What and Where
Source: Tom's Guide US | Keywords: how, to, homenet, pt1
- 1. Introduction
- 2. What and Where
- 3. The Drop List
2. What and Where
The first thing you need to do is to make a list of activities vs. locations. I did mine in a spreadsheet, but paper and pencil will work just fine. Figure 1 is a simplified floorplan for the upper level of my two-level home, which you'll need to make sense of its corresponding list in Table 1.

Figure 1: Upper Level Room layout
My list has columns for Primary and Secondary activities, which can also be thought of as the "must haves" and "would be nices". The general approach used was that Primary Activities had to be supported via "traditional" wired distribution, but alternative technologies (wireless, power line, etc.) were ok to use for Secondary Activities. The "greyed out" areas are those that didn't need to be included in the plan.
| Upper Level | ||
| Location | Primary
Activities |
Secondary
Activities |
| Living Room | - Satellite TV w/ DVR
- Large screen TV - Music |
- Web
- Phone |
| Living Room closet | Alternative location for
Living Rm. gear |
|
| Kitchen | - Comm. center
(phone, messages) - Small TV |
- Web |
| Breakfast | - Small TV | - Web
- Phone |
| Dining | - None | - Phone |
| Master Bedroom | - Small TV | - Phone |
| Table 1: Upper Level Activity vs. Location List | ||
Figure 2 and Table 2 show the floorplan and list for the lower level. The home is built on a hillside lot, so the Laundry, Utility, Storage and Crawl(space) areas are below grade, with the rest of the rooms on the lower level having daylight access.

Figure 2: Lower Level Room layout
| Lower Level | ||
| Location | Primary
Activities |
Secondary
Activities |
| Office | - Web
- Business phone and fax - Home phone |
- Small TV |
| Studio | - Satellite TV w/ DVR
- Large screen TV - Music |
- Phone |
| Guest | - Small TV | - Phone |
| Laundry | - Small TV | - Phone |
| Utility | Central wiring panel | |
| Storage | None | |
| Table 2: Lower Level Activity vs. Location List | ||
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- Next page The Drop List




