Here’s a neat way to pump audio and video to multiple locations from a single source using Cat 5 wiring, both at work and at home, without burdening your network.

We had Plasma screens in our lobby, hallways and dining center, and LCD projectors in our theater and conference rooms. We wanted a way to feed them all or any combination of them from a central source. We had seen some pretty expensive setups and weren’t impressed with the functionality or cost. Then we stumbled across some A/V distributors that convert VGA and mini stereo input to multiple (up to 8) Cat 5 (RJ45) twisted pair outputs. The remote units convert it back to VGA and mini stereo. They’re used for things like the arrival and departure monitors at your local airport. It turned out to be the perfect solution.

Check out A/V broadcasters/splitters and receivers here:

 http://www.minicom.com/av_avds.htm

What we did was set up a networked PC with a video card in one of our wiring closets. We chose this particular closet because it had our main Dish Network feed coming into it. We connected the Dish set top box to the PC’s video card, then connected the PC’s video and audio out (VGA and mini stereo) to the A/V distributor's input. Next we took blank Cat 5 cable and crimped an RJ45 connector on one end for the splitter port, then punched the other end down onto either a station cable (a station cable is the voice or data feed out to an actual office jack) or the closet tie cables (the closet tie cables are 300 pair copper cables that “tie” the various closets on the campus together). The A/V distributor's ports use all 4 pairs of the Cat 5 cable like a Power Over Ethernet connection.

If a port is tied to a particular jack, let’s say in the theater, you just plug a standard Ethernet cable into the wall jack, and then plug the cable into the remote unit. Now plug a VGA and mini stereo cable into the remote and then into the monitor or projector. Done.

On ports that are tied to another closet via the tie cables we put a remote repeater unit that has 1 RJ45 input and four or eight RJ45 outputs in the destination closet, then repeat the procedure above to connect to an office jack. You can cascade quite a few units this way as you would with a network switch or hub.

The PC runs a scheduling program that flips the output at designated times. We use Scala InfoChannel software, but there are quite a few options out there. Right now we run 2 different slide shows plus CNN and local news at different times of the day (We programmed the timer feature on the Dish network set top box to change channels). We also have a real time stock ticker that runs during the slide shows. The ticker keeps people interested as after awhile they tend to ignore slide shows no matter how fresh you keep the content. We can also switch the feed manually by RDC’ing (remote desktop connection) into the PC from home or office. This is key if there was breaking news you wanted to alert your employees too.

Best of all, any room that has a voice or data jack in it now has access to the A/V feed.

Now, a quick word about specs. In the technical specifications of these products it recommends using dedicated Cat 5 STP (Shielded Twisted Pair) runs to the remote devices. For voice and data in most buildings you would normally be using Cat 5 UTP (Unshielded Twisted Pair). As we’re basically cheap skates and didn’t want to pull dedicated home runs for each device, we decided to try and set the system up using Cat 5 UTP runs to the closet and the copper multi-pair tie cables, which are rated Cat 3 at best, between the closets. The multi-pair tie cables are usually only used for voice.

The whole thing worked like a charm. Audio and video quality is clean enough to present on a 50” Plasma. It’s not high def of course, but it’s a crisp clean picture. Most of our runs off of the central closet are 50’ to 100’ long, and the distance to the remote closets is about 200’ to the repeater and another 25’ to 50’ out from the closet to the monitors. Of course we made sure that the wiring we used was in top condition, and if it wasn’t we replaced it with new runs. We also checked and double checked all of our connections. If you’re gonna cheat you have to do it right.

This isn’t just a business solution!

The gear isn’t that expensive so if you use a PC or Mac at home for audio and video, this is a great way to distribute it without bogging down your home network. Why would you want to do this, you ask. Well, how cool would it be the next time you entertain to have your own slide show accompanied by the music of your choice playing on all of your TV's simultaneously?

It’s becoming very popular to use your wired or wireless network to distribute A/V throughout the home. If you have a Windows Media Center extender box or the new Apple TV box and hook it up wirelessly, you might end up with choppy video on the remote end. To get good quality you'll want to run a network drop for it back to your router. Even with the hardwire you still may experience problems when other household members are using the internet.

If you’re thinking about going this route you should consider a broadcaster and remote(s) and keep the traffic off of your home network. You also wouldn't need the Apple TV or Windows Media Center extender box in this scenario.

If you're pulling new cable in for this you'd want to use STP but if you already have UTP in place, give it a whirl.There is also a broadcaster available that narrowcasts high definition video and stereo audio, the DS3000:

For this solution you would difinately want to pull the right cable and adhere to all of the specs. 

Of course there's a tradeoff here. The Windows and Apple boxes come with a remote, the broadcaster/receiver set up doesn't. What you do get is the ability to watch non iTunes/Media Center content and keep your home network clean and fast.

To get around the clicker issue you can use other connected PC’s in the house, or even a wireless laptop to RDC into the master PC and change the programming. Kind of like the “mother of all remotes”.