The Ultimate Guide for preparing Homes and Buildings for Video

When discussing technology designs for homes and workplaces, I commonly get asked about the need for network cabling, especially where video streaming is concerned. Questions can vary from “Why do we even need cable when there’s Wi-Fi?”  to “Is Category 6 data cable enough when Category 8 cable is coming out?”  There are many myths to dispel around this, and this article will clear this up and make recommendations for your network environment.

“Why do we even need to run data cable when there’s Wi-Fi?”

The use of streaming video is rapidly increasing. Since it requires a guaranteed data transmission speed, and consumes the most network bandwidth, we’ll look at

  • the various video sizes
  • how fast data needs to transmit for video streams of these sizes
  • the speed capabilities of data cable and Wi-Fi networks.

Video sizes

Standard video sizes are shown in pixels and aspect ratios. (Click on the image for original size).

synergy environments screen sizes

As televisions and displays continue to grow in size there will be far greater demand to ensure correct network infrastructures are in place to guarantee data speeds.

Video speeds

The speed of data in networks is measured in Mbps (megabits per second). For some of the video sizes shown above, required data speeds need to be as follows:

synergy environments data speeds for video

Note that video streaming is always a variable experience as it’s dependent upon the codec used. Also, the amount of data being sent will vary from frame to frame, depending on the complexity of the image and the number of changes between frames at the time.

Data cable and Wi-Fi speeds

Compare the required data speeds above, to the actual or typical data speeds of various data cables and Wi-Fi standards below. This is an easy indicator for the minimum data and Wi-Fi networks required for your video application. (Click on the image for original size):

cable&wifi

Note: All category cable types use Twisted Pairs of copper wires hence all cables types end with TP. The first letters are used to describe the type of screen around them. U = Unshielded, S = braid screen or Shielded, F = Foil Shield.

“Is Category 6 cable enough when Category 8 cable is coming out?”

Category 7 and 8 Cable

Thicker cables (Cat 7 and above) with better shielding are ideal for industrial situations. They are more suited to data centres, than residential applications since they lack flexibility.

Category 7 is a shielded cable solution normally installed with non-traditional connectors that are not backward-compatible with category 3 through 6A. It is usually terminated with 8P8C compatible G45 connectors, or with TERA connectors. Fortunately shielded RJ45 connectors compatible with CAT6, CAT6A and CAT7 Solid and Stranded Cables have become available. Category 8 is the next UTP cabling offering to be fully backward compatible.

Category 8 is designed only for data centres where distances between switches and servers is short. It is not intended for general office cabling.

Wi-Fi

As you can see in the chart above, the theoretical speeds of wireless networks differ greatly from the actual or typical results found in real world environments. This often causes confusion for buyers who believe that their 802.11ac wireless router is going to effortlessly allow multiple streams of 4K/UHD video throughout their home.

The 802.11ac Wi-Fi standard is often referred to as Gigabit Wi-Fi as it theoretically exceeds 1 Gbps. It’s actual speed maxes out at 200 Mbps though. Many users typically experience 70 – 100 Mbps.

The Wi-Fi Alliance is looking at 802.11ac’s successor, 802.11ax. 802.11ax should deliver real-world speeds above 2Gbps. In a lab-based trial of technology similar to 802.11ax, Huawei hit a max speed of 10.53Gbps, or around 1.4 gigabytes of data transfer per second. Clearly, 802.11ax is going to be fast. It is unknown though when this standard will become readily available.

Network Equipment

All consumer grade (and most commercial grade) network equipment, such as routers, motherboards and Ethernet cards currently max out at 1000 megabits or 1 Gbps. For the time being, and likely years to come, users will not be able to take advantage of the 10 Gbps and faster speeds that Cat6a and higher cables are specified for.

Most home users use the Wi-Fi router supplied via their ISP, which by default is not a highly specified device. As an example, my home router is specified as 802.11b, 802.11g and 802.11n (2.4 GHz only). While the data transmission rates for these Wi-Fi standards are officially stated as 11 Mbps (802.11b), 54 Mbps (802.11g) and 300 Mbps (802.11n with an external antenna), those data speeds are actually around 5.5 Mbps, 20 Mbps and 35 Mbps respectively.

A single 4K video stream, requiring 15-20 Mbps, will either kill your Wi-Fi or at best consume most of the capacity of a commonly supplied Wi-Fi router, allowing very little, to no room, for anything else.

It’s for this reason alone that companies who manufacture 4K capable entertainment devices, like the Apple TV 4K and Google Chromecast Ultra, require a data cable to their Ethernet ports. This is the only way to ensure the quality of a 4K video stream.

Recommendations

If you want guaranteed 4K video for your new 4K or UHD television, make sure you have data cable run to it’s location – your current Wi-Fi network will NOT be sufficient.

Cat 6 cable is still the industry standard for homes and offices and is likely to be for quite a while. With its capacity for 1 Gbps up to 100 meters and 10 Gbps up to 37 meters, it will definitely ‘”future-proof” your environment for a very good number of years to come. If you want guaranteed peace of mind then spend a little extra for category 6a.

Once 802.11ax Wi-Fi becomes available it will easily handle streaming 4K video (15-20Mbps) within its +2Gbps capacity. Even if Netflix begins streaming 8K in the next few years 802.11ax has more than enough bandwidth. This will definitely resolve the bandwidth issues for the majority of older homes that do not have a home network cabling infrastructure.

Until 802.11ax becomes available, upgrading your Wi-Fi router to 802.11ac is the next best recommendation.

Last, but not least, choose a home automation designer or workplace technology consultant to design a complete data cabling strategy. You will save yourself regret sometime in the future.

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Synergy Environments is the blog of Dean Murrell. He is a Christchurch, NZ based designer of audio visual and automated technology for organisational workspaces and residential homes. Feel free to contact him via the contacts page should you need further help and advice.

Home Automation Part 1: what is it and why do I need it?

Great questions. I’m glad you asked! There’s a lot to it, so I’ll just touch on the basics this time and get into more detail later.

If you’re currently building a new home, you’ve very likely heard of the phrases Home Automation, Home Technology or the Internet of Things (IoT) and wondered…

“What is Home Automation and IoT?”,

“Why do I need it?”,

“Will I make a mistake by NOT doing anything about it?”,

“Will I make a mistake by choosing the wrong product?”

The graphic below explains the ideology of a Home Automation system in 2017. All home automation systems, regardless of their brand or model, are based around this same principle.

SE Home Automation Overview 2017 v2

Home Automation in 2017. Click image to enlarge.

I’ll explain the three main layers of an automation system – the user interface, the control system and the home products and appliances.

The User Interface:

From the user/homeowner’s perspective, they interact with the home using

  • Programmable keypads that can control more than lights. They can also be programmed to control anything e.g. heating, a music zone, a local TV, motorised windows and treatments etc…
  • Touchscreen interfaces – including wall mounted touchscreens and apps on tablets, smartphones and smart watches.
  • Programmable remotes like the keypads, can be programmed to control anything, not just the TV display and entertainment sources.
  • Voice control via smart speakers connected to AI (Artificial Intelligence) that “listens” for commands to action e.g. Apple Siri, Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa.
  • Sensors that signal the automation system should they detect motion, heat or light and need to be responded to.
  • Timers to trigger sequences at certain times e.g. irrigation systems, lights, alarms etc…

crestron_apple_watch

Crestron App on an Apple Smart Watch

The Control System:

No matter what brand or style of home automation system you are looking at, the central hub of the system does three things – it integrates, controls and automates. The control system –

  • integrates multiple solutions into one system e.g. integrating a security system with a lighting controller, thereby creating a system that turns lights on at night if intrusion is detected within a home.
  • looks for commands from the user or homeowner via various inputs (user interfaces) and actions a sequence of controls over other devices as required.
  • automates a string of processes under certain pre-programmed conditions, e.g. a “Movie” button could:
  1. turn off all living room lights
  2. close the blinds
  3. set the room temperature
  4. turn on the TV, the surround sound amplifier and the Blu-Ray Player
  5. select the correct HDMI input on the TV and AVR (Audio Visual Receiver)
  6. adjust the volume on the amplifier of the AVR to a preset “safe” sound level
  7. start play on the Blu-Ray menu

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Home Theatre (image source: ethomecinema.co.uk)

While many brands of home automation solutions are available, there are three home automation styles to be aware of –

  • A high end centralised home automation system, available via a professional installer e.g. Control4, Crestron Pyng or Vantage, to name but a few.
  • An Internet of Things (IoT) based home automation system which is available from retail or online stores. These are individual bought products designed to talk to each other across a home network, and can be installed and set up by technically savvy home owners.  e.g.  Samsung SmartThings, Apple HomeKit, Amazon Smart Home or Google Home.
  • A mixture of the two. Some IoT based products are now integrating with high end automation systems, e.g. Amazon Echo and Crestron Pyng, and we will see more of this occur as systems become more inter-connected.

Home Products and Appliances:

Of course, we use many of the products and appliances shown here already, and they all work perfectly fine as stand-alone solutions. Home Automation though is the ongoing development to having your home control multiple products and appliances automatically based on your needs and requirements. And there are many scenarios and applications where this can bring benefits.

These scenarios can explain the Why of Home Automation! One mentioned above is a good one – the integration of security and lights.

Problem: Unfortunately some people, knowing their neighbours are away, choose to ignore their neighbours’ alarm if the security system detects an intrusion during the night.

Solution 1: But what if we added lighting control to the mix? This could be a sequence of lights from the master bedroom to the living areas, to look like the homeowners are making their way through the home thereby hastening the departure of intruders. Or it could be the entire house lights (internally and externally) flashing on and off, to draw neighbourhood curiosity and attention!

Solution 2: We then add motorised blinds and curtain controls to the mix and have the home open all window treatments when an intrusion is detected, ensuring that the intruders are exposed and visible to all.

Solution 3: We can then have surveillance cameras start recording in the home and around the grounds capturing greater than HD quality of the intruders themselves – all taken while the lights are on, ensuring captured images are nice and clear.

Solution 4: Automated calls are made to the homeowners, a monitoring service or nearby friends and family, alerting them to intrusion.

Look around online – you’ll see other benefits that home automation systems can provide which may answer a problem that’s relevant to you!

Where to begin

To accommodate any home automation system/hub, the home definitely requires a good smart wiring system. There are many who believe this isn’t necessary because many products now run over Wi-Fi, but believe me – this is incorrect. I’ll save this discussion for another article where I’ll drill into some detail, but if you’re planning on building then I recommend talking to a company that specialises in Home Automation. Even if you can’t afford it now, at least speak with them and allow them to plan a smart wiring infrastructure for your home that will cover you for future use.

There are many types of signals that are being sent throughout homes these days including – VOIP, audio, 4K/UHD Video, HDBaseT, Data, Wi-Fi, relay triggers, Infra-Red control and RS-232 communications. Plus there are variances in cable type depending upon the sort of signal to be sent. So speak to the experts, they install and integrate various systems together so know what they’re doing, and can offer much better advice than what you’ll receive from a retail department store.

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Synergy Environments is the blog of Dean Murrell. He is a Christchurch, NZ based designer of audio visual and automated technology for organisational workspaces and residential homes. Feel free to contact him via the contacts page should you need further help and advice.

The Way We Get Power Is About to Change Forever

I have the privilege of working in a building that is powered by the sun. Our company now generates it’s own power.

I love that fact.

Not just from the perspective of conservation (I live in NZ – hydro-electric power has provided more than half of the country’s electricity needs for the last 100 years), but the fact that we, and other adopters of solar power, are on the path towards self-sufficiency.

I also love the fact that our company is a provider of photovoltaic panels and therefore installed it’s own solar system. We practice what we preach. Most days we generate more power than we use and put power back into the grid. The money we make from our daytime generated power, means that our night time power usage only costs us 2/3’s of the standard cost.

Having our night time power costs reduced by 33% is great. Having our daytime power costs reduced by 100% is amazing! But it’s not yet as efficient as we need it to be.

We need to be 100% self sufficient, 24 hours a day. We all need to stop using fossil fuel.

The age of batteries is just getting started. In the latest episode of their animated series, “Sooner Than You Think”, Bloomberg’s Tom Randall does the math on when solar plus batteries might start wiping fossil fuels off the grid.

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Synergy Environments is the blog of Dean Murrell. He is a Christchurch, NZ based designer of audio visual and automated technology for organisational workspaces and residential homes. Feel free to contact him via the contacts page should you need further help and advice.

The 1957 Monsanto House of the Future

As a designer on home automation and technology, I found this information regarding a 1957 Home of the Future fascinating.

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The Monsanto House of the Future, or simply the Home of the Future, was an attraction at Disneyland from 1957 to 1967. It was sponsored by the Monsanto Company. The design and engineering of the house was done jointly by Monsanto, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Walt Disney Imagineering.

Visitors were treated to a glimpse of carefree futuristic living

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The House of the Future was just one of a number of fairground houses of the future that never made it off the grounds and into the marketplace. The attraction offered a tour of a home of the future, set in the year 1986, and featured household appliances such as microwave ovens, which did eventually became commonplace.

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Visitors were treated to a glimpse of carefree futuristic living inside a plastic-walled floating cruciform structure with picture phones, height-adjustable sinks, dishes washed by ultrasonic waves, and atomic food preservation. “It was the permanence, the durability of plastic that made the Monsanto house a marvel,” writes Bernard Cooper in his book Maps to Anywhere. “The wings, it was said, would never sag. The plastic floor would never buckle, chip, or crack.” At the time, 30 percent of Monsanto’s business was in plastics, synthetic resins, and surface coatings.

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The attraction offered a tour of a home of the future, set in the year 1986

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The house survived the introduction of New Tomorrowland in 1967, but closed shortly after, as Monsanto’s attention shifted to their new sponsored attraction, Adventure Thru Inner Space. The building was so sturdy that when demolition crews failed to demolish the house using wrecking balls, torches, chainsaws and jackhammers, the building was ultimately demolished by using choker chains to crush it into smaller parts. The reinforced polyester structure was so strong that the half-inch steel bolts used to mount it to its foundation broke before the structure itself did.

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Introducing the Home of the Future:

Source

AI and the rise of NOUI

As the use of artificially intelligent home automation gains momentum around the world, I find myself asking, “What is the best way to make our lives, with AI, easier?”

Note that I didn’t ask “What is the best way to make our lives easier with AI?” Because I think that we already have some great ideas on that already, as seen with Mark Zuckerberg.

But life with AI is an inevitability, so, how can we make the interface between humans and AI easy?

NoUI (no user interface) is a term coined to define display-less control of software. Yes, that’s right – no display!  This “NoUI is best” design philosophy is being promoted greatly by Golden Krishna. In his book, The Best Interface is No Interface, he proposes that the visible user interface is redundant.

noui

“It’s about fixing solutions, not filling up screens” Golden Krishna

Noui has certainly grown in recent use with the accessibility of AI. Devices, such as Amazon Echo and the Google home smart speaker, allow us to talk to AI, but are still limited and at times frustrating. Fortunately, another AI is readily available that improves on Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, and gives a very good indication of where noui is headed.

Josh.ai is a high-level voice activated interface to your home automation system. He acts as a natural extension to your home by understanding natural sentences. You can ask him to do various tasks at once, making life at home a lot easier.

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Other features also set Josh apart. Unlike other voice systems that only integrate with one smart home system, Josh is built to access a multitude of home systems.

Josh connects with a list of “off the shelf” home automation products, as well as professionally installed automation systems. These products and systems can all be controlled by Josh regardless of whether you’re home or away somewhere over your phone.

Josh also comes with it’s own app, combining a standard visual interface of touch screen design and control, as well as voice activation. And this is where the trend of AI user interface currently appears to be heading.

There is no “visual vs voice” interface as Golden Krishna is promoting. Future AI interfaces will be a combination of the two.

In fact, since most Humans operate on 5 physical senses, the interface between human and AI needs to operate on as many senses as possible to appear natural and intuitive. Unless Google Nose takes off, we will communicate with AI via our three primary senses – sight, sound and touch. (The reference to Google Nose was a joke by the way, for those who didn’t get it).

If this demo video is true, then Josh is an AI that appears far easier to use than Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.

Real demo of Josh in a 10,000 sqft Beverly Hills home

Jarvis, Mark Zuckerberg’s home AI

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In December 2016, Mark Zuckerberg wrote that his personal challenge for 2016 was to build a simple AI to run his home — like Jarvis in Iron Man.

One aspect that was much more complicated than he expected was simply connecting and communicating with all of the different systems in his home.

Before he could build any AI, he first needed to write code to connect these systems, which all speak different languages and protocols. He used a Crestron system with his lights, thermostat and doors, a Sonos system with Spotify for music, a Samsung TV, a Nest cam for his daughter, and of course his work is connected to Facebook’s systems.

15419743_10103347287954901_2744013366467623932_oPosted on Facebook December 19, 2016

Using several artificial intelligence techniques, including natural language processing, speech recognition, face recognition, and reinforcement learning, Jarvis learns Mark’s tastes and patterns, and can learn new words and concepts.