Concepts

Head end

Where cables run back to — a rack, an enclosure or a panel, which the screens call a rack or panel — called by its Number, with a name and an optional capacity.

A head end is where a device's cables run back to; the screens call it a rack or panel. It is placed as one of its kinds: a main or local rack, an in-wall enclosure, a shade, alarm, lighting or fire panel, the door controller (the door hub), a thermostat hub, or a kind your company adds in its cabling defaults. A network switch, video recorder, patch panel or Lutron processor can be switched on as one.

It is called by its Number, such as R-1, in its icon's colour — both, for a thermostat hub's red and blue — and has a name, such as IDF-2, and an optional capacity. Going over warns, never refuses.

Every icon stores the head end it goes to, so nothing moves behind your back. Icons whose own kind is missing go to the main one: a rack or enclosure you choose, else the first rack. Shades may go to a Lutron processor used as one.

A project has no cable schedule and no cable cards until it has one. AV receivers and amplifiers live in one, not on the drawing.

The cables that run to it are cable runs; its own cables to another are its backbone cables. A Local rack starts with three Cat6 and a fiber from the main one; each kind's are in the cabling defaults. On other floors its cables use a riser.

Tasks: Set up racks and panels, assign icons to a rack or panel, place a riser.