I’m on the end stages of setting up a media room and I can’t get the cables looking good does anyone have any genius ideas for this?
Cable raceways. Just stick em to the back of your racks, or on the bottom of the shelves and run the cables through em. You might need some you can stick to the wall, if you want, to run cables to the TV. You should also mount the power strips on the shelves, probably the lowest shelf. You can use one if those boxes that conceal the power strips, or use one of those under desk mounted shelves the’that you can put the let power strips on. Along with cables and stuff.
You put a lot of thought into this, thank you!
I did something similar for my desk and bookshelf combo that I’ve got in my office.
Effort?
For real though, get a roll of Velcro and start there https://amzn.to/3R91Sqd
Like this is very bad, not even trying. Start somewhere, then ask for alternatives.
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I think what you’ve got is fine.
I’ve got some suggestions and “tiers” of permanence for you.
Power
First, get yourself something like a vertical rack power strip (like one of these). You can probably notch the shelves to incorporate it well, without adding any required space behind them. This alone will go a long way towards cleaning things up.
Video
This is probably the other biggest mess is the video cabling. Here, there’s a few options.
Permanent, upgradeable, but harder to keep neat and probably a bit of a PitA to run cables
Use some cable passthrough wallplates like these. You’d install one close to your shelving and one close to your TV, then fish cables through. Given the distance, there’s probably at least one stud in the way that would make it a bit of a pain.
**Permanent, cleaner look, probably easier to run and more expensive **
Use HDMI/coax/RCA jack plates and pull cable through attic or basement. May need active cables to avoid issues (differential pair signaling used by HDMI can get finicky).
Semi-permanent
Purchase or make cable raceways. There are some commercial products that replace baseboard or crown moulding. This is probably the easiest route for clean appearance. You can use the risers in the shelf as anchor points to run up or down to your raceway, if you are ok with visibility there. Otherwise, notch the shelves, like the above suggestion for power, and run raceway/square conduit up or down, with ports for each shelf tier.
Less permanent, more expensive
Get an A/V receiver/mux box that you can use as a central connection appliance for the shelves. This way, everything connects to it and you have the minimum number of cables going from it to your TV. I honestly don’t know how much these things currently cost but they used to be pricey on account of being marketed to the “audiophile” segment.
Networking
Try to concentrate as many of your network-capable systems on adjacent shelves as possible. Install a keystone jackplate and either run Cat6 for each device or use a small edge switch and as short of patch cables as you can manage.
You could try starting with some cable management and then maybe move on to more cable management.
Seriously, at the very least why arent these cables behind your shelving instead of draping over the front edge? Thats crazy. Then you have a pc in the middle with cables going both ways. Is that a LAN cable coming from the right? Drill a hole and run that through the wall and either run it along your skirting board or get some trunking.
You can even remove the skirting, cut away a small section from the bottom back corner of the skirt to create a channel for the cable.
If i was you i would reorganize all of the devices, run all the cables in the same direction and as shown in another comment run them down the leg of the shelf and then across to the tv. And move the PC to the shelf. (Maybe the side of the shelf)
Nah that’s a USB-C cable going to my couch side hub.
Here’s my idea: manage the cables.
You don’t need ideas, you just need to start.
Agreed… Jesus Christ man, get some Velcro and tidy that shit up
Just that simple step would do wonders
Good lord it’s like the physical embodiment of one of your comments
I don’t see anything cerebral yet slightly whimsical about this picture.
You could start by actually trying first.
I would say at this point any type of management would be good lol
I can’t get the cables looking good
It’s because you plan and do cables in the early stages, not in the end stage, if you ever want it to look good.
The only thing I can think of now:
Powerful golden spray paint on all cables. Make it shine, make it look like it was all intended like this.
Looks fine to me.
It looks better in dim light.
See! Just keep the lights off.
Some of the cables need to be longer to not have that effect where they’re being pulled against their own weight.
Then, lean into it: https://www.instructables.com/Maximum-Wire-Management/
You can buy these cable runs too (for example). Hide cables by running them along the base of your walls. Just match the color with your walls so it doesn’t stand out so much.
Wire ties. Literally just zip ties. Keeps them easy to get to but looks cool as fuck if you bundle them like a wiring harness.
Plus they make reusable zip ties now.
Zip ties are terrible for wire management, use velcro; it’s reusable, soft and doesn’t damage wires or skin, and can be cut to various lengths when purchased in a roll.
Nothing more rage inducing than someone who went ham with zipties in a rack.
Velcro, always.