Too many dishes spoil the broth

antiskeptic

Hi there,

A complete-non-techno friend of mine has asked me to install 4 satellite dishes and 4 terrestrial aerials onto his cottage roof because he thinks he can only split a signal from each dish/aerial in two, maximum. And he wants to run a potential 8 tv points as well as a satellite radio or two. He's planning on using free-to-air set top boxes.

I'd like to avoid making his house look like the mast in RTE's front garden - if only for his neighbours sake - so advice is being sought on ways to go about this:

I assume it's possible to feed from a single dish to a splitter (ditto for single the ariel (to it's own (amplified?)splitter)) then on to individual settop boxes. Are 8-10 output splitters available (8 tv, 2 radio)? Perhaps I could take the radio signal from the set top box (the radios will be beside the tv).

I've read too that it's possible to simply daisy-chain the settop boxes together instead of using a splitter. Is that a way to go?

Are there wireless ways to do this from an initial hardwired point in the house that give good results - although the house is part built and I can hide cables, it'll still be a lot of work?

Any idea of the where to get it/cost of the solution?

All suggestions welcome,

Thanks.

montgolfiere

one satellite dish with an OCTO LNB will give 8 feeds for 8 standard Satellite receivers or 4 Sky+/freesat HDR.(a quad LNB will give 4 or 2)
the terrestial (Aerial) signal can be split.
the Skyman

Tea 1000

Look up Quatro LNB's. They work differently than normal LNB's, you also need a small box called a multiswitch in the attic along with it. The benefits are that you can have many, many feeds coming from the one dish. They're used for hotels etc.
So you have 4 feeds from your Quatro LNB, then in the attic you can have a 5-in, 16-out splitter thing, (the fifth in is for terrestrial, but I'm not sure how it splits that from there).
See here for how they work:
http://www.xtendedplay.co.uk/techtip-quatro-quad-lnb-differences.html
and here for a page on various multiswitches:
http://www.satellitesuperstore.com/multiswitch.htm

antiskeptic

montgolfiere wrote: »

one satellite dish with an OCTO LNB will give 8 feeds for 8 standard Satellite receivers or 4 Sky+/freesat HDR.(a quad LNB will give 4 or 2)
the terrestial (Aerial) signal can be split.
the Skyman

Cheers Skyman

I gather the octo LNB means running 8 cables to the satellite - which makes sense.

Does splitting the terrestrial aerial require anything special, like an amplifier? Or is it simply a matter of a handful of Y connecters tapping off the single coaxial cable?

Tea 1000

antiskeptic wrote: »

Cheers Skyman

I gather the octo LNB means running 8 cables to the satellite - which makes sense.

Does splitting the terrestrial aerial require anything special, like an amplifier? Or is it simply a matter of a handful of Y connecters tapping off the single coaxial cable?

Y connectors are a little dodgy, they can get loose, you can get a little square box that you kind of hard wire the connections into, it's a better job. But if he's thinking about digital terrestrial I'd say it might be more sensitive to splitting. Also a normal amplifier will be no good for digital signal, you'd need a special one. I'd definitely look into the Quatro LNB plus multiswitches, I'd reckon they have both solved in one solution! Plus expandability without going near the dish!

rogue-entity

Just a slight addition to this topic, since you caught my attention with it..
Is there a difference between a Quatro LNB and a 'standard' Quad LNB the likes you get with a Sky dish? Or can a multiswitch still be used with a Quad LNB.

montgolfiere

rogue-entity wrote: »

Just a slight addition to this topic, since you caught my attention with it..
Is there a difference between a Quatro LNB and a 'standard' Quad LNB the likes you get with a Sky dish? Or can a multiswitch still be used with a Quad LNB.

yes they are two different animals.
a Quattro LNB for a Multiswitch and a 'normal' quad LNB to wire direct to your digiboxes.
the skyman

pelisor2000

montgolfiere wrote: »

yes they are two different animals.
a Quattro LNB for a Multiswitch and a 'normal' quad LNB to wire direct to your digiboxes.
the skyman

'normal' quad LNB work with a multiswich ..

byte

pelisor2000 wrote: »

'normal' quad LNB work with a multiswich ..

Most don't. Only ones that specifically state they can.

EMP Centauri for example have some models in their premium range that'll work with standard quad's.

rogue-entity

Thanks for that,l I can always research the model LNB I have, and replace it if I need to.