Ok BigB, I can answer your questions. Pretty much all we do is voice, data and some sound. We are an Avaya shop installing and servicing their Partner business telephone systems. Back in the 80's we were a pretty good master antenna TV system company until cable came to town. We then did a lot of CATV work, everything from house and multi dwelling unit installs to service tech to line work and underground.
Anyway, as to your questions:
Should I get some sort of termination panel and run home runs to each location? With the budget I have to work with I wouldn't want to use a real costly termination center.
I have never seen the need for those termination center thingies. I'm sure your budget can handle a piece of plywood because that's all we ever use. Yes, you will need to run home runs to each location back to this central location. Make your plywood backboard large enough and group all your voice lines on one side, maybe data in the middle and CATV on the other side.
For the CATV home runs you mount your splitters to the backboard and connect your home runs. Splitters that you probably normally see are 2 and 4 way but there are 3, 6, 8, 12 and even larger available. There is no reason you can't cascade 2's and 4's to get where you are going though.
Keep in mind that you can't get something for nothing. Each time you split the signal you lose something, 3.5db per two way, 7db per four way. The way you figure all this is that your end result needs to be at least 0db on all channels (yes, zero is actually something) at each set or jack. You would measure this with a signal level meter that tunes each channel and displays the level. Unfortunately this is not something that you would likely have.
What I recommend you do is leave the splitters and home run terminations to the cable company and let them worry about the signal levels. They will install a "home run" amplifier if necessary that is compatable with their system. Sometimes I changed the tap out on the street to provide a higher signal level, but this is something only the cable company can do.
Is a 66 block overkill? Where else are you going to terminate those 4 pair voice jack home runs? Make sure you mount the block with an 89 A or B bracket to the backboard. Run all your cables through the bracket behind the block and out the bottom opening. Use 50 pair split blocks for this. You can identify a split block by wiggling a row of clips. You will see that the the 3 clips on the left are not connected to the 3 on the right. It's split down the middle. (A 25 pair block is not split and the whole row will wiggle together).
Punch ALL the pairs from each cable down starting at the top left, outside clip. (I shouldn't have to mention that there IS a color code). Continue down the block then go to the top right and go down the same way. With 4 pair from each cable you can have 6 cables per side, 12 home runs per block. Jacks are 6 pin wired as RJ14 (2 pair)
This method provides the most flexibility in allowing the jacks to be connected for just about anything- up to 4 individual lines or a key system.
Each jack should be labeled with a number, (write it on the plate with a sharpie) and the cables should be punched down in sequential order starting at the top left. Mark the number next to the first clip of every cable on the block too.
Two schools of thought here as to how to identify your home runs as you punch them down. I subscribe to the tone crowd. I won't bother to tag the cables as I pull then. I'll install the jacks and label them in some logical order. Then I'll plug my toner into each jack starting with the first and (if I don't have a helper) go back to the block, find it and punch it down, repeat.
You may decide to tag your cables first. I find that it's easier not having to worry about what cable goes where when you are pulling them and looking for tags.
Data cat5- basically the same thing only instead of a 66 block you use a patch panel. I like to use orange jacks for data so that they won't be confused with voice. The data jacks are always 8 pin RJ45. Always punch the jacks and the patch panel down in the 568B configuration.
You need to be very careful when running data cable. No deforming, (so staples really shouldn't be used) and no sharp bends. It's almost impossible not to kink the stuff but a kink= disaster. Straighten it out as best you can and hope for the best.
The "extra" two pairs are not for noise suppression. 10 and 100baseT ethernet only use two pairs. 1000baseT uses all pairs but you won't see that yet.
-Hal
