Community/SoapBox

I just want something better than 21 kps over 40 year old phone lines.  Way out in the pine trees of NC we stand no chance of better except satellite which isn’t better just MORE ecpensive.

I included fiber with my structured wiring installation and think it should be included with the next generation home networks.  What about good old Fast Ethernet?  Will anyone attempt to interconnect all these these networks?  Or will the jumble of incompatibility continue to make life miserable?

Thanks to EH for this brief introduction to an area of immense importance to home AV and control distribution.  This is particularly true for video distribution.  EH would be doing the community a huge service with an in depth white paper on the modalities and weighted comparisons of all the options for video inhouse distribution.  I think this is currently the most difficult area of home network design to choose correctly within.

HIgh quality large format displays are dropping in price rapidly and video sources are expanding.  The center of attention and gravity is how to get many source options to many locations.  With gig ethernet very affordable now, you have a lot of network and distribution options.  HDMI with extenders, modulated RF, video over CAT5, MoCA, HPNA, Vista MC on network, etc, add your own.  And now we also have the very interesting solution coming into beta of NetStreams DigiLinx AV with uncompressed HD over gig network IP.  All these solutions across the vectors of quality, cost, reliability, ease of use, and expandability.  Expert help and analysis would really be appreciated.

Indeed the connected home iis currently a myriad of disparate technologies and mediums.

There are some questions to ask before settling on any single technology.

Is it easy to install? Is there a truck roll? Complicated manuals? Do I need to pull new wire?

Does it interfere with what I already have in place? Can I watch TV and do email at the same time? If I turn on my microwave, does my Internet connection suffer?

Can any of these new technology standards support multiple streams of high defintion content?

Are the standard bodies responsible for safeguarding the technology? Do they provide interoperability tests? Is there a logo program equivalent to the Good Housekeeping Seal?

Which is better a wired or wireless approach? Can any current wireless technology, most notably WiFi reliably carry high defintion video? Aren’t there interferece and reliability issues? Good for data and portability, but what about full motion video?

We will tolerate a dropped cell phone call, but not video with latency.

The MoCA website, mocalliance.org, posts a white paper comparing the various home technologies listed above.

Home Networking Technologies