Freesat for two Flats

[Dunsany]

I live in a house split into two apartments, one downstairs with 3 TVs and an upstairs flat with 4 TVs. The ground floor apartment has a booster box under the stairs taking the TV signal to the wall sockets in the other rooms; the upstairs has a similar arrangement in the loft.

Our TV reception is terrible so I've been looking at BBC Freesat and Sky Freesat as a possible alternative (satellite reception is apparently good in our area.) I've never had satellite before, so I'm unclear on whether we'd need a seperate box for each TV or not. I'm vaguely aware that apartments often have shared satellite, but I don't know whether that would require additional equipment.

What would be the cheapest way to get all these TVs connected?

 

[satelliteman]

Welcome

The system you require is possible but not on a budget costing

You have two options:

1. One dish with an octo LNb (8 feeds) with cabling going to each point from the dish location. Freesat boxes in all TV socket rooms.

2. One dish with special LNb to a switch (cabling from dish to switch location). Freesat boxes in all TV socket rooms.

 

[Robbo]

Hi,

An Octo LNB would be the cheapest option of the above two, as you wouldn't need to buy a switch. However you would be limited to 8 receivers.

If you wanted to add twin tuners for recording or any more receivers at a later date, there would be no room for expansion and you'd have to do down the quattro-LNB multiswitch route.

And yes, ideally one receiver is really needed per TV, anything else is a compromise.

Robbo

 

[rolfw]

Before going the expensive route of a satellite installation, have you had the aerial checked out by a professional aerial installer to see if reception can be improved?

PS. Satellite reception of FREESAT in the UK will not vary significantly from area to area like terrestrial TV reception where you are receiving relatively local transmissions, it is purely down to line of sight to the satellite.

 

[Dunsany]

Thanks for the advice, everyone.