New Build, what's the best way to wire for Sky?

loinnsigh

I'm currently planning the electrics for my house, and I'm wondering if anyone has a good suggestion as to how to 'pre-wire' for satellite (Sky). In our current house, we got Sky installed and the wiring was far from pretty (cable lobbed over the roof, ignorantly tacked to the outside wall and even more ignorantly tacked to the inside wall). I'd like to avoid this if possible.

I don't really feel the need for a full-blown costly 'home networking' solution (a wireless router will more than fulfil my networking needs) - all I want to do is pre-wire 2-3 rooms for Sky so that I don't have ugly cables tacked to my beautiful pristine (internal and external) walls.

(I was going to post this to the satellite forum, but I thought there would be a better chance of someone here having experience of this.)
Any ideas?

smashey

Better suited to Home Entertainment.

Moved from Planning/Construction.

Homer

Probably need a bit more info from you but here goes..
If you are going to have just one sky box? is it a standard box or sky+/HD?
with standard box you only need one single run of RG6 from dish (lnb) to location of box. For sky+/HD you need two runs!
For multi room viewing just add more runs of RG6 from dish to location of boxes.
Then... Run RG59 from box location up to attic where you will place a distribution amplifier with cables feeding from it to the rooms where you requie a sky feed!
If you want control of the box in each location you will need "sky eyes" in each room and a distribution amplifier that supports infra red pass through!
I presume you are aware that with only one sky box you can only watch one channel at a time.
Hope this is useful for you.. Let me know if you need anything else.

loinnsigh

This is great info, thanks a million.

It's most likely going to be just one Sky+ box, and we don't have a need to watch multiple channels in multiple rooms - as long as we can watch the same channel in different rooms that's fine.

So (just so I have it straight in my head) if I did the following, would it be sufficient:
1. run two RG6 cables from dish location to where the Sky+ box is to be located.
2. Run RG59 from box location to attic (would it be better for signal quality to use RG6?).
3. Distribute (using amplifier) to other locations (again, RG59 or RG6?), add Sky eyes etc as necessary.

Also, how do I terminate the cables at the wall in my rooms? Do I use a regular Co-ax TV socket, or do I need special sockets?

Cheers

Casey711

As you are in Wicklow you might try Sound Solutions in Gorey they have a number of the items you might be looking for on demonstration.

Homer

Yup that'll work just fine...

To answer your questions..

RG6 from box to dish is a must... The primary reason to prefer RG6 over RG59 is signal attenuation for the satellite signal from the LNB to the receiver and the attenuation on RG6 cable is much less per foot at that frequency than RG59.

Good quality RG59 cable with good connectors will work just fine if the runs are not too long. And since it is lighter in weight, that means it's easier to work with and less stiff. You can still use RG6 from room to room but most people will use RG59 as it'll give a near identical picture, is cheaper and easier to work with when running the cables.

To terminate in the rooms just pick some co-ax wall plates and you're done!

byte

RG6 isn't really satellite cable either, you need to use a copper-on-copper cable (CT100, QF100, etc) for best results (though RG6 can work on shortish runs).

At the main TV point where Plus box will be, have 4 runs of cable. If all the cables can be CT100 or equivalent, the better. Personally, I'm not a fan of the thin and more lossy RG59. Chase an extra conduit down the wall if needs be. Don't forget a phone point there also.

In whatever other rooms you consider installing a receiver, have at least 2 cable drops (1 for terrestrial, 1 for satellite, or both for satellite).

loinnsigh

Thanks for all the advice folks, this gives me a better idea of what's involved.