2017 Tech Project

One of the projects that I have planned for our coach in 2017 is a makeover of the audio video cabinets front and rear.

The front cabinet, located over the driver’s seat, is in dire need of a professional installation, due mostly to poor cable management and poor equipment mounting.

In that space we have the factory issued Sony STR-DH550 AV receiver, two HDMI switches, a Winegard satellite antenna controller unit, an Apple TV, a Bell satellite receiver, a cheap Sony Blu-ray player, a Logitech Harmony IR controller and a couple of cooling fans.

Everything is stacked, some of it loose, and when the coach hits a bump, a lot of equipment moves around.

The rear cabinet, located in the bedroom, is not as bad. It holds an Apple wireless router, a cheap Sony Blu-ray player and, if our son is with us, an Xbox One.

My plan for the front cabinet is to clear out the cabinet, simplify the cable management — audio, video and electrical — and mount everything on a rack. Preferably a rack that I can swing out to gain easy access to the rear of the equipment stack. I also want to maximize cooling in that part of the coach as the interior of the cabinet gets really hot especially during warm, sunny days. I will upgrade the AV receiver as well as the Blu-ray player and the HDMI switches.

The rear cabinet is a lot easier to work on and I have a bit more space for some additional media equipment. I will add shelving in that cabinet as I don’t plan to make as many changes to the equipment in that space.

I replaced the factory issued subwoofer — the cheap Sony unit sounded awful and it was not helped by being placed inside a kitchen cabinet — and I also want to revisit the factory in-ceiling speakers. I would like to put satellites up with better placement for surround sound in our listening area.

This will be one of the first projects I will be working on once we take the coach out of storage in April.