15. Central Termination - Phone

Once the construction and painting of the new lab in the basement were finished, we could continue with the final punch-down of the cables into the final termination points. We chose to use Siemon's 20" Command Center Enclosure to house both the phone and RG-6 coax. For the Ethernet, we went with a more elaborate scheme and I wanted to use a standard six-foot, 19" rack.

Siemon's 20 inch Command Center

The Siemon's 20" Command Center Enclosure is targeted at residential installations. As you can see in the pictures, it uses a slanted type customizable shelf system to house termination points. With such a system, it is possible to enclose all of your Ethernet, phone and video cabling needs in one enclosed point. Using this system, it is possible to house both an Ethernet patch panel and a switch, as well as your cable or DSL modem.

This is perhaps the most common strategy in residential installations. In most cases, this is suitable and perhaps the best solution to consider. While it isn't the cheapest option available, it does look the best, right at home next to the electrical breaker boxes in your basement. We have seen similar solutions from other vendors that could be considered, as well. Based on our experience from this installation, however, we can say that it is best to select one vendor to supply the solution that you are going to use. If you choose Siemon for example, it is best to stay with their complete solution because it has been tested and configured to fit together better.

The Siemon's 20" Command Center Enclosure that we used in our installation housed the distribution points for both the phone POTS lines, as well as the RG-6 coax for the satellite. The termination block includes a connection point for every phone jack in the house. We built in expandability to handle the distribution for up to four phone lines, but currently only two are connected. The satellite receivers, Tivo, and FAX machine all share a dedicated line, while all of the other phone connections are for our standard voice phone service.

Command Center prior to installation

Phone lines being punched down