March 2008

Telephone & TV sockets - the truth!

Here follows an update of a previous posting, as things have become clearer of late:

There is often confusion &/or denial about the requirements for TV & telephone (PTT) outlets here in France. Hopefully what follows will clarify things.

French domestic wiring regulations (NF C 15-100) specifies certain minimum amounts of power sockets, lights, communications outlets (TV & phone points) etc. These minimums apply to new builds & total rewires of existing property if they are to comply with regulations in force at the time of inspection*.

The normes specifiy that there should be a "prise de communication" (deemed to be an RJ45 type socket) in all "pièces principal". So, that means that all obvious rooms such as lounges, dining rooms, bedrooms, studies, etc. (plus the kitchen) need to have one, with the minimum total being two (for a small apartment I guess).

However, this is not to be misinterpreted to mean that all rooms need both a TV & a phone/communications point. This is because a "prise de communication" is ultimately intended to supply all communications needs from the one outlet i.e. phone, computer network/internet & TV signals. How this works is the subject of another posting, but if the cabing used for these outlets isn't up to the necessary standard to take the higher frequencies required for terrestrial TV &/or satellite TV signals it will still be necessary to install TV outlets ("prises de type coaxial") where they are required. As you'd expect, there is a minimum specification for this, being:

Two coaxial outlets for accomodation up to to 100m² habitable area.
Three coaxial outlets for accomodation over 100m² habitable area.
A place with under 35m² habitable area is allowed to get away with only one TV outlet.

All communications outlets need to be placed adjacent to a power outlet to allow easy connection of associated equipment i.e. cordless phone base stations, answering machines, computers etc. The same principle applies to TV outlets if they are in separate locations.
Don't forget if you wish to record from satellite TV whilst watching a different channel you will need to have two dish feeds installed to your receiving equipment.

Personally I think this is all quite sensible & takes future needs into account, but I appreciate that the whole multipurpose communications socket thing is a bit confusing at first. As said above, this is a subject for a future posting.

*Any new build or renovation that has had a permis de constuire logged on or after 01/01/2008 needs to have RJ45 outlets rather than the old style inverted T shaped phone points, & have the points wired in Cat 5 (or better) cable. Any new build or total rewire then has all the TV & phone cables wired back to a central point (the "tableau/coffret de communication") where they can be patched accordingly. This might sound complicated but it is a bit of "future proofing" & is there to enable such points to be multipurpose phone, LAN & TV outlets if so desired, as already mentioned. That's one on the left below.

A final tip about TV sockets: It's a good idea (but a bit more expensive) to use the triple TV outlets that have a satellite F connector, & male & female co-ax outlets for TV & FM radio, as on the right above. These are fed via one cable, with the signals being merged onto it inside your tableau de communication, or even at the dish & aerial postion.

Obviously, Badger Électricité fits all such necessary wiring as part of full rewires, or can do so as an upgrade.