Stuart’s A/V install project–Part 5

Hello and welcome to part 5 of my A/V install project, I’ve got some new photos to show today, of the finished master bedroom and the installation in the children’s bedroom. Also the install speakers in the kitchen and the Windows Home Server plus network kit in the cupboard.

Master Bedroom Completed

Cables and connectors behind the bedroom chest of drawers

View as you walk into the master bedroom

37 Inch Samsung LCD TV, Cambridge Audio Azur 350A Amp, XBOX 360 Slim.

XBOX 360 Media Center Extender – My Movies 4

Children’s Bedroom – Install

This room was really an after thought, I didn’t plan initially to do anything in this room, however I decided to wall mount the little 19” Samsung LCD TV I brought back with me from Bangkok and buy a Linksys DMA 2100 Media Center Extender for the children.

This meant I had to purchase additional AV wall plates for this room and a TV bracket. As the TV is so small I had to position the AV brush face plate, network points and electric socket closer together so they would all still be hidden behind the TV. At a later date when money allows I plan to put in a larger 26” TV in this room.

As there was going to be less cables in the wall channel in this room, I used smaller trunking, 50mm x 25mm in the other rooms I used wider 100mm trunking in the walls.

I had to lift the floorboards in order to run the CAT5e network cable in to the room from the cupboard under the stairs, I also ran one Coax cable from the back of the TV, down the channel, under the floor and up in to the loft via the airing cupboard that is in this room.

Wall plastering

Just four AV wall plates at the bottom of the wall: HDMI, Component, Composite and 2X CAT5e in a single face plate.

I broke and snapped the skirting boards taking them off, they were well mounted with lots of nails, I had to buy new skirting boards and fit them for the finish.

That’s me, at that point - thinking I’ve still got allot of work ahead!

Not sure about the Green but hey I didn’t pick it. It actually looks OK now the room is finished just the one wall in dark green and the other 3 in a much lighter green colour. Here you can see the wall plates connected and terminated etc.

Cheap TV bracket bought on impulse from Asda, its not great but does the job for a tenner.

TV mounted - as the TV is so small it didn’t look right at the height I was going to mount it at, about 1.5 metres up from the skirting board, so I pushed it up the wall higher still, but the bracket doesn’t tilt down as much as I wanted now all the connectors are connected at the back, I may change the bracket if we get a larger TV for the children’s room.

I bought this TV in Bangkok and it only supports analogue channels 1-5, it does not pickup digital Freeview which I thought it might have.

Don’t paint your walls to soon after plastering, I rushed one wall in my bedroom as the carpet fitters were coming the next day and bits of plaster were coming off in the paint roller. You need to wait a good 3 days to be on the safe side.

Cupboard under the stairs

Here you can see my home made 6TB Windows Home Server in the cupboard under the stairs. I need to tidy the cables up, as I just threw everything in to get the network up and running, I had a 37Mbps BT Infinity fibre Internet connection installed at the beginning of the week as well! The BT Home Hub3 and the new VDSL modem are now located in here but you can’t see them on these photos.

The BT engineer was very good, he fitted a new larger BT master socket in the living room where the telephone is located and even used my existing CAT5e network cable I had put in place, from the master socket that then went under the living room floor and into the cupboard under the stairs, to extend - so I could have the new VDSL modem in the cupboard with the rest of the network kit and not in the living room on display.

Currently I am just using a small 8 Port HP ProCurve Gigabit switch which you can see sat on the PC. The Linksys ADSL router you can see has been replaced with the new BT kit.

Cambridge Audio A1 MK3 Amp is also located in the same cupboard and drives the wall mounted speakers in the kitchen via the audio out of the WHS PC. I am using Squeezebox Server software installed on the WHS and the iPeng iOS app on my iPod Touch to select and play the music. I have also installed SqueezeSlave on my Windows 7 Media Center PC in the living room and use the SqueezePlay built in to iPeng on another iPod Touch in the masterbed room. This gives me a 3 zone audio setup that can play different music in each room or the same music in all rooms playing in sync. Although sometimes its not always exactly in sync I need to tweak the settings in Squeezebox Server. Ideally I’d like to purchase some hardware Squeezebox players.

Speaker binding posts positioned underneath the amp and connect to the kitchen speakers. BT data socket for VDSL modem located to the left and 24 port patch panel below.

Eon Intelliplug to turn on the Cambridge Audio amp when the WHS wakes from S3 sleep

New Cambridge Audio Pro NFM10 install speakers, I bought for my kitchen. I don’t think you can buy this particular model anymore, these were a pair of new old stock I bought cheap off eBay. These speakers sound totally amazing with the Cambridge Audio A1 MK3 Amplifier and fill the kitchen and outside patio / decking area in the back garden.

Kitchen

NFM10 speakers mounted above kitchen cabinets, this was much easier than trying to install ceiling speakers in here.

Well that’s it for part 5, I think part 6 will be the last one. I have some more photos of the children’s bedroom and living room that are now finished and completed.