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I recently started working for a local AV company as an installer/technician, having just finished school for network admin. Most of our medium to large jobs have an equipment rack with sources (like a blu-ray player), audio amps, switches, etc. The first major thing that sticks out to me is that they don’t use patch panels! They just crimp RJ45s onto all the runs (sometimes 20+) and plug them into a switch (or NVR, or wherever else they need to go).

We like the Luxul AV series switches that have the plugs on the back, so the front of the rack will have a glass door and look “clean” to the homeowner. But how are these designed to work with a patch panel?

Is it a good idea (or even possible?) to mount the patch panel to the BACK of the rack, with the punch down side out, and the RJ45 side facing inward?

I am going to try to convince them to do it “right”, saying it will save termination time and be more organized. Any other ideas?

Thank you!

7 Spice ups
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Most patch panels are used for larger scale networking LAN cable termination where we usually use a few 48 port switch to terminate and cascade points to switch then to core switch. There were several old posts here with some pictures but I cannot seem to find them now…

The link above shows one alternative way of patch panel - switch - path panel.

…

Then there are people who have 3 sets of switch…core switch, patch panel switch and server switches (linked to servers).

The patch panel switches and core switch are front facing.

The server switches are back facing as it would require shorter cables as most servers NIC ports are at the back, especially true for Blade Chassis to server switch connectivity.

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That would be difficult for troubleshooting purposes I would think as most patch panels are labeled on the RJ-45 side so techs can trace out if needed but that is usually on a much larger scale with 24 or 48 ports. However, if your talking about a small location like someones home, I’m sure that would be fine as long as its accessible and clearly labeled.

1 Spice up
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you know in this game there are a 101 ways to achieve the same thing.
trying to impress upon others that your preferred method is the right way is going to make you no friends real quick.

Consider their current installation bears the cost of the cable and a rj45 boot.
you way requires the cost of the cable / patch panel / another cable.

3 Spice ups
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I’ve always been told that it’s better to use a patch panel since it separates infrastructure from implementation. If you want to move a server rack all you have to do is change patch cables. It also allows you to use patch cables that are easier to manage than the actual cable run. In practice though I’ve found that after you’ve punched down 48 runs and a year later one goes bad there is no way I am going to remove that panel and risk breaking another cable. We just had to add 3 cables to a rack with space in one of the panels and we elected to install an additional panel.

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We had that here when I started. Took several years to convince mgmt. that it needed to be corrected.

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It sounds like that would be harder to troubleshoot.

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What specific problem do you want to solve with the patch panels? The direction you install them is technically arbitrary, but it does seem like it would make swapping patch cables harder (how hard is difficult to say without seeing the rack layout). As others have said, the benefit of patch panels is decoupling the infrastructure wiring from the specific nodes on the other end.

I was an installer for a company that handled the AV and network gear for a chain of gyms and patch panels were part of every install, specifically for HDMI over cat5/5e/6 extenders. Some of us liked them and there were some who preferred straight cable runs.

One of the things those who did not like them called out was potential for crosstalk/interference with other devices impacting the quality of the video/audio signal, it generally worked so how much of an issue that was with those panels I don’t know (I also don’t recall the make and model). If you’re just installing networked devices (i.e. no AV extenders running through it) that is probably less of a concern.

If you are looking to get some “best practices” implemented, make sure they make sense given the context of the installs and service model. In my experience, one of the biggest issues I ran into when I was doing that was cable management and labeling. If that isn’t in order and you’ll be leaving this installed at a place with non-technical users (or even technical users who aren’t on your team/responsible for the infrastructure) you might find everything is a mess when you go back to do maintenance or troubleshoot. Making sure to have a network/wiring map is another big one. The tech who comes after you will appreciate it. That is all stuff you can do with little/no expense beyond your time and a label maker.

If you do have a need for patch panels, we make a wide variety you might be interested in, including color coded models (we also have cables in a variety of colors). We also make some tools and testers I probably could have benefitted from back when I was doing installs. I think our crimper with a built in tester could be useful in a few cases.

In any event, interested to hear what you end up doing. If there’s specific questions I can help with let me know.