Distributed TV / Radio wiring

[dbrb2]

Hello - can someone explain the IDS wiring I have in my front room to me?

I have a faceplate with 4 connectors:

Sat1
Sat2
TV
FM

This plate is fed by two coaxial cables from a distribution box on the outside of the building.

I assume the wallplate uses filters to combine the TV and FM onto a single cable - less sure what the Sat2 cable is for - although it seems to have something to do with Sky+ ?

If I want to run a second socket, can I run it from the rear of the single socket I have as a simple daisychain, or would it have to be a new feed from the distibution amp?

Cheers

 

[OwainDIYer]

Sat2 is a second satellite connection for Sky+, which needs 2 feeds from the dish - one to watch and one to record.

What sort of second socket do you want? TV, FM, Sky?

If you want a second TV or FM socket you need to plug a splitter into the front of the faceplate and run an extension from one of the splitter outputs to your new socket.

If you want to move one of the Sky sockets you need to plug an extension into the front of the faceplate and run it to the new socket.

If you want another Sky socket *and* to keep the two existing ones, you'd need a new feed from the distribution.

You shouldn't daisychain from the back of the socket.

The satelite sockets can be used for Sky, Sky+, Freesat-from-Sky or Freesat.

 

[plugwash]

Afaict integrated reception systems work as follows.

On the building somewhere you have a stack with the terrestrial antenas and the satallite dish. These feed into a special integrated reception multiswitch (sometimes via splitters and/or amplifiers if it's a really big system). The outputs of this carry TV and FM signals all the time and can be switched by signals from a sattelite tuner to give one of the four bands/polarisations of sattelite signals. A triplexer in the faceplate splits out the TV, radio and satellite signals..

Due to the fact that satellite tuners need to switch between bands/polarisations twin tuner boxes (e.g. sky+) need two seperate feeds, this is why you have a second feed. They don't bother to split out the TV and radio signals from this though it is almost certainly carrying them.

You can't simply daisy chain any kind of radio frequency signals due to reflection issues. Tell us what equipment you are trying to connect and where and I can probablly advice on the best way to connect it.

 

[dbrb2]

Thanks- so both cables are carrying satellite feeds from two different sats, but there need to be two of them since otherwise the signals for the two feeds, or for the control data back to the head-end, would conflict, since they use the same frequencies.

On these same cables are FM and TV - but these use different frequencies from each other and from sat, and so can be split off using a filter.

The reason for my question is that I have a faceplate on one side of the room and want TV and freesat on the other - rather than routing cables internally I was thinking of adding a second socket run from the rear of the first, with the cables run externally.

From the above it looks like this ought to work, but only if only one faceplate is in use at a time?

Alternatively I could just run the cables from the existing wall socket internally - but its a bit of a pain to do it neatly - in which case my question becomes any ideas on neat routing of a 75 and a 50 ohm coax around a room

 

[ChrisFrost]

Thanks- so the return (sat2) is only used for control, with all the actual video going over the other coax, where it is split using frequency filters at the faceplate?

No, both SAT sockets carry the full satellite signal. You could, for example, have two Freesat TVs connected - one to each SAT socket. They would work independently of each other.

You should also forget about calling one SAT socket a Return Path. That only applies to a different type of installation than yours.

 

[dbrb2]

Oops - I edited my message at the same time as you were replying to the original - sorry!

 

[plugwash]

Thanks- so both cables are carrying satellite feeds from two different sats, but there need to be two of them since otherwise the signals for the two feeds, or for the control data back to the head-end, would conflict, since they use the same frequencies.

Not exactly, they each carry one of four groups of satellite signals. Which one is selected by signals from the satellite tuners as you change channel.

 

[OwainDIYer]

The reason for my question is that I have a faceplate on one side of the room and want TV and freesat on the other - rather than routing cables internally I was thinking of adding a second socket run from the rear of the first, with the cables run externally.

From the above it looks like this ought to work, but only if only one faceplate is in use at a time?

Alternatively I could just run the cables from the existing wall socket internally - but its a bit of a pain to do it neatly - in which case my question becomes any ideas on neat routing of a 75 and a 50 ohm coax around a room

Might be easier to remove the faceplate and replace with a blanking plate. Inside the box use f-connectors to extend the fixed wiring and relocate the faceplate to the new location. You only need to extend one cable which will carry both TV and Sat to the faceplate, unless you want two feeds for Sky+ or the freesat equivalent (watch and record different sat channels)

You cannot connect two faceplates in parallel at the back, even if only oen is in use.