Sky Multi-Room??

[bobby62]

I have a house that is being renovated, fully rewired etc. and would like to have Sky ‘Multi-Room’ in the bedrooms and living areas. My question is, what work can the electrician do? Can they install the 1st fix cables to each multi-room point and then Sky come out to connect their hardware? I would need approx6-8 multi-room points.

Has anyone every come across this scenario before? Cheers

 

[GrantF]

You should be able to do that or the other option is to commision an independent sky installer (not SKY direct) to fit the whole lot. i.e. Dish\LNB and cable runs, wall sockets, boxes. Do you want Sky+ multiroom (2 connections) in the bedrooms or just std Sky box (1 connection)?

More expensive, but you've got one supplier to go back to to if there are any issues.

When I got the Sky installers out they hung the dish etc, and I had them pass the cables into the loft, whereby I chased them down the wall cavity into the 2 rooms where the TV's were located. They were happy with that, as it save them climbing and fixing the cable to the side of the house.

 

[kkynaston]

Don't forget that if you are having separate boxes rather than sharing 1 or 2 boxes between rooms that you will need phone points for each box.

Whilst they are running the coax to the points, put in 2 x CAT5 cables to each point and terminate into a double network faceplate and get secondary telephone to RJ45 jacks to plug in phones or sky STB's.

Run all the CAT5 cables to a central point and terminate into a patch panel.
You can then use the CAT5 cables for telephone, computer, video etc.

I would run all your coax to the same point thus creating a distrubition closet.
Have a separate 20A radial run for the closet from the consumer unit.

Are you really thinking of having 6 to 8 boxes?
With the sky world package at around £46 and an extra 7 boxes thats £116 per month and don't forget any HD subs at £10 extra PER BOX on top of multiroom.

How many people are in the house? You may be better sharing 1 or 2 boxes between multiple rooms with magic eyes to change channels from the other rooms. (Then your recorded Sky+ content is not tied to 1 TV)

Have a search for loftbox and you might get a better idea

 

[ColJack]

might as well go CAT6 if he's bothering with the network cables...
phone lines too..

 

[kkynaston]

might as well go CAT6 if he's bothering with the network cables...
phone lines too..

Indeed, the extra shielding will be worth it and you will be able to send HD video down them

 

[ColJack]

so why'd you say CAT5 then?

 

[kkynaston]

Cause I've been laying it all day and sat next to 3 drums of it at the moment

 

[jabuzzard]

might as well go CAT6 if he's bothering with the network cables...
phone lines too..

Indeed, the extra shielding will be worth it and you will be able to send HD video down them

There is no extra shielding on Cat6, just more twists.

However for multi room stuff I would (and have) gone for a satellite distribution amplifier. Combines normal TV, FM and the output from a quattro LMB onto one downlead. Electronics in the amplifier pick the correct output from the quattro LNB, amplify it and squirt it down the correct downlead.

However I am only using it for Freesat cause I don't like giving Mr. Murdock any money.

 

[kkynaston]

quattro LMB

Sorry to be picky but for clarification purposes:
Its LNB (Low-noise block converter)

You would only use a quattro LNB with a multiswitch as the outputs are fixed VH, VL, HH, HL and no good for most (if not all) loftboxes and home dist. amplifiers:

A quad LNB outputs VH, VL, HH, HL on each output

All the CAT6 I have ever used had a solid plastic core and foil shielding[/u]

 

[jabuzzard]

quattro LMB

Sorry to be picky but for clarification purposes:
Its LNB (Low-noise block converter)

You would only use a quattro LNB with a multiswitch as the outputs are fixed VH, VL, HH, HL and no good for most (if not all) loftboxes and home dist. amplifiers:

However there are plenty distribution amplifiers that do work with a quattro LNB. I am using for example a Antiference ISYS7 which has inputs for satellite, UHF, FM and DAB and pumps those around the house on a singe downlead. You can get up to 24 downleads from a single multiswitch. There is a cheaper ISYS5 that does not carry the FM and DAB as well. That is only one manufacturer.

It is great as I only need to run one core of coax to most rooms, and only two to the lounge. While some may consider it over the top, I feel that the need to run fewer runs of cable is well worth the price of the multiswitch.

All the CAT6 I have ever used had a solid plastic core and foil shielding[/u]

Let me repeat that Cat6 in general is not shielded. We have tens of thousands of metres of the stuff installed at work and none of it is shielded. There was also tens of thousands of metres at my last place of work, again none of it was shielded.

It can be shielded, just like you can get shielded Cat5, however this is not normally required.. The plastic core which is a in the form of a cross and is twisted itself is because in Cat6 not only are the pairs twisted with more twist per metre than Cat5/5e but the pairs themselves are twisted around each other. The plastic core holds the pairs in position. Note that not all brands of Cat6 have the plastic core, some brands are "engineered" not to require it.