Too many dishes spoil the broth?

fazersale

Hi there,

This question comes from Ireland but I imagine the principles are the same as for England.

A complete-non-techno friend of mine has asked me (techno but inexperienced with satellite) to install 4 satellite dishes and 4 terrestrial aerials (for local tv) onto his cottage roof. He reckons he can only split a signal from each dish/aerial in two, max, and has a potential 8 tv points - as well as a satellite radio or two - to supply. He's planning on using free-to-air set top boxes at each tv point.

I'm trying to avoid turning his roofline into an unsightly mess.

I assume it's possible to feed from a single dish to a splitter of some sort then on to individual settop boxes. I've come across something called a Sky 10 way amplifier (no pic but the description should tell you what it does) and wonder is it simply a case of hooking this up to the single dish and running cables to settop boxes around the house. If so I assume I could do the same with a second of these units so as to deal with the terrestrial aerial.

As far satellite radio goes, is it possible to tap off from the back of a settop box and feed into a stereo system placed nearby?

Thanks for any..er..input.

Ian

fazersale

Apologies for the Sky link in the text above. I wasn't aware of it as I posted and don't seem to be able to edit it out

Tivù

All he needs is a single 60cm Dish (or bigger) with a Quattro LNB, a single Terrestrial Antenna and a "5 in 8 out" multiswitch.

Satellite Radio: Just feed the Audio Out from the Satellite Receiver (s) to an Audio Amp.

Tivù

The Forum Software bungs it in for you ..............

Crisbe

If he is intending having any satellite receivers that can record one program while watching another he will need two satellite feeds to those recievers. ie Sky + etc.
So you may need to allow for this. You can also get Octo LNBs (with 8 outputs) that act as 8 individual LNBs within one unit, which may be an easier way for you to supply the feeds to the required outlets (if you are not familiar with switching systems) and could possibly work out cheaper.

Robbo

An Octo LNB would be cheaper definitely, and it can be plonked straight onto a Sky zone 2 dish.

And, no, you can't split the sat signal, so with an octo you are limited to 8. For more than 8, the multiswitch is the way to go.

As for aerials, FOUR aerials on one roof, not necessary, splitters and amps can be used where necessary.

PaulR

Analoguesat would profoundly disagree with that statement!

A satellite receiver actively controls the satellite dish LNB which is why you can only have one receiver per LNB output.

Note "output". There are LNBs with 1, 4 and 8 outputs. A simple receiver needs one of those outputs; a dual input PVR (personal video recorder|), such as $ly +, needs two of the inputs. You can see that you pretty quickly use up LNB outputs this way.

A terrestrial TV signal receiver is passive and, providing the signal is strong enough, can be split many times. Usually something called a DA (distribution amplifier) would be used to feed multiple TV receivers

I would imagine this a special DA where two satellite LNB outputs are combined with the terrestrial TV signal. This is then fed to multiple rooms around the house. Unfortunately you can't feed multiple satellite recivers off this. Only two single input or one dual input PVR - which is what it's really designed for.

The $ly+ receiver outputs an RF signal which is fed back up to the 10 way amplifier where it is combuned with the TV signal and piped around the house. This means that all TVs can tune into whatever the $ly box is watching.

If he has 8 separate rooms he might find a 5 in 8 out multiswitch is not enough. Any room that has the possibility of a satellite PVR being fitted will need 2 feeds going down to it so to be safe a 5 in 12 out, or even 16 out, multiswitch might be a good idea.

Using a multiswitch you need one satellite dish with a Quattro LNB (NOT a quad LNB) and one TV aerial. There are four cables from the LNB and one from the aerial to the multiswitch.

Much tidier!

PaulR As I get older I find myself thinking about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.

fazersale

Thanks everyone for the information and insights (with special thanks to PaulR for explaining things in babysteps).

I've read up on both octo LNB's and Quattro LNB's and think I get the gist of things - with the Quattro LNB/multiswitch set up sounding indeed the tidier option. A couple more baby questions occur to me..

1) the terrestrial aerial goes to the multiswitch, but does it need amplifying in the same way as it might have to be were it being simply split by traditional means? Or does the multiswitch boost the signal strength. Or does something else occur?

2) how does one access the terrestrial channels - is it that they'll be picked up by the set top box during setup?

Thanks again for the assistance, ain't discussion forums a wonderful thing!

Ian

davemurgtroyd

Do note that the multiswitch option will require a dish of the next size up for that area to cope with the inherent signal losses in the multiswitch. So if standard dish for that location is 43 cm then use 60cm or if 60 cm then use 80cm etc.

Robbo

Some multiswitches have built in amps, some don't, I'm not an expert on Terrstrial systems. But with a multiswitch you feed in a terrestrial signal of sufficient amplitude and SNR and it distributes it to all its outputs. By using diplexers or diplexer wall plates, the sat and terrestrial signals can be separated to be fed into their respective receivers.

satelliteman

No signal loss using active multiswitches but increased noise floor.

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