Understanding Your Media Distribution Panel

Basic Concepts

That white metal box in your basement is your media distribution panel. The distribution panel is where the UNIVERSAL, DATA/VOICE and MEDIA outlets in your living space meets the data, voice and video services that come into your home.

The image on the left shows what the inside of your distribution panel looked like when your home was built (i.e. before any services were installed).

The distribution panel allows you to connect any wall jack to any telephone, data or video service (or even to low voltage power, for example, to power a camera). The distribution panel also allows you to connect any wall jack to any other wall jack.

NOTE: Other equipment (such as a Video Amplifier or a VOIP Telephone Adapter) can be installed between the service and the house wiring or between house wiring jacks.

The services (such as phone service) coming into your house are usually distributed to a number of media outlets throughout your home from the distribution panel. The number of data, phone and TV connections is multiplied using a data hub, telephone dial tone distribution module or a video splitter, respectively, between the service and the house wiring. Here's the basic concept behind media distribution;

What Do I Get With My Home?

Your distribution panel's enclosure is a Leviton Structured Media Center, Series 280. The steel cover is held in place by four (4) philips head screws and hangs from a flange at the top (visible in the images below). Remove the four (4) screws and lift the cover to remove it from the box.

The Leviton Structured Media Center, Series 280 enclosure is used to mount individual modules that contain connectors for your telephone, TV or computer. Additional modules can be added to the enclosure as required. There are knock-outs in the top, bottom and sides of the panel for cable runs and the enclosure is pre-drilled for mounting individual Leviton Structured Media Center panels.

What's Inside The Enclosure?

The enclosure pictured above (right) contains;

• one (1) Leviton Structured Media Panel (the wire mess at the top of the enclosure)
• two (2) Leviton 1x6 Coaxial Cable Distribution Modules (middle, left and right)
• one (1) AC Power Surge Protective Module (bottom and protruding down)

NOTE: If you order The Comcast Ethernet Internet or Basic Cable TV package, additional equipment will be installed in your distribution panel. However, what you get initially will support all the connections to your house wiring.

How Is It Wired?

All of the wiring enters the enclosure thru two knock-outs in the top of the enclosure, one on the left and one on the right. The image below shows how the UNIVERSAL, DATA/VOICE and VERIZON wiring enters the enclosure.

as installed

NOTE: The wire colors indicate which jack in the wall outlet they connect to.

How Does It Work?

The Leviton Structured Media Panel is used for your telephone and computer connections. The image below (right) shows the media panel as delivered.

NOTE: The grey patch cords are only there for show (unless you actually own 12 telephones). 

The Leviton Structured Media Panel (pictured above-left) contains;

• one (1) Telephone Line Distribution Module (center of the panel)
• two (2) Category 5 Voice & Data Module 6-Port (left and right)

NOTE: There are two extra mounting locations at the ends of the structured media panel. If your home was originally wired with more than three (3) UNIVERSAL and two (2) VOICE/DATA outlets, there will be additional 6 port voice and data modules installed there.

The Telephone Line Distribution Module supports up to 19 telephones and four (4) separate telephone lines.

Telephone Line  Distribution Module	Incoming Telephone Service as installed

The image above (right) shows the four telephone lines (CAT-5e twisted pair) that come into your home, and their connection to the telephone module's 110 IDC connector. The blue pair is used for your first telephone line, orange for the second, green for the third and brown for the fourth.

The number of jacks available for each of your incoming phone line is quite complicated because the module supports multi-line telephones (up to 4 lines on a single phone). However, assuming that you only have single line phones and you have up to 4 telephone lines, the jacks on the module are assigned to phone lines as illustrated above (left) (numbered 1 to 4). You actually can have twelve (12) phones on a single telephone line, four phones on a second line, two phones on a third line and one phone on a fourth line. With optional extension modules you can add even more.

NOTE: If you have multi-line phones, read the Leviton white paper on the Telephone Line Distribution Module to figure out which ports carry which secondary lines. (HINT: The line numbers are printed on the board next to the RJ45 jacks.)

The module also contains a separate jack for a security system (it enables the security system to over-ride the rest of the module, and commandeer this phone line in case of emergency) and a test jack to allow testing of incoming phone lines from the demarcation point.

The image below shows; 

1. the security 110 IDC connector and RJ45 jack (left) and 
2. the RJ45-RJ45 telephone test loop (right - with jumper cable).

Security Jack and Test Jacks

You can test your phone service by plugging a working phone into the TEST jack (center).

The Category 5 Voice & Data Module 6-Port provides six (6) RJ45 jacks on each module. These jacks are used to connect the RJ45 wall jacks in your living space to the Telephone Line Distribution Module (for a phone) or to a router/switch (for a computer).

The CAT-5e cable running from the RJ45 wall jacks in your living space terminate in the distribution panel on the 110 IDC connectors (below-center). The 110 IDC connectors are, in turn, connected to the RJ45 jacks that run down the center of each module.

Category 5e Voice  & Data Boards		as installed

 

The Leviton 1x6 Coaxial Cable Distribution Module allows you to distribute video to six (6) F-Type wall jacks in your living space. You get two (2) modules so you can have two separate video sources (e.g. The Pinehills Basic Cable and Direct-TV). You can connect the modules together to distribute video to eleven (11) Type-F wall jacks by running a patch cord from one of the six 'Out' jacks on one module to the center 'In' jack of the other module.

The image above (right) shows the module with the six (6) unconnected RG-6/U coaxial cables (black and white) that come from the UNIVERSAL wall outlets in the living space.

If the six (6) cables were connected to the six (6) F-Type connectors on the module and a video source (e.g. Basic Cable) was connected to the center F-Type connector, you would be distributing video to all of your UNIVERSAL wall outlets.

The Leviton AC Power Surge Protective Module provides four (4) AC power outlets at the bottom of the enclosure to power any optional equipment you might choose to install inside the enclosure. An independent 15 Amp circuit in your electrical panel provides power to the Structured Media Center AC Power Module.

The Leviton AC Power Surge Protective Module also protects sensitive equipment from electrical surges. However, it will not survive lightning strikes in close proximity to the premises.

A green indicator light on the face of the unit, when continuously lit, indicates surge protection is in effect. When the indicator light is off, the receptacle is no longer providing suppression. When protection is lost, an audible alarm will beep continuously. The alarm may be shut off by following the instructions on the face of the outlet. THE OUTLET NEEDS TO BE REPLACED IMMEDIATELY!