THE BRIEF
Mirror Edge Networks has completed the ultimate Control4 home automation takeover project in Camps Bay, Cape Town.
Over the past few weeks we have been having fairly constant conversations with our client regarding the AV equipment in his house and the small gremlins that were creeping into the daily operation. We were presented with a server room that our client was embarrassed to show his friends, a room that was not completed with care or attention by the previous AV company, we explained to our client that unfortunately there was no other option but to completely strip the room down to its bare cabling, and rebuild from scratch. This is a short description of the work that we carried out and the photos of the end result.
The basis of this system is a Control4 EA5 as the central control unit for this 5 storey, 4 bedroom house.
Video distribution to 7 televisions and 1 home cinema is through a Control4 video matrix.
Audio is distributed is taken care of by a Control4 audio matrix to 2 x Rotel 6 channel multi-room amplifiers playing audio through monitor Audio in-ceiling speakers throughout the house.
The house features 4 10″ Control4 touch panels strategically placed throughout the house for home control, as well as the intercom from the 2N door station.
All bedrooms feature Control4 handheld remote controls to control DSTV, Apple TV and Samsung televisions.
To complete a successful installation we approached this server room as follows:
1 dedicated wall mounted equipment rack that is the central network hub of the whole house. As this is a swing frame rack, it is easy to open and service / add cabling at any time. This rack is where the following equipment is connected:
- 7 WiFi antennas for whole house WiFi coverage
- 27 CCTV cameras (including 3 x PTZ cameras)
- 4 Control4 wall mounted touch panels
- 7 Control4 EA1 room controllers
- 7 HD television distribution points
- 31 general data points throughout the house (for computers, printers, etc)
- All speaker terminations
All cabling colour co-ordinated for ease of use and identification.
The wall mounted equipment rack is the location for the Network Router, Network POE switches (for powering WiFi Antennas, CCTV cameras & Control4 touch panels)
2 dedicated floor standing racks:
Left rack for Audio distribution & CCTV NVR. The location for the Rotel multi-room amplifiers & the CCTV NVR
Right rack for Video distribution. DSTV decoders, Apple TV’s & main Control4 EA5 controller.
The 2 floor standing racks are installed on a 400mm high server riser. This enables the cable management to be neat and tidy routed along the floor and into the bottom of the floor standing cabinets.
Budgetary project overview:
1 x 18u swing frame equipment rack
2 x 27u floor standing equipment racks
1 x custom manufactured server riser painted in high gloss white
18m of White LED strip light for installation around server riser & internally within the 3 equipment racks
27 x 15cm handmade red CAT6 patch cables
7 x 15cm handmade blue CAT6 patch cables
11 x 15cm handmade pink CAT6 patch cables
31 x 15cm handmade grey CAT6 patch cables
6 x CAT6 network patch panels
2 x Speakon termination panels with speakon connectors
3 x Pakedge network enabled PDU for remote power management & reboot
1 x UniFi USG pro network gateway (router)
2 x UniFi Pro 48port POE++ network switches
2 x UniFi 24port network switches
195 hours of work by 2 technicians
