A friend who is a cabinet maker is building me a 13 foot wide media cabinet and bookcase to upgrade from our well aged Ikea Billy bookcases. An area where both of are weak is the AV cabling, and while I know we can do a good job, I'd like to take the opportunity to do a better job.

• Power and cables to behind TV. What are the better was of doing this? This is what we are currently planning to use.
• Speakers: For now nothing fancy is planned, but in the future... Is putting an wall-plate of audio jacks in the media cabinet, and then output jacks at the future speaker locations all that is needed, and speaker wire. I also plan to run speaker wire into the basement so that rears can be added in the future.
• Long HDMI run. What is the best way of running a ~50ft HDMI cable? The cabinet will have a hidden projector screen that can drop down, and the future projector will be hidden in the upper corner of the opposite wall. The basement is easily accessed. I've seen "active" HDMI cables for long runs, but I think these limit bandwidth, and I've seen HDMI over CAT cables. How best to do this now, or at least prep for it.
• A UniFi InWall AC unit will be in the media cabinet, so two gigabit jacks and wifi are available to the room.
• Is there anything I am not considering?

The classic method, practiced since forever, is to have a central ‘amplifier’/AVR unit, then run analog speakers cables’ to wherever you want sound to come out. Downside is gauge and number of wires running from the central AVR out to the speaker locations, and difficulty of relocating speakers later. Or adding more speakers in other rooms, especially beyond the typical ‘second zone’, etc.

Future forward approach is to keep the signal digital and place compact amplifier and speaker together wherever you want sound. Digital can also be wireless, and the amplifier can be integrated into the speaker cabinet.

The only wire at each speaker is the AC power cord to nearby outlet. And sometimes that can be integrated into the wall cavity along with the speaker itself.

If not using wireless for the sound signals CATx cable can be used. Easy to route and wire distance doesn’t matter much.

AirPlay, Sonos and others offer wireless and CATx alternatives to the ‘speakers only where I can run speaker wires’ limitations.

Are you certain that you'll need a 50' HDMI? I'll admit that I don't have much experience with distances that far, but 50' is pretty darn long. Do you have a shorter path? Have you measured it?

The rest of it looks pretty good to me. Pretty much what I would do for myself or my clients.


Just wondering what the downside is that you're referring to. Is it the size of the bundle? The cost? For the fronts, 16awg will be plenty. It's probably fine for the rears too, but 14awg shouldn't be too pricey for the amount needed...

I now prefer to not string wires through walls, ceilings and floors if I can avoid doing so. Wireless options just keep getting better and less weird.

People say ‘I want the speaker here, because chair there and painting there and doorway in between.’ Then a few weeks/months/years later, ‘I now want the speaker/TV/whatever moved over here’, which is nowhere near the existing wires.

The room is 20' long, with a 9' ceiling, and the projector would go in the back corner. I'm totally open to being told "no, you're doing it all wrong". Getting up into the ceiling space is a non-starter, but the basement is wide open.

Well, they should know that's not possible

My current struggle is that I have no surround speakers. I have wire from the receiver to directly behind my couch, but it goes to a face plate where I ran wire to bookshelf speakers that we've removed so they don't fall on the heads of little ones. So I have to figure out a way into some weird wall cavities if I want in-wall surrounds. Boo.


Yeah I guess you're going to need 35' at least. Well, there's a really easy way to see if this will work. Just buy the cable and hook it up to the projector before everything is installed. I don't think you'll have a problem. I've only had distance issues with a long HDMI cable once, and that was ages ago and with a laptop. I suspect you won't have much of a problem.