Home theatre wiring issue

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Goosey

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#3469639 13-Mar-2026 11:11

Ethernet a must.

with “Dante” being somewhat the industry standard for live productions, I’m guessing it won’t be too long before we see prosumer grade dante systems and compatible speakers.

richms

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#3469640 13-Mar-2026 11:20

Goosey:

Ethernet a must.

with “Dante” being somewhat the industry standard for live productions, I’m guessing it won’t be too long before we see prosumer grade dante systems and compatible speakers.

Nahh, it will have to have DRM and crap added to it that makes it hard to use and have compatibility issues like HDMI.

Richard rich.ms

Konev

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#3469849 13-Mar-2026 20:02

Make sure all cables are run through conduit and not just like power cables. someone i know bought a house where the AV unit was separate from the TV and connected by a cable going through the non accessible ceiling. the cable has died and because of the install method it cant be changed. if everything is in conduit it can be upgraded and changed for repairs.

Paul1977

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#3473644 25-Mar-2026 16:19

How thick are the speaker cables?

In our media room we had the carpet layer leave a small gap between underlay and smoothedge (and small spaces in the smoothedge where the speakers go to get the cable to the outside of the smoothedge). Laid the speaker cable around the edge of the room in the gap, and with carpet down it's completely invisible.

If we ever need to change it, it's just the negligable cost of hiring a carpet knee kicker for a couple of hours.

This was for floor standing speakers.

It also made the cables runs as short as possible.

33coupe

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#3473993 26-Mar-2026 12:50

Thanks all, I'm definitely keen on conduit. I havent spoken to builder yet re speaker cable, I have some left over from last build but it's 4 core and thick. As I'm going all in walls (except for the sub) the cable will have to go in wall. I ran my own speaker cable last time so may do it again.

The dilemma I have now is which way to orientate the network cabinet in the corner (speaker cable in the internal wall).

Facing the screen would bring it pretty close to sofa, and wiring to internal wall almost 90 degrees.

Facing the outside side wall would be easier cabling, but would protrude quite far into the room affecting the rear surrounds location

Konev

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#3474141 26-Mar-2026 17:16

also consider which angle would be easier to point a remote at.

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pdh

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#3474199 27-Mar-2026 03:39

Just trying to think outside the square here...

Suppose you made it a double-wide half-height rack and put it up against the back of the sofa, just where you'll want to put the popcorn...

Then it has no effect on the speakers (as it's below your ears) and your blackout curtains can be floor-to-ceiling ones - improving the room acoustics and looking better.

33coupe

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#3474282 27-Mar-2026 10:37

pdh:

Just trying to think outside the square here...

Suppose you made it a double-wide half-height rack and put it up against the back of the sofa, just where you'll want to put the popcorn...

Then it has no effect on the speakers (as it's below your ears) and your blackout curtains can be floor-to-ceiling ones - improving the room acoustics and looking better.

That is a good suggestion thanks. The only issue I see is that the cables would need to go in the external wall rather than internal wall, and that I'd need to look at / buy different racks lol. food for thought tho

pdh

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#3474862 29-Mar-2026 00:26

>cables would need to go in the external wall

I think someone else mentioned playing tricks with the carpet & under-carpet padding. Not impossible to run a cable duct - flat on the floor - from whatever wall you want or even direct from the equipment to the rack (with no in-wall wiring at all). Then pad to the right height & carpet over. That gives you ultimate flexibility in the future - just pull up the carpet & re-wire ;-)

Note that this gives you the shortest possible speaker cable runs too - which used to be thought desirable - tho I haven't bothered much recently.

SomeoneSomewhere

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#3474866 29-Mar-2026 06:59

If possible I would go in the slab instead of under the carpet.

You will want 40-50mm conduit to get things like HDMI plugs through and that means some pretty thick packing.

pdh

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#3475726 30-Mar-2026 19:29

Buy a bit of this from Jaycar and see if it's strong enough for the job.
With half a dozen pull cords (bits of fishing line) you should be good for a few years of new cables !

https://www.jaycar.co.nz/rectangular-cable-duct-50-x-25mm-1m/p/HP1332?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23280279116&gbraid=0AAAAAD0dvLZvA3v8J7vQ4JIr-FcXbxw7K&gclid=Cj0KCQjwm6POBhCrARIsAIG58CJi3R6Ut-aPWmvvfvdd1IpeyNT_PtaM8YBZW4BqJTVOZ17sAfCskhoaAldoEALw_wcB

Or do the same with some ali extrusion C-section channel.
You could lay the cables & pull wires down on the floor, put the C-section down over them with the solid face upwards (the opening downwards to the floor) and lay the carpet over.
You could drive over that !

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