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If you are considering doing custom wiring to your home, you should do your research and understand all your options. Many times home builders will not present all the options available to you. They will follow their list of options and be quick to say "no". If you are building with a national builder, you may need to be more adamant and put up some cash up front. Just about any custom builder will go above and beyond your expectations.

With any home construction project you will have floor plans to review. I will assume you have already visually determined where your furniture will go and how you will design the interior. I highly suggest making a copy of the floor plan and use colored pencils to place your low voltage outlets and hardware. Use different colors for your speakers, satellite receivers and network cables as these all require different types of wires. The wires should all lead back to one central location. This is where you will put your control panel. Typically people like to have this located in a closet or even the laundry room.

Central control panels offer you the best possible solution for keeping everything organized. If you have the space to add some shelving beside it you can be even more flexible. You can put your network router as well as your DVD player and audio receiver on the shelves and control them through an infrared control from anywhere in the house (assuming you wire for one). This can allow you to send the DVD (or DVR) signal to each and every television that's wired in so you don't miss out when you are making a drink run or popping some pop corn.

Low voltage wiring in new home construction is quickly becoming a new standard in today's high tech market. Although computer networks are quickly moving toward the wireless sector, certain electronic connections are still needed for full home audio, video and security. More and more homes are preparing their home not just for cable, but for the complete expansion of their home theater with the complete whole house video and audio capabilities.

Low voltage wiring is much more affordable to install once the house has been framed and before drywall goes up. Home builders are quickly adding in multiple satellite television lines leading up into the attic for easy installation of your dish. Lines for an additional satellite radio antenna are also becoming more abundant to boost the signal of this technology from within the home. It is now more affordable then ever for whole house audio to play music from a central control panel or direct from your living room receiver. Speakers with volume controls can be installed just about anywhere in your home during construction. If you wait to long, it may be impossible to wire additional rooms on separate floors without significant investments and renovations.

Theater rooms are the new craze these days. Home owners used to dream about turning that huge bonus room into a pool room with an eight foot table. Now they dream about their 60" high definition plasma screens with 7.1 surround sound and plush theater seats. Their dreams of the pool hall are quickly turning into dreams of being the ultimate gamer or arm chair quarterback while watching their favorite team on NFL Sunday Ticket.

The options don't stop there. We are now seeing an increase of home appliances and electronic components that are network ready. Many of these new products are not capable of wifi or receiving satellite signals. They require a hard line into your home network. Wiring your each room in your home with an additional cat-5 line will allow you the greatest amount of flexibility for future compatibility.

Never forget that you also need to protect this investment. While wiring your new "Smart Home" do not forget that the majority of home security wiring falls with the low voltage area. Most contractors who wire your home for audio and video will also represent your major security companies like ADT and will be able to wire your home accordingly. Wireless window and door connections are clearly visible. When the doors and windows are hard wired during construction, you cannot see the contacts stuck to the hardware. Now is the time to determine what to protect along with what detectors you would like installed (carbon monoxide, fire, flood, glass break). Always remember to get the battery backup and cellular options if they are available.

Put some thought into your floor plan and you will be pleased with the end result for years. Remember that your low voltage options expand well beyond a few satellite dish feeds and home security wires. You can expand it as far as your imagination and budget will allow. Never build for now. Build your home for tomorrow and you will be happy for years to come.

See Also - Onkyo TX-SR706 Receiver Sony STR-DH500 AV Receiver Onkyo TX-SR806 AV Receiver

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