Where to begin?

[vipa2000]

I am trying to plan the process of distributing audio and visual through my house. I found this website via http://www.automatedhome.co.uk A user has recommended http://www.abitana.com as distribution system. I would appreciate users thoughts/experience of this website on how they have distributed audio/visual through their homes. I am not sure whether i need a central hub such as http://www.abitana.com. If i have cat 5 and coax run to each room what extra benefits do i get. Sorry if it sounds daft but i am a totally newbie to automation. regards vipa

[PhilB]

What are the goals of your system? Expected usage? Control points?

[vipa2000]

TV to dining room, 2 x bedrooms and living room. I have sky+ and would like this feeding through. As a long term goal I want tv in the bathroom once built!

TV to living room and one of the bedrooms to be capable of displaying computer data? One shared computer? Is this feasible?

On the audio. I have started to rip my CD collection to computer. I would love to be able to have a central computer but some remote access points to be able to select the songs and control volume. I want audio to virtually all rooms, bathroom included.

Thinking about the phone side I didn't really see the benefit as i had cordless but thinking about when my daughter gets older may be the use of internet phone access could save me a fortune

As a luxury it may be nice to be able to add cctv at a later stage

Hope this helps.