Endless entanglement

In home cinema world , one of the most common topic is endless entanglement of cables. The reason for this is very obvious as home cinema usually will have multi channel audios which means multi speakers placed in the room with cables connection running around the room. Many a times this situation has become like spaghettis of cables especially behind the amplifier where all the cables comes into, like speaker cables, HDMI cables, interconnect cables, power cables. Most people will try to tidy up a little but many will give up after. I can tell you is not an easy fit which I have tried various ways to keep tidy like cable ties. Even tried with different kind of racks to separate the component but usually it will end up with whole entanglement of cables. So after scouring youtube and reading some online tips, I realized that many professional home cinema setup is done with those server racks uses for IT data centers. I gotten some research done and learning from different tutorial videos on how to do it properly. Mid of last year when I got around it decided to get a 33U server rack and give it a try. What I mean by 33U is how tall the rack is. Hardware size is usually measure by 1U =  4cm.

This picture shows how I have put up the hardware in the racks with the bottom being the Frank Power bank and slowly moving up with the power amps and to the processor and finally the oppo player. The reason I arrange in this manner is that the player and processor are the one at a height easier for loading of disc and controls. The power amps before are just switch to turn on and nothing else. This will be convenient and nothing else. I choose not to have any door on it as it will be easier to access the hardwares. 

Both sides of the rack can has panels that is removable for easy maintenance as well. The railing and the trays are all adjustable as there are many holes provided for you to screw in as you wish. This is very useful as sometimes hardware has different sizes and you won't have to worry about not able to fit certain hardwares. 

Putting up all the hardwares are pretty much straight forward but the challenge is again what to do with the cables. This is the back of the racks where all the entanglement will start. From the overview, there are multiple cables going into the different amps and processors. 

The basic idea is to group all the cables accordingly as I have mine goes with different connections for the different channels. With this arrangement, it will be easier to keep it tidy and of course will be easier to look for which cables goes where. Cable ties definitely useful and don't go cheap on it. Tie as many as needed to keep everything group up.

This is another piece of good cable management for the rack, it is inserted vertical in the rack so cables and run through and goes to different level of the rack.

The cables are each tag on both ends so it will be easy for any future maintenance. 

There are some really long cables, like my HDMI cables which I have it tie to the rack on the side and some other long cables which can be 10 meters long.

This is one important component. The trunking that is at the side of the rack which have all the cables running in to the rack which can be put in properly. The holes along the trunking will allow cables to go to any part of the rack easily. Is the same as how electric wiring trunking in a typical home. 

Other than trunking will be this long stretch of power sockets or PDU (power distribution unit). This is very useful as there many hardwares in the rack and can be use and more importantly with this arrangement will be easier to manage the cables as well. 

One final thing which is essential will be lighting. As you can see in all the pictures above there are lights on different level of the rack. This will be very useful as room lighting is not enough with this kind of rack. Good lighting will be needed for any future maintenance. Hope this will be a good tips for anyone going to setup a home cinema. Enjoy the movies.