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Patch panel for video

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fs483

Technical User
Jul 7, 2002
977
CA
Hello,

I just helped a friend wire his new house for both video (RG6) and Network/phone (Cat5e). Each room has generally two wallplates on opposite sides of the room. Each wall plate has 2 RG6 and 2 Cat5e taped together and tied to the outlet box. I made sure to be on opposite side of the stud when there's an electrical outlet. All my cabling avoids the 220v lines and only cross any other electrical line at 90 degree angles. Since the electrician and plumber already passed by before I did my wiring, I made new holes to pass my cables. The ends are unterminated, I'm waiting for the sheetrock guys to pass by before I install the finished wall plates (I carefully hid the wires between the studs and left a pull cord tied to the metal box). All the cables (14 RG6 and 14 Cat5e) all come down to the basement in the utility room. All the cat5e cables are bundled together loosely and the same for the coax. Now, I couldn't leave the bundles between the studs (they are too large) so I installed a box (O shaped) and put all the wires (tapped toghether) through the box. Now hopefully when the sheetrock guys come and do the basement walls, they will carefully cut out the hole for the box and pass the two sets of wires throught the holes. Now I want to know if this is standard practice or eventhough the bundle of cable is huge, you still leave between the studs. I didn't want to do that because it would be very hard to pull the bundle out of the wall. After the walls are in, I'll be installing a patch panel for the Cat5e, that's not the problem. I want to know if there are any "patch panels" for video (Please show me pictures with links). Am I forced to terminate each coax cable and plug it directly an amplifier with multiple outputs directly ? Or use 6 port face plates and use barrel connectors that insert into the faceplates ? I prefer using patch panels, the job is more neat and easier for reconfiguration.

Since we spent two days and 2000 feet of wiring, we want to make everything nice. We took pictures of our work and will be putting it somewhere online so you guys can take a look and offer suggestions. I welcome any comment because I want to learn. If everything goes well, we will wire the houses of our friends also.

bootleg
 
Sounds like you did a very profesional job. Your best bet would be to find an elecronic supply house or an electrical supply house that has someone on staff that deals with low voltage. They will have what you are looking for and can help you pick out what you need for your installation.

Leviton, Open House, and several others have systems such as you have in mind. But you can do the same thing with off the shelf parts that is where the supply house will come in handy.
 
Sounds like you did a fine job. There are really a couple basic choices when you get all the cabling to the 'headend' or equipment room. Either you mount a flush wall cabinet like a circuit breaker box (Leviton,OnQ,OpenHouse,etc. take a look at smarthome.com) or you terminate the stuff on commercial type panels on a plywood backboard. I personally like to see the nice flush cabinet, it leaves a very nice finish, houses all your phone/data/video wiring, can have power for active components, and closes up nicely. If you don't want to do that (you can always cut one in between the studs after the sheetrock is up) you might consider a plywood backboard, a small hinged swing rack that can hold a patch panel. Since you want flexibility, I would purchase a patch panel that just has square holes in it. This kind of patch panel accepts keystone type jacks. So in each hole, you could put a Cat5 jack OR a USOC jack OR a CATV "F" barrel OR a fiber optic connector OR RCA video connector OR whatever. In this situation, you just populate the metal patch panel with whatever inserts you want based on the number or wires you have.

Just for ease of looking around, you might look at leviton since they have a whole line of those products for mounting on a plywood backboard. For a built in cabinet, you can get the idea from OnQ technologies.

Hopefully you ran solid copper center conductor RG6 if you are planning on doing anything other than TV signals. The standard copper coated steel RG6 is not so good for video.


Good Luck! It is only my opinion, based on my experience and education...I am always willing to learn, educate me!
Daron J. Wilson, RCDD
daron.wilson@lhmorris.com
 
Hello jeffbouldin,

I have the catalog of Levithon, Hubble, Nordx/CDT but haven't seen such a thing as a "patch panel for video". I mean, with the cables coming in from the back of the rack, throught the rack, then onto a bar with outputs. The ones from levithon (part 47690-6c, part 47690-38b are just basic splitters with the second one has amplification). I guess I'm looking for something like part 5f100-6vf but that can mount onto brackets that can be screwed onto the wall, not the ones that fit into Levithon Media boxes (which are very expensive). The thing I'm trying to get to is I don't really want to see a bunch of cables sticking out of the wall... Something neat. If everthing else fails, I guess I'll just take 5f100-6vf, remove the pins and try to find a way to attach it to the wall or just multiple Multi-port wallplates. Do you have Open House's website ?

Thanks
bootleg
 
Hello DarronWilson,

Thanks for the advice. I'll look into those patch panels with square holes in them. I just found one from Nordx (AX101456 at 40$ CAN for the 24 port) which fit the IBDN (EZ-MDVO) jacks/inserts that I was planning on using for the wallplates. As for the RG6, my friend asked for coax specifically for Video and Satellite grade. It's dual-shield, not quad, I guess for a small home, it's good enough, it's not a commercial business or something like that. The word satellite was written on the cable itself and yes it's solid copper, not the steel covered with copper.
 
BootLeg:

You and I would work well together! I'm basically doing the same thing in my house. I own an IT consulting firm and I like to do things perfect and neat. I've spent many, many months doing research on terminating all my wiring. I'll have roughly 40 CAT5e, 10-20 RG6 and Speaker Wire as well. I'm installing a wired and wireless LAN, Computer based phone system, 9 camera realtime monitoring/recording CCTV system and whole-house audio.

After many frustrated nights of research I went back to my favorite vendor and ordered a full catalog. AMP has everything you need. They have the "QuickPort" patch panels and jacks for CAT5e, RGx and even (and even I was amazed) Banana Plugs for Speaker Wire connections. I'll have a wall mount Hubbell (awesome) rack and terminate everything into it before I go to any equipment.

Of course, I've now begun to gut my utility room to prepare for all the wiring so I've been delayed quite a bit. But I did order all the rack equipment and jacks...they're sweet.

Keep me informed of your job and send some pictures!! I like to meet people who think like I do and take the time to research and do good work.

James Day
President
Cubla, Incorporated
Jackson, MS
james@cubla.com
 
Hello Cubla,

I've got the pictures, I'm just waiting to put them online. They should be online sometime this week. I'll give you guys the link once they are ready.

see ya
anthony
 
Sounds good. I did a similar arrangement (2 cat5, 2 RG6), but I retrofitted my "older" house. I got my patch panel, and inserts for either cat5 or RG6 (I used f-connectors) from a company called Miles-Tek ( Excellent service and equipment.
 
Cubla,
Look at OnQs PBX/KSU phone system module. It has to be the slickest item out there for structred wiring systems. The module does just about everyting you could want.
Jim C
 
Try it's a supplier here in Canada for basic networking stuff.
are "inserts" for coaxial plugs.

Look at this one for patch panel "with square holes" as discussed earlier.

Luc

MontrealSoft.com
 
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