Its not really finished but thought it needed to be titled as such.

It is round 2 of my AV closet. We closed on the house at the end of last month and I have started planning the closet that will be the location of all my Audio Video components.

Here is a rough sketch of the plan, the top part is already shelves as you will see from the photo so it isn't just a blank box:



This is the opposite side. This will be where my patch panels, switches, and other miscellaneous equipment will be located. I am using 2x6's as my "rack" frame. The blank plates shown are actually the switches and patch panels. I will have (2) 24 port switches and (2) 48 port patch panels.



Here are the cables entering the cabinet:



As you can see from the above photo, I have started the build but not finished yet.

Here are some progress photos:

Very Top Shelf






This is the cable routing cutout.



In this one you can see the different size shelves starting to be built. I had the top shelves for all my bigger equipment (2-Receivers and the HTD Lync 12 System).




Here is the temporary setup:




The "rack" is built.



All the cables routed behind the 2x6's have been traced and labelled. I think I am about half way done.







Now I am back to tracing wires...

I agree with that. Give it time and it will look quite a bit more polished.

This one does look like more of a closet versus a small. room previously. That a vent-a-hood?

I like the cables coming in from the top ceiling much better than out of a wall like 1.0 build.

Company I work for integrates multiple advanced solutions but for whatever reason I really enjoying designing infrastructure & having it all come together tidy & organized in the rack. The parts most folks find cumbersome. Nothing better than well organized IT closet.

Also, saw in your last thread you were using a single PS4. Looked into PS TV at all? Looks like another nice option to play your Playstation in multiple areas.

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This one does look like more of a closet versus a small. room previously. That a vent-a-hood?


Also, saw in your last thread you were using a single PS4. Looked into PS TV at all? Looks like another nice option to play your Playstation in multiple areas.

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Its a bath room exhaust fan that I installed which has a whole other problem I have to deal with before long.

The PS4 is actually an original PS3 Haven't upgraded to the PS4 since I haven't been playing it much and I rip all my blu rays to a HTPC that can distribute the movie throughout the house. I will probably wait until we have kids and then buy whatever generation Playstation is on then.

As far as progress, I traced out all 13 TV locations (39 cables) and a few data ports. There are some that I cannot locate and will probably have to do continuity checks on them because the toner is not passing the signal over the cable.

this is very interesting, thanks for posting.

I guess I am a little confused about why you wouldn't just buy a server rack. It would have better air circulation and save a bunch of time...

$1000s of dollars vs $150 in material. I agree it would have been "easier" but I didn't want to spend that much.

I priced several from Mid-Atlantic to Monoprice's racks and it would have costs way more than what I wanted to spend at the moment.

I guess you would be paying retail... I just did a half rack for a whole house AV system not to long ago. I think it was under $500, Id have to check.

I have three DTV boxes, 2 Denon AVRs, MRX-10, WyreStorm HDMI Switch, Apple TV, Networking, BluRay Player, Power Filter. Its pretty full but it stays cool enough. I still have to add a URC SNP-2.

My customer was my FIL and my requirement was it fit below the half shelf in a closet.

Do your DTV boxes use RF remotes?

Had it been in the $500 range I would have easily chose the rack option. The below are all the equipment I was going to need to get in the rack. Some of the items (Sonos for example) wouldn't necessarily need to be located in it but the majority would.

(1x) HTD Lync 12 system (1-Controller + 2-Amps)
(4x) Sonos Connects
(2x) Monoprice 4x4 HDMI Matrix - Product Number 8151
(2x) 48 Port Cat 6 Patch Panel
(1x) DirecTV Genie
(2x) DirecTV Genie Minis
(2x) DirecTV DVR - Model #HR24-100
(1x) DirecTV HD Recievers - Model #H25-700
(1x) Atlona Component Switch - #AT-COMP-88M
(1x) 1RU RG6-coax patch panel
(1x) Onkyo 609
(1x) Onkyo 929
(1x) PS3 (original 80GB model)
(1x) Netgear JGS524 Switch
(1x) Trendnet TEG-S240g Switch
(1x) LG BD670 BluRay Player
(1x) Synology DS415+
(1x) Synology DS412+

I believe that comes out to over a 42RU rack and that is actually a little big to fit in my closet and the width of the closet doesn't allow for multiple racks. So that is basically why I am doing a custom rack.

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Do your DTV boxes use RF remotes?

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I am using home automation to control the boxes via IP commands but I did set each box to their own IR commands in case I was in the closet and needed to change the channels via remote. I didn't want them all to respond to a command meant for another.

I was about to ask about your remote setup. I am a URC fan. I really like their total control line.

One more thing I think the PS4 has a lower profile than the 80GB PS3. I have about the same amount of components in my short rack... it just gets a little creative after a while... good thin you never have to put a disk into an AppleTV...

Just as an aside, there are computer surplus places in most major metroplexs that have a ton of racks from moves, liquidations, etc. Some have regular auctions and either way you can pick up a rack really cheaply this route (assuming you have haul away capability).

Caveat: if you're looking for decorative, center of your living room kind of equipment it's not the route to go. But if it's for a closet and you don't mind repainting it, pounding out a few dents or missing a door panel it's possible to pick up full racks for under $500 and half height for even less.

I will keep an eye out for that type of situation. Luckily since all I am using is wood and screws it can be removed and be replaced with a rack I might be able to find.

I like your setup, I would just be concerned about the heat and the air flow.

The exhaust fan I have mounted in this closet is a 150CFM fan. The closet is 86 Cubic Feet.

If it gets too warm, I actually had a drain installed in this closet for a portable air conditioner and I have said air conditioner purchased. I am just worried about getting the heat exhaust from air conditioner vented out of roof as well as the noise factor of it.

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The exhaust fan I have mounted in this closet is a 150CFM fan. The closet is 86 Cubic Feet.

If it gets too warm, I actually had a drain installed in this closet for a portable air conditioner and I have said air conditioner purchased. I am just worried about getting the heat exhaust from air conditioner vented out of roof as well as the noise factor of it.

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Surprised you didn't just have an A/C vent installed at the bottom of the room and then just close it in the winter.

I had the AC vent in Media Closet 1.0, wasn't enough so that is why I am going other alternatives. Worst case is I have to use the portable air conditioner but I am going to try the exhaust fan first since it is the less noisy of the two.

Why not just vent it into the attic? Most room ac units have provisions for attached exhaust ductwork.

If this is kosher, I would not have a problem venting to the attic, but places I have seen say it is against code and can cause moisture problems.

But Houston weather should have more humidity than what is coming out of the exhaust fans (not located in bathrooms) and the attic is exposed to that constantly via the soffit and ridge vents.

Yea I would not vent directly into the Attic.

Don't vent into the attic.

Don't take any of my questions as suggestions or challenges to what you're doing Olag, I'm merely curious. You obviously know what you're doing.

The reason I asked about venting into the attic is since you said you had a drain installed, I assumed that either your unit didn't support re-evaporation or you weren't going to use that option (thus allowing condensation from the unit to drain rather than exhaust). In that case, the exhaust should be relatively dry. That is the configuration a lot of these units support even venting into drop ceilings. If you have a temperature controlled attic ventilator it would further help exhaust the heat out of the attic. I would agree with others on this thread that if you're using re-evaporation, venting into the attic isn't a good idea.

That was the basis of my curiosity.

It should be just a little more work to pop a vent through the attic for a direct duct line and that would provide for a little more efficiency for the A/C unit as well.

I am definitely not against ideas and I really don't know what I am doing I just tried to be as prepared as I could during the construction of the house. I tried to get them to install the vent but they couldn't leave an "opening" in the sheet rock due to the tests they run for "tightness" and efficiency ratings. Not sure why they couldn't just cap it and seal it inside the closet but I never really mentioned that either.

I welcome ideas because I am not sure what is all out there. Like in my media room thread in home improvement an idea was thrown out to use a split air conditioner to cool the room. I hadn't thought about that route and it may be the way I go.

I should amend my last post to say "a little more work pop a vent through the attic to the roof" vs. just into the attic.

I apologize as it was late and I was using my tablet to type it out.

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After 2 nights of frustration thinking the low voltage installers may have a bad cable, I found out it is the Monoprice 48 port patch panel. I bought two of them and haven't had a chance to try the second one but when I took the patch panel out of the equation, I got the security cameras to work.

It was frustrating because I would land one pair of wires at a time and test the connection. I would get a pass, then connect the second and third pair and get passes, then I when I connect the last pair, it would fail and say they were all crossed. I tried several ports on the patch panel with same outcome. I thought my LAN tester was malfunctioning but it worked with a pre made patch cable.

Tonight i am going to try the second patch panel and hopefully start landing the cables so I can get up and running.

There is something buggy with my LAN tester because the monoprice patch panels do work so i have been landing cables.

I have 9 more cat6 cables and then quite a few cat5 terminations to make for the whole home audio system.







I also installed my security cameras. While installing backyard camera i was wondering if the camera was going to be able see through the gutter hole but aparently it doesnt so i will be moving it causing me to have a small amount of cable exposed but i will paint it to make it less noticable.

Nice. What cameras are you using? Did you consider PoE?

I am using the Dahua POE 3MP Cameras.

I dont seem to have any issues with the cameras except when I want to view the cameras on a phone app. It downgrades the recording stream and in order to get the resolution back, I have to sign into each camera to modify it back to the high quality stream. I am still fairly new to these IP cameras but there are "substreams" you can set up to where the phone app will use those streams and not affect the main stream. Still a work in progress.

I have a Dahua as well. Here's the basic link to the substream for my camera:

http://username:password@IPaddress:port/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1

It is finally starting to get cleaned up.

So first, I'm some level of color blind but I'm guessing green in cat6. What's the purple & blue? Just a mixture of colors for cat5e?

We have customers request some odd color combos on keystone inserts, patch cables, and drops. I just typically stick to yellow for cat6, blue for 5e, orange for fiber. It's all labeled in the end. Just curious Looking good.