Recently one of my clients asked us to introduce him to our low-voltage contractor to discuss structured wiring in his custom 7,000-sq.-ft. single-family home. Paul, who’s naturally thorough and detailed, an analyst and an IT specialist for a Wall Street investment firm, decided to get familiar with structured wiring.

Structured wiring combines all communications wiring into one system, which may include wiring for a home network, telephone, video, audio, alarms, infrared remote control and Internet remote access to all home systems. The main advantage of a structured wiring system is having a central location where all wiring returns to a single control room.
It was not long before Paul knew what he wanted to accomplish. Then I asked Paul the following questions:

Q: What are your primary objectives in the design of your system?

A1: To design a home system that is “future-proof.” So, prior to sheetrock, I elected to put in as much wiring in the walls as I possibly could. For my home network capability, nothing beats a wired network for security and reliability. We included fiber in the cable bundle to allow for high-bandwidth, high-definition content to be routed throughout the home.

A2: The ability to access my media from anywhere in the house. We wired the house to enable media to be stored/located in one place but played/viewed/listened to anywhere in the house.

A3: To achieve lighting automation. Given the size of the house and number of lights, we didn’t want huge six-, eight- and 10-gang light switches where you need a labeling system to decide which switch does what. This was a primary reason for the control room setup.

Q: Paul, what website resources were most helpful?

A: The following websites helped: smarthome.com; lutron.com; litetouch.com; kaleidescape.com; axonics.com; and electronichouse.com.

Q: You met with four low-voltage specialists. Why did you select the winning bidder?

A: None of the bids were the same. Two were very similar in terms of scope and content. The third did not do lighting, so they were eliminated. While I can and do a lot of research, I still expect the specialist to be able to educate me about the choices we need to make. The answer, “We can do whatever you want” isn’t good enough. I need their expertise with choices/options along with pros
and cons.