Our cabling needs must be decided quickly so we can book the electrician. But, Roscoe’s research reveals, getting a movie screened in your very own home theatre is not as easy as plugging in the TV. Perhaps our needs are rare – we don’t watch normal TV, instead we tend to watch DVDs and internet material and play games, all directly off the computer. So all we need to do is beam a signal from the computer in the study to the projector and speakers in the lounge. Simple, right?
But a good quality video signal doesn’t go via wireless connections – it’s too big and fast. So a cable has to go somewhere. Or, to be specific, three places – the projector and (at least) two speakers, which are, naturally, on opposite sides of the room.
We don’t want cables lying around; we could get the electrician to bury them in the wall, but it would cost EUR 50 for each outlet – so I guess EUR 200 minimum before materials – steep!
And then there’s the high definition question. If you’re burying cables in walls, you want them future-proofed, rather than needing dug out again to upgrade in a couple of years. So do we get a costly high definition system? We’d need a data cable as well to use the inernet or play games. And audio cables. Suddenly it all seems complex.
An alternative is to leave cables accessible so they can be upgraded or added to when you want. The more subtle options for doing this are putting the cables under skirting board or under a cornice, between the ceiling and the wall. Special ones are made with cavities inside for the purpose. We’ve got balcony doors in the way so the skirting option won’t work for us. And the cornice option still requires wires to be trailed down walls to the ideal speaker height.
There just doesn’t seem to be an ideal solution.
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