ERFY
Auditioning
- Joined
- Mar 12, 2008
- Messages
- 9
- Real Name
- Erik
Hello,
I am Erik. I am currently building my first house, and have constructed a built in entertainment center, which is already framed up.
Seeing it now in person, it looked smaller on paper. But at any rate, I now need to figure out how to pre-wire this before the drywallers come in about 2-3 weeks.
I have attached 2 images which should show you what I am thinking, but I'll explain my scenario here, and post my questions.
In the one pic, you can see my devices and how I have it planned. Basically, the center speaker goes up on the top shelf in the center, the left and right fronts are on either side of the TV, the TV is in the center area, then the subs are in the bottom corners, and finally the devices are in the bottom area below the TV.
The unit is 2 feet deep. The entire bottom row will have glass/mesh doors, so it won't be totally exposed. Also, this entire thing is basically made out of "wall', its framed 2x4's and drywall, so there will be NO way to "run a cable behind the shelf/unit" or whatever. It's gotta be ran now, or I'll be drilling later
My idea in the 2nd pic is this:
Have the 5 speaker wires begin in the "device" area, and run to their positions in the smurf tube. Once they reach their spots, I can't decide if I should get the L/R post wallplates, or just run it out of a blank wallplate and drill a simple hole in the plate. Ideas on this? (also, the rears are in the ceiling, so they are okay).
Then, for the sub(s), since I don't really want/need to put power outlets in the bottom left/right area, I was thinking I could just have an open "port" the size of a one-gang that goes from each lower area to the center device area. That way, I can just run my sub cable and the subs power cable through the port and into the devices and outlets in the center. The sub areas will have black mesh doors, so you'll never see the port in the very back. Thoughts on this? I thought about doing it totally trick with outlets and sub wallplates, but then figured since I'l barley going a few feet away, why not just do a port and then it's 100% flexible and I can run anything I want through it. Thoughts?
The place where I am having the most trouble is the TV area, and how it will connect to the devices below. The TV will be mounted to the wall in the center of the area, but be around 15" away from the wall, for a "hovering" effect (and since the unit is 2 feet deep, I need to be able to see it from the sides!). So the cables will just to straight back into the wall by the mount.
First: Power. Do I put a outlet that will be up behind the TV (and out of sight) for power? Or do I just let the power be run back down to the devices using a long cable or a outlet extender (like the Firefold Power Bridge).
Second: Connectivity. At first, I wanted to do all these fancy custom wallplates and such, but the more I thought, the more I just want to do another open "channel" that runs down the wall from behind the TV, to the device area (which again, will have black glass doors so you can't really see the back wall). Then, I can just drop a component or HDMI cable or whatever I need from the top to the bottom and accommodate any setup I need.
I realize that this is sort of a... strange entertainment center. It's my first time doing this, and in my head it sounded like a great idea! But now I see that essentially I have a "store bought" style center, except its make out of wood and drywall and doesn't have any way to run cables that I don't prewire. But it's there, I like how it looks, and I want to use it.
If there are any thoughts on this, please let me know. The house was designed really nice by professionals, this is the only thing that I am doing myself, so I don't want it to be the black-eye of the entire place =D
P.S.
Oh and as a side note, the bottom-center area, its HUGE.... it didn't seem that huge on paper. I was going to put glass cabinet doors on it, but it seems way too big for that. I need to figure out what to do down there or else it's gonna look really bad. It's 2'9" tall, and 5'6" wide... not sure what to do.
I am Erik. I am currently building my first house, and have constructed a built in entertainment center, which is already framed up.
Seeing it now in person, it looked smaller on paper. But at any rate, I now need to figure out how to pre-wire this before the drywallers come in about 2-3 weeks.
I have attached 2 images which should show you what I am thinking, but I'll explain my scenario here, and post my questions.
In the one pic, you can see my devices and how I have it planned. Basically, the center speaker goes up on the top shelf in the center, the left and right fronts are on either side of the TV, the TV is in the center area, then the subs are in the bottom corners, and finally the devices are in the bottom area below the TV.
The unit is 2 feet deep. The entire bottom row will have glass/mesh doors, so it won't be totally exposed. Also, this entire thing is basically made out of "wall', its framed 2x4's and drywall, so there will be NO way to "run a cable behind the shelf/unit" or whatever. It's gotta be ran now, or I'll be drilling later
My idea in the 2nd pic is this:
Have the 5 speaker wires begin in the "device" area, and run to their positions in the smurf tube. Once they reach their spots, I can't decide if I should get the L/R post wallplates, or just run it out of a blank wallplate and drill a simple hole in the plate. Ideas on this? (also, the rears are in the ceiling, so they are okay).
Then, for the sub(s), since I don't really want/need to put power outlets in the bottom left/right area, I was thinking I could just have an open "port" the size of a one-gang that goes from each lower area to the center device area. That way, I can just run my sub cable and the subs power cable through the port and into the devices and outlets in the center. The sub areas will have black mesh doors, so you'll never see the port in the very back. Thoughts on this? I thought about doing it totally trick with outlets and sub wallplates, but then figured since I'l barley going a few feet away, why not just do a port and then it's 100% flexible and I can run anything I want through it. Thoughts?
The place where I am having the most trouble is the TV area, and how it will connect to the devices below. The TV will be mounted to the wall in the center of the area, but be around 15" away from the wall, for a "hovering" effect (and since the unit is 2 feet deep, I need to be able to see it from the sides!). So the cables will just to straight back into the wall by the mount.
First: Power. Do I put a outlet that will be up behind the TV (and out of sight) for power? Or do I just let the power be run back down to the devices using a long cable or a outlet extender (like the Firefold Power Bridge).
Second: Connectivity. At first, I wanted to do all these fancy custom wallplates and such, but the more I thought, the more I just want to do another open "channel" that runs down the wall from behind the TV, to the device area (which again, will have black glass doors so you can't really see the back wall). Then, I can just drop a component or HDMI cable or whatever I need from the top to the bottom and accommodate any setup I need.
I realize that this is sort of a... strange entertainment center. It's my first time doing this, and in my head it sounded like a great idea! But now I see that essentially I have a "store bought" style center, except its make out of wood and drywall and doesn't have any way to run cables that I don't prewire. But it's there, I like how it looks, and I want to use it.
If there are any thoughts on this, please let me know. The house was designed really nice by professionals, this is the only thing that I am doing myself, so I don't want it to be the black-eye of the entire place =D
P.S.
Oh and as a side note, the bottom-center area, its HUGE.... it didn't seem that huge on paper. I was going to put glass cabinet doors on it, but it seems way too big for that. I need to figure out what to do down there or else it's gonna look really bad. It's 2'9" tall, and 5'6" wide... not sure what to do.