This topic talks only about pre-wiring for CasaTunes and does not take into account cabling that would be required for other products.

The following are some guidelines for pre-wiring your house:
1.  Determine where you want to locate your speakers. Follow good design practices. For example, it is always a good idea to mount the speakers so that the left speaker is about 25% of the total width of the room away from the left wall and the right one is about 25% away from the right wall. Mounting speakers so they are too close to an adjacent wall can artificially boost the base frequencies. Mounting them too close to each other diminishes the stereo effect.
2.  Route a minimum of 16 gauge wire to the spot you will place the speakers. You might wish to use 14 gauge for runs of 100 ft (30 meters) or more. The wire should be rated for in-wall applications so that it passes any building codes in your location. Route the wires to the location where you will be placing your CasaTunes server and amplifier.
3.  Many in-wall/in-ceiling speaker companies supply mounting rings that you can place in the final location before drywall is installed. The drywaller than creates the hole in the drywall panel. Otherwise, you should take careful measurements to make sure you will find the speaker wire later.
4.  When you mount the speakers and hook up the speaker wires, be aware that speakers are polarized. They are usually marked with a plus and minus sign or sometimes they put a red dot on the plus side. Make sure that you hook the wires to the back of the amplifier in the same way.
5.  Whether or not you decide now to add Keypads, we strongly recommend that you wire for them. We find that even if you plan on controlling CasaTunes using PCs or Netbooks around the house or the new app for iPhones and iPod touches, you may decide later that it is nice to just hit the off button when leaving the room. Also, the Keypads give you almost the same amount of control as the UI and are convenient to use if the computers are not on or if you left the iPhone in another room.
6.  To pre-wire for the Keypads, simply purchase in-wall rated (most are rated for in-wall use) CAT5, CAT5e or CAT6 wire and route it from the locations where you will be installing the Keypads back to the CasaTunes server. You do not need to worry about which cable goes to which Keypad, as the Keypad control software lets you configure the Keypad to be any room you choose. You can even have two (or more) Keypads controlling the same room or a group of rooms! This configuration will be done later, after you install CasaTunes.
6.a.  The CasaTunes Keypad Hub, which interfaces the Keypads to the computer, can be mounted in the wall behind the server in a single gang low voltage ring or electrical box. The Hub has its own faceplate which extends beyond the single gang box, so you cannot mount it with other devices in a double gang box. If you have more than one Hub (a Hub controls 6 Keyads) you will need to install a single gang box or low voltage ring for each Hub, separating them by a minimum of 2 3/4” center to center. When you are finishing the installation you will put RJ45 connectors on the ends of the cables at the Hub end and plug them into the back of the Hub and then mount the Hub, so that the cables remain hidden in the wall.
6.b.    The Keypads will be mounted a little higher than your light switches (or next to the light switches). It is nice to have them a little higher so that they are easier to use, similar to a digital thermostat or security panel. The Keypads can be mounted side-by-side with other devices in two or three gang boxes as long as you follow safety rules about mounting low and high voltage devices together. There is no hardware configuration of the Keypads. The Keypads are in industry standard colors of Ivory, Almond, White and Black. The Decora wallplates that surround the Keypads are not included. You can use any wallplate with a standard decora opening. We recommend Lutron or Leviton screwless wallplates. Again, when you are finishing the installation, simply install a RJ45 on the end of the cable, plug it into the back of the Keypad and mount the Keypad to a low voltage ring or a standard single gang box (or one section of a multi-gang box). 
7.  When the house is finished and you install CasaTunes, you will plug a USB cable between the Keypad Hub and the computer you are using as your CasaTunes server.Typically, you should make sure the computer will be within about 15 ft (3 meters) of the Hub, since that is the limit of USB cables. If necessary, you can extend this using USB extenders (the Hubs work fine with USB1.1 extenders which allow the Hub to be as far as 150 ft from the server). We are finding that the current USB extenders do not work reliably. We suggest not using Keypad extenders until we find a workable solution (edited 12/14/10) After the software is installed you can go to the Keypads and configure them to control the rooms where they are mounted. This is easily done by pressing and holding the center “source” button and then selecting the Keypad location in the menu.