01 / THE BRIEF
A central room for a distributed system.
The property needed one central equipment room for its AV, networking, lighting control, security and reception systems, with cable runs to every room.
14 / INFRASTRUCTURE / PROJECT PROGRESSIONThe engineering
The engineering
behind the rooms.
One equipment room, photographed over a few weeks: from a growing mass of first-fix cables to dressed, bundled and populated racks.
THE HUB OF THE HOUSEOne room.
One room.
Ninety per cent of the house.
This room runs the whole of the house’s Control4 integration. Around 90% of the property’s infrastructure is cabled back to it: AV, lighting control, CCTV, the TV reception system and the alarm panel.
Almost all of this disappears behind closed doors once the house is finished, but it decides how practical a complex system is to run, maintain and extend. It’s also the part of our work clients most often comment on: people are amazed by how neatly the cabling and racks are left.
PHOTOGRAPHIC SEQUENCEFollow the infrastructure.
Follow the infrastructure.
See the progression.
The photographs show stages of a single commission over a few weeks. Stage names describe what is visible; they are not a dated construction programme.
First-fix cabling running through the building shell.
Services are pulled into the dedicated equipment room.
Cables laid out, grouped by type and destination, and identified.
Cables pulled back, dressed and bundled ready for termination.
Equipment going into the racks alongside the controls infrastructure.
Populated AV, network and control racks: the hub of the house.
THE PROJECT / ENGINEERING IN PRACTICE
The decisions behind the result.
02 / THE WORK, STAGE BY STAGE
Six stages of the build.
- First fix. Cable runs installed through the building shell before any finishes. On a job like this, the cable schedule is the design: every screen, speaker, camera, access point and keypad needs its cable in place now.
- Into the room. More and more cables arrive in the equipment room as the first fix progresses.
- Laying out. Cables laid out, separated by type and destination, and labelled so each run can be identified at both ends.
- Dressing. Cables pulled back, tidied and bundled, with service loops left so equipment can be pulled forward for maintenance without stressing the connections.
- Rack build. Equipment installed in the racks alongside the control panels.
- Populated racks. AV, network and control equipment terminated and commissioned.
03 / THE RESULT
Serviceable infrastructure.
An organised equipment room that another engineer can understand, and that keeps a large system serviceable and expandable long after handover.
THE TECHNICAL DETAIL / FOR THOSE WHO WANT IT
What’s in the racks.
The equipment that runs the house from this one room.
Control4 CA-10 and Core 5
Control4 CA-10 and Core 5 controllers form the control architecture for the whole house.
Distribution and amplification
WyreStorm HDBaseT and AV-over-IP video distribution to Sony televisions, with a lot of Arcam amplification driving the audio.
Sonance, including invisible
Sonance loudspeakers throughout, including plaster-in models that disappear completely into the wall finish.
Ruckus Wi-Fi and switching
Ruckus wireless access points and network switches carrying the control, AV and data traffic.
Dimmers, drivers and DMX
Lighting-control dimmer packs, transformers, and LED DMX controllers and receivers.
CCTV, alarm and reception
Hikvision CCTV, the alarm panel and the integrated reception system for TV signal distribution.
WHY IT MATTERS
Integration begins before the first screen is switched on.
Large AV and control installations rely on deliberate routing, sensible access and equipment layout. These photographs show the progression from a building under construction to a working equipment room, not just a selection of attractive finished rooms.
See a finished interior project ↗