Wiring house for Sky/Sky+

Kashkai

I'm adding on an extension to my house at the moment and I'd like to get it wired for SKY multiroom in three of the new rooms. I've rang Sky about this and explained the situation but they said they'd get back to me (two weeks ago now) and that was the last I heard.

My builder said his electrician will put in the wires for the sky cable and terminate them beside the dish so the Sky engineer can connect them up. This appeals to me as the cable will be hidden behind the plaster as opposed to trailing over the roof, down the side of the house and having a hole drilled through the wall like the Sky engineers are so fond of doing.

My questions are as follows:

will Sky refuse to connect this up as they didn't install the wires?

should I have additional cable installed for Sky+. I have a DVD RAM recorder which does all the recording I want so is Sky+ worth the expense?

will I really need a phone cable at each location to connect to the Sky box?

Advice appreciated as Sky are no help

Tony

First priority is to make sure he uses CT100 cable, your best bet is to buy this yourself and supply it to him.

dmeehan

i had all my internal wiring for sky+ and 2 other sky boxes done when the house was being built. when the sky engineer came he just connected the bits in the attic to the dish, and then connected the wall plates to the digiboxes

there was a "nominal charge" for connecting up the last box as this wasnt part of the sky install, but it was only 20 quid or something like that

ethernet

Prosperous Dave wrote:

will Sky refuse to connect this up as they didn't install the wires?

I doubt it. You're making life easier for them.

Prosperous Dave wrote:

should I have additional cable installed for Sky+. I have a DVD RAM recorder which does all the recording I want so is Sky+ worth the expense?

I'd say so. Always anticipate it anyway -- you might be kicking yourself in a few years for not doing so. I only have a PVR [not Sky] and it has changed the way I watch [most of my] TV.

Prosperous Dave wrote:

will I really need a phone cable at each location to connect to the Sky box?

I'm not a subscriber, but as far as I know, in a multi-room setup, every digibox must be connected to the same line so make sure you haven't given your good neighbour your extra card. You'll receive letters warning you if your boxes aren't set up in this manner. Failing to fix things after so many warnings, you'd be forced to pay the price of two subscriptions instead of your current one with multi-room.

If you don't want Sky multi-room [i.e. if you don't want to get more digiboxes and ensure they're all connected to the same line at all times], you could try UHF distribution. You'd be stuck watching whatever's showing on the digibox on all televisions, though. Also, sound would only be mono. Looks a little like this:

mcgeeney

Tony wrote:

First priority is to make sure he uses CT100 cable, your best bet is to buy this yourself and supply it to him.

Dumb question - will CT100 cable also work with an analogue aerial or MMDS.

I'll shortly be going theough this process myself, and am hoping that I can wire up the house once, and decide which outputs will be connected to satellite, analogue aerial etc after the event.

Will this work, or do I need to know which end points will be driven by which technology and cable them appropriately?

Tony

CT100 will work well for all three

watty

Also works well for Cable TV, CATV systems, security cameras etc.

The only thing CT100 isn't good for really is Transmitters. They normally want 50 Ohm.