My company KONTEK Systems is a commercial AV systems integration firm but we decided to test our residential chops (and save a bunch of money) by doing all of the Cassilhaus low voltage wiring for sound, security, telephone, cable TV, and Lutron lighting control on our own. We had only a weekend window to do everything and beat the insulation crew so we put together a fabulous team of 8 and did a 20 hour marathon this past weekend. From KONTEK we had 3 of our field engineers--Tim, Kim, and Erik and one our service guys Julian. We recruited our friends Mimi and Cici and Ellen and I rounded out the team. Julian had a previous life as a division manager from Brinks Security and knows everything there is to know about security systems and wiring and the rest of the KONTEK guys have about 50 years combined AV experience between them. Ellen, Cici, and Mimi worked like pros after only minimal direction in the black art of low voltage wiring. 
Here Tim, Julian, and Ellen (team security) plan their attack while Erik and Kim (team CATV, phone, and Lutron) get their ducks in a row.
Cici, Mimi, and Frank (team speaker/volume control) need no planning and jump right in.
The "scaffolding" under the bridge where we are running much of our 
wiring is a little scary but Erik was up to the task. We were trying to stay away from all of the electrical wiring and the HVAC ducts and found a pathway along the far north side adjacent to the huge beam. The house has a lot of steel and many laminated beams which cannot be penetrated so it was quite an interesting puzzle finding viable pathways to get all the way across the house into the basement.
Ellen loved KONTEK's groovy label machine which we used to ID all of the wires at both ends.
She also became quite savvy at drilling the tiny contact wire holes for the windows and exterior doors. If that's not enough she also catered the whole weekend for 8. If the bottom every falls out of architecture.................
If you've ever wondered if anyone ever answers those spam "male enhancement" emails, Julian showed us his stuff after lunch...
He had some fabulous security installer gadgets that made the job run so much smoother.
Ellen and Frank got a chuckle out of the box label on the loudspeakers we are installing. (Click to enlarge image)
Despite the heat and the long hours we really had a great time and it was very satisfying to get so much done in such a short time. A little sweat equity really makes you appreciate your home so much more. Thanks again so much to Julian, Erik, Kim, Cici, Mimi, and Tim.
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