Introduction

These pages cover the installation of home A/V setup. Most people these days have access to cable/satelite TV as well DVD, VCR and PC's. However most poeple can only watch DVD/VCR in their front room, use the PC in study/bedroom, etc. In the following information I will show you just how easy it is to rig up a very cool intergrated home system.

Project aims

Ability to view any TV service (live or pre-recorded) anywhere in the house. Ability to listen to any music source anywhere in the house. Ability to control any aspect of the system from anywhere in the house.

Equipment list

A/V equipment in the house

- TV 25" 4:3 TV, 1 RF, 2 AV inputs, external speaker outputs
- TV 14" 4:3 TV, 1 RF, 1 AV
- TV 14" 4:3 TV/Video unit, 1 RF, 1 AV
- DVB-T STB, 2 AV, 2 RF (I/O)
- DVB-C STB, 2 AV, 2 RF (I/O)
- VCR, 1 AV, 2 RF (I/O)
- VCR, 1 AV, 2 RF (I/O)
- Hi-Fi, 2 EXT, 1 Pre, 1 Power, 1 Surround, external speakers outputs
- PC, DVD drive, Creative DXR-3 MPEG-2 decoder, SBLive!, RagePro + TV o/p, Haupagge WinTV

Current installation plan


Click image to get larger view

Note: Traces in red indicate incomplete wiring at present stage.

Command & Control

Most of the equipment has some form of IR control interface. Since most of the IR based equipment is located in the front room it makes sense to extend the control from the rest of the house to this location.

Enter the IR extender units...

These unit ares supplied as one Tx and one-many Rx. The Rx unit picks up IR transmissions in the room and modulates to RF, which is recieved by the Tx unit. The Tx retranmits the IR patterns. Neat, no conversion or protocols to worry about.

House Hub

Using a PC in always on mode monitoring each room is fine, but very wasteful of power and resources. Since most of the time the PC is not in use. Using a small embedded PC as a monitor / power control for the main server, saves time and improves response for non-PC activities (e.g. routing music to bathroom).

The mains relay unit consists of an IIC interface device, such as 8574, small driver circuit and mains relay. Since most of the equipment to be controlled by this device is in the same room I have decided to built a 4 way unit.

to add, photos, schematics and software