As I work in the electronics industry, I am lucky enough to be able to see a little into the future of technology. What I see is a world where we are all connected. Not only will people be connected but a lot of our everyday appliances, entertainment equipment and various household objects will also be connected to the Internet. For this reason I have invested a considerable amount of time and cash to ensure that the Merimbula project will be able to plug into the Internet.

We are running category 6 data cable throughout the project. Each room has at least one data point and there are points mounted outside so that we can be connected on the decks as well. Everywhere where we intend to place a television we are also placing a data point together with a coaxial cable connector for free to air and pay TV. I do not think that it will be long before we can get data streams from many offshore television networks directly across the Internet. The coaxial we are using is RG59 which is one of the highest specifications and we are using F connectors so that we get great signal strength at the TV points. All of this means that there is a heap of copper wire running through the place.

You might ask why I don’t just rely on a wireless network? Well I really believe that the speed gains that they are making with data over copper will always be slightly in front of the wireless data speeds. And who knows what dead spots I might have in the place with all that steel framing and aluminium insulation. I do intend to run a wireless network through out the project but this will just be convenience not for performance. You can see more for the cabling if you go to week 28 in the photo gallery.