The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) wants homebuilders to hit a home run with their projects, but a general lack of technology integration is leading to too many ground-rule doubles. That's why the CEA has created a Builder Tool Kit to emphasize the importance of pushing technology and working with a CEA TechHome installer.
The kit opens by debunking a few myths builders might hold regarding technology's place in the process:
1. Financially, installed technology is an easy add-on and can be included right into a customer's mortgage;
2. Organizationally, TechHome integrators ensure a project remains on schedule; and 3. Regarding customer appreciation, 79 percent of builders say home technologies (maybe the hook-up for that 50-inch plasma screen or the wiring for multiroom audio) are important in marketing new houses.
So builders should embrace the technology, since it will only enhance a project. To help ease worries about talking the tech talk, CEA's TechHome division provides a glossary in its tool kit. Here is a sample of some key terms:
American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/CEA-2030 Multi-Room Audio Cabling Standard: Provides detailed information to homebuilders and contractors about cabling and connectors for use in multiroom audio systems and distribution networks.
BALUN: When placed on each end of a cable run, these devices allow for the transmission of audio and video signals over twisted pair Category 5e cabling.
Category 5 Cable (Cat 5): Network cabling that consists of four twisted pairs of copper wire terminated by RJ-45 connectors and capable of up to 100Mbps over distances of up to 100 meters.
Ethernet: The most widely installed local area network (LAN) technology, which uses coaxial cable or special grades of twisted pair wires.
High-Definition Television (HDTV): A broadcast or product that can deliver at least 720-progressive or 1080-interlaced lines of resolution while offering Dolby Digital audio.
IEEE 1394: High-speed hardware- and software-based networking that delivers data at rates between 100 and 800Mbps. Embodied in a thin cable, it is the only connector that allows consumers to record HDTV programming.
High Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI): A single high-bandwidth cable that can carry both digital audio and video signals from an HDTV receiver, DVD player, etc., to a video display and/or multichannel audio receiver/processor.
Internet Protocol Telephony (IP Telephony): General term for technologies that use the Internet Protocol's packet-switched connections to exchange voice, fax and other forms of information that have traditionally been carried over the dedicated circuit-switched connections of the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Using IP, calls travel as packets of data on shared lines, avoiding the tolls of the PSTN.
Multiroom Audio Distribution: Any audio system that can distribute sound to speakers in multiple listening areas. More complex setups contain multiple source components, speakers in many rooms and separate keypads or LCD touchscreens in each listening location for source and volume control.
Router: Device used to connect two networks, most commonly a home network to the Internet.
Structured Wiring: A system of low-voltage wires (not powerline) designed to carry electronic signals throughout a home.
THX: A set of certification standards created by Lucasfilm Ltd. for A/V components and speakers. Products with this trademark must meet minimum performance standards, which includes special circuitry that re-equalizes high frequencies to compensate for differences between cinema and home theater playback, and Timbre Matching, an EQ circuit that smoothes the transitions between front and surround speakers.
Whole-House Network: Involves multiple types of cluster networks connected by devices called gateways. This type of network is the most complex but provides the most functionality.