Topic '[CATV] Evansville structured wiring question' in forum 'Inside Insight' - dslreports.com

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 15:45:01 EDT

bfollowell3 posted :

I was linking that box as being your structured media panel, as traditionally those panels are located next to your fuse panel/breaker box that feeds the whole house.

True, I figured as much. But, in my area, most new construction winds up having the breaker panel in the garage; just about the worst place for a structured wiring panel because of heat. Sometimes, depending on how the house is laid out and how it sits on the lot they may use a laundry/utility room but I'd say the garage is used about 90% of the time.

Also, I'm sure I'd wind up using a box similar to that but it would be way too small for my needs. I know they make larger though.

Thanks again for all the info.

- Byron

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:53:34 EDT

OSUGoose posted : I was linking that box as being your structured media panel, as traditionally those panels are located next to your fuse panel/breaker box that feeds the whole house.

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 13:39:02 EDT

bfollowell3 posted :

said by OSUGoose:

well if you end up running them to one of these:

»www.lowes.com/pd_248356-60784-36···+legrand

All you would have from Insight (and its hit and miss when they do it) is a grey box simiar to a Telephone NID that has the cable co's feed from their pole or pedestal, going to a ground block, that then has one line going inside to the above panel i linked to where they would install their splitter and amp if needed. Thus if you changed providers they would install their own grey box and run their own line inside to the same box i linked to, all that changes is vs 1 grey box u'll now have 2 on the outside and 2 lines coming in the house, make sense?

OK, I think I see what you're saying. I could put that box or one similar inside close to where the cable company box is. They would run their wire inside to that box. I'd run all of my coax runs back to that box and inside they'd connect their line to all of mine using whatever combination of splitters and amps may be required. They'd likely also split out the Internet feed here which I could tie in to my structured wiring panel which probably won't be located in the same place as this box. From there I could tie-in all of my ethernet drops, phone drops, etc.

Thanks.

- Byron

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 23:02:16 EDT

OSUGoose posted : well if you end up running them to one of these:

»www.lowes.com/pd_248356-60784-36···+legrand

All you would have from Insight (and its hit and miss when they do it) is a grey box simiar to a Telephone NID that has the cable co's feed from their pole or pedestal, going to a ground block, that then has one line going inside to the above panel i linked to where they would install their splitter and amp if needed. Thus if you changed providers they would install their own grey box and run their own line inside to the same box i linked to, all that changes is vs 1 grey box u'll now have 2 on the outside and 2 lines coming in the house, make sense?

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:48:36 EDT

bfollowell3 posted : OK, one final question. This concerns living in an area that has multiple service providers.

Let's say I run all of my lines, ten, twenty, however many there are, back to the side of the house for the cable company to do their thing. Then, a year or two later, their quality and/or service takes a nose dive. Or let's say they raise their rates twenty percent and they're no longer the best deal in town. For whatever reason, I decide to jump ship and switch to one of their competitors. All of my lines are neatly bundled up in my walls and go back to cable company X's box. How does cable company Y get to them now? Would they actually come and remove their box so that another company could access my house wiring? I've never lived in an area that has had more than one provider available but the area I'm planning to build in has at least two.

Thanks again guys for all of your help.

- Byron

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:43:12 EDT

bfollowell3 posted : OK, I guess that makes sense. I still don't see why I would have that many more splices than the if the cable guys do it. If nothing else, I certainly understand it from the point of troubleshooting down the road if problems were to arise.

As far as my experience with cable companies using low-quality splitters or amps, keep in mind that I did mention it's been over four years since I had any experience with "wired" cable/Internet. I'm sure a lot's in changed in the four years I've been living in the technological sticks.

Thanks again to everyone for your advice. It's definitely been helpful.

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:39:17 EDT

bfollowell3 posted :

said by news :

You asked to give you advices, it is what we do... :)

You're right, I did, and I do appreciate it. I just want it to make sense to me too. I'm trying to learn a little something too, so that I don't wind up making too many mistakes.

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:32:30 EDT

anon posted : By the way, Monster Cable don't build Line splitters, couplers or cable taps for cable netwoks, Regal Technologies, Antronix do and they are much less expensive than Monster Cable.

»www.antronix.net/

»www.arrisi.com/product_catalog/regal.asp

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:31:30 EDT

anon posted : You tell us you want to use a 20 or 30 dB amplifier for each feed coming from the cable box to feed your tv's. Do you know, the distribution amplifier from the cable company feeding your entire street has an output of about 36 or 38 dBmv on channel 3 and about 45 or 48 dBmV for the higher channels.

If your signal at the input of your 20 dB amplifier is 5 dB on channel 3, you will have 25 dB, it's very high to feed a 4-way or 8-way splitter. You are not feeding a street.

The best thing to do, is to bring all the cables to one location and let the cable guy installing what he need to install. All the splitters, amplifiers installed by cable companies are SCTE certified and are build by the same manufacturers building distribution amplifiers, line splitters, connectors for the cable networks.

You asked to give you advices, it is what we do... :)

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 21:23:12 EDT

OSUGoose posted : You want as little as "splices" in the line between the cable box and the main input. Bear in mind every wall jack is just a fancy barrel connector so you will get a lil signal loss from that. Insight recommends that from the cable box it goes to the wall outlet, from that a straight run to their splitter that has the main incoming signal being distributed. Having one line running to the second floor while sounds great, is actually going to cause problems. as whatever splitter get used in the craw space in the attic if it goes bad will cause problems for every line hooked up to it. And the line about Insight using low quality splitters or amps, is wrong. Don't believe the Radio shack or Monster et al hype, what the cable company uses has been tested for their system. Lately they have been using Regal or Commscope splitters and Emerson Network Power Amps.

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 19:34:54 EDT

bfollowell3 posted : OK, I guess I'm having trouble understanding what the difference between what I'm suggesting and what you're suggesting is. I want to run the wires back to my panel where I'll have my high quality splitters and, if needed, amps. You say no, this will cause no end of trouble. Then you suggest I run all 12 or 15 or however many lines I have back to the cable box and let the cable company use their splitters and amps instead. Other than them using what in my past experience has been really cheap, low-quality splitters and amps, rather than me using mine, what is the difference in who splits & amplifies and why would it make a difference?!

I'm not trying to be difficult but what you're suggesting makes absolutely no sense to me. I'm very likely missing the boat somewhere so someone please help me understand the logic of this reply.

Thanks.

- Byron

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Sat, 16 Jun 2012 15:07:59 EDT

OSUGoose posted : Home Run them, do not amp and split, will create nightmares diag Dig Cable issues. I've home ran to a leviton structured medial pannel. have one incoming line from insight that they installed their own amp, then fed out to their own 8 way splitter, before the amp they tap and splitted to the internet and phone modems.

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:58:35 EDT

bfollowell3 posted : Well that's sort of what I was thinking. I was thinking of taking three wires out from my panel out the side of the house to the cable box. I was thinking of boosting each of these with a 20 or 30db amplifier and then splitting each of them 4 ways using Monster Cable 2GHz 4-way splitters to branch out to all my runs around the house.

I haven't been where I could have real wired cable or Internet for about five years and I know things have likely changed a lot but in my experience, most installers have used fairly cheap, low quality splitters and amps, if they used amps at all.

That's why I was curious what others may've done/used. Then, unless I misunderstood him, Singular suggested doing a dedicated run for each drop... It sounds like my initial idea may've been right on the money after all.

Also, for what it's worth, I think the garage is the most common place for the main electrical service anymore but because of heat, I'm not certain that would be the best location for my distribution panel.

Thanks.

- Byron

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 14:24:02 EDT

anon posted :

said by bfollowell3:

I thought about running the way you suggest but having twelve cable runs come out the side of my house to a cable box seems sort of ridiculous. Heck, I think the cable guy would think I was insane. If you look at any structured wiring plans, forums or websites, everyone has high end splitters in their plan. I think it's a fairly common practice.

Still, if that's what people normally do. Anyone else suggest this?

Thanks for the reply.

- Byron

I don't know what you want to do exactly, but the most important is to bring all cables to one location (home run), habitually the power panel, where the ground is located. You or the cable guy can bring only one or two cables from this central location to outside where the cable drop is located on the house (habitually at the power meter).

You can always let the cable guy do the connectors and install the appropriate splitters and/or amplifier if needed, when he will come to install the cable services.¨

Daisy Chain wiring is today obsolete in catv world and Home Run is the way to go if you don't want issues with your services.

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:19:05 EDT

bfollowell3 posted : Well, I have satellite and, for the life of me, I cannot understand why anyone would ever consider satellite if they had wired cable available. I have satellite television and Hughesnet Internet right now for one reason and one reason only; that's all I can get.

I thought about running the way you suggest but having twelve cable runs come out the side of my house to a cable box seems sort of ridiculous. Heck, I think the cable guy would think I was insane. If you look at any structured wiring plans, forums or websites, everyone has high end splitters in their plan. I think it's a fairly common practice.

Still, if that's what people normally do. Anyone else suggest this?

Thanks for the reply.

- Byron

Re: [CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 09:29:35 EDT

Singular posted :

said by bfollowell :

I am planning to build a house on the north side of Evansville in an area that is serviced by Insight and Wow. I've had Wow before but it's been about 4 years so I'm certain things have changed a lot. Insight seems to be running about $30 cheaper a month for comparable services so I'm thinking of trying them.

I'm planning a major structured wiring project throughout my new home with cable/cat6 ethernet/telephone drops in every room. My question concerns the best rf splitters to use. I'm planning to have quite a few cable drops throughout my house and was curious what brands/types/specs of splitter any of you doing something similar may have used. I guess I'm concerned with what may be compatible with Insight's equipment.

I'd also be curious to hear what Insight service & quality are like in the Evansville area.

Thanks to anyone that may be able to offer any advice.

- Byron

You really should do a home run for each cable run. That way if you ever want to switch to satelittle you already have home runs. That and the less splitters you have in your cable setup in your house the better. If you must do splitters then you will want to use a high quality 0-at least 1Ghz splitter but I would recommend to 3Ghz and then it will support Directv's SWiM technology if you ever decide to switch to it.
--
-Singular

[CATV] Evansville structured wiring question

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 00:57:18 EDT

anon posted : I am planning to build a house on the north side of Evansville in an area that is serviced by Insight and Wow. I've had Wow before but it's been about 4 years so I'm certain things have changed a lot. Insight seems to be running about $30 cheaper a month for comparable services so I'm thinking of trying them.

I'm planning a major structured wiring project throughout my new home with cable/cat6 ethernet/telephone drops in every room. My question concerns the best rf splitters to use. I'm planning to have quite a few cable drops throughout my house and was curious what brands/types/specs of splitter any of you doing something similar may have used. I guess I'm concerned with what may be compatible with Insight's equipment.

I'd also be curious to hear what Insight service & quality are like in the Evansville area.

Thanks to anyone that may be able to offer any advice.

- Byron