I’ve been fortunate enough to see their latest tour both times the band passed through the Seattle area; hands down the best live performances I’ve ever seen. The first picture below is an example of how lasers we’re incorporated (a clever cloudy sky effect happened when smoke was mixed with a horizontal laser array above the crowd during Wings for Marie and 10,000 Days). The second picture shows the mohawk Maynard was sporting this time around along with his trademark contorting display vis-a-vis microphone stand. MJK’s cowboy hat is a fixture on this tour; which I suspect has no doubt become an important accessory while winemaking in the hot Arizona sun.