Best options for B&B

aaf

Scenario: My gf's parents run a B&B. Currently, they only have an aerial and all I can say is that the reception is rubbish for all channels. I installed a distribution amp for them last year but it made very little difference. Now, they want Sky, well, they basically want a better reception for the terrestrial channels (rte, tv3 etc) but they also want Sky Sports for footie and golf.

What do you guys recommend? I was thinking maybe one Sky+ box with subscription and then one or two FTA boxes. They have 7 tvs in total. Would they need a sat dish with more than 4 LNB's? I have Sky myself so was hoping I could do the recommend a friend thing and get a free Sky+ box or whatever the offers are. I know there's new Sky offers out on Monday. All advice welcome.

stevethesatguy

Depends on what they want in each room, sky in each room will be very expensive, 7 x Freesat receivers plus one sky box will give you 8 tv channels in every room , sky dish and octo LNB needed, all receivers can be housed in one room and then cabled to bedrooms.

Professional job really

St Senan

Daisy chain or loop standard free to air boxes with each box having 1 channel also combine with 4 Irish channels from an aerial all receivers can be housed in one place and then cabled to bedrooms. you could also add on a another dish and disecq switch to pick up 19 east or 13 east do the same loop in more FTA boxes and the b+b will have channels from differant countries aswel.

Example of a setup i done recently

B+B tv.s
ch 1 rte1
ch 2 rte2
ch 3 tv3
ch 4 tg4
ch 5 bbc1
ch 6 bbc2
ch 7 itv1
ch 8 ch4
ch 9 five
ch 10 Sky news
ch 11 Film 4
ch 12 cartoon channel
ch 13 music channel
ch 14 Main German channel
ch 15 Main French channel
ch 16 Main Spanish channel
ch 17 Main Italian channel

aaf

Cheers guys. I'll have a chat with them tomorrow and see exactly what they want. I think they want one Sky box but would also want to get better reception (especially on basic terrestrial tv channels) on all the other tv's. Don't think they're willing to break the bank for it though. Is there any device that'll feed 6 tv's with just the terrestrial channels? I wonder if they should just get a new aerial as the existing one has taken a few knocks over the years from storms etc.

vsat

aaf,


This type of installation should be done by a professional, as problems my arise with crossmod from RTE/TV3.
I would not suggest a RF loop through, as if one receiver goes down the whole system could fail.

If you PM me, I could suggest a member from the ISAA (Irish satellite and Aerial Association) www.isaa.tv who could advise you, and would be in your location.

Regards,

Gerry

aaf

vsat wrote: »

aaf,


This type of installation should be done by a professional, as problems my arise with crossmod from RTE/TV3.
I would not suggest a RF loop through, as if one receiver goes down the whole system could fail.

If you PM me, I could suggest a member from the ISAA (Irish satellite and Aerial Association) www.isaa.tv who could advise you, and would be in your location.

Regards,

Gerry

Cheers Gerry,

I had no intentions of doing it myself. I'll check out isaa.tv and contact them after I've talked to my gf's parents. They're based in Ratoath, Co.Meath.

Sully

scaller wrote: »

Daisy chain or loop standard free to air boxes with each box having 1 channel also combine with 4 Irish channels from an aerial all receivers can be housed in one place and then cabled to bedrooms. you could also add on a another dish and disecq switch to pick up 19 east or 13 east do the same loop in more FTA boxes and the b+b will have channels from differant countries aswel.

Example of a setup i done recently

B+B tv.s
ch 1 rte1
ch 2 rte2
ch 3 tv3
ch 4 tg4
ch 5 bbc1
ch 6 bbc2
ch 7 itv1
ch 8 ch4
ch 9 five
ch 10 Sky news
ch 11 Film 4
ch 12 cartoon channel
ch 13 music channel
ch 14 Main German channel
ch 15 Main French channel
ch 16 Main Spanish channel
ch 17 Main Italian channel

Can each room browse through all those channels, without interfering with other TVs in the house? So there all independent of each other?

byte

Sully wrote: »

Can each room browse through all those channels, without interfering with other TVs in the house? So there all independent of each other?

Yeah.

Sully

Forgive my ignorance but what exactly does "Daisy chain or loop standard free to air boxes with each box having 1 channel also combine with 4 Irish channels from an aerial all receivers can be housed in one place and then cabled to bedrooms." exactly mean? One box wired in a certain way? Or various boxes just wired into a room to prevent extra bulk?

byte

It would basically be a central location with a rack of satellite receivers with RF modulator.

TBH, on rereading this thread, it doesn't really address the issue of when analogue transmissions cease at the end of 2012.

I would lean towards a satellite multiswitch with terrestrial input, which in turn would feed multiple rooms with both sat and terr. signals. (using a diplex wallplate to seperate terr and sat signals). Feeding into combo digital receivers.

Triax have one in the works pending Saorview certification.

Sully

byte wrote: »

It would basically be a central location with a rack of satellite receivers with RF modulator.

TBH, on rereading this thread, it doesn't really address the issue of when analogue transmissions cease at the end of 2012.

I would lean towards a satellite multiswitch with terrestrial input, which in turn would feed multiple rooms with both sat and terr. signals. (using a diplex wallplate to seperate terr and sat signals). Feeding into combo digital receivers.

Triax have one in the works pending Saorview certification.

Still multiple boxes per room though?

Tom Slick

That's a combined distribution system for satellite & terrestrial signals, kind of where we were heading in your original thread.
Single combo box in each room.

Sully

Tom Slick wrote: »

That's a combined distribution system for satellite & terrestrial signals, kind of where we were heading in your original thread.
Single combo box in each room.

Seems to be no solution available to allow for simple one box wired into each room, but allowing each room to watch whatever they want. Without the cost of a box per room.

Tom Slick

Sully wrote: »

Seems to be no solution available to allow for simple one box wired into each room, but allowing each room to watch whatever they want. Without the cost of a box per room.

Not without basically building your own cable tv system (probably like the big multiplexing systems you referred to in the other thread).

12 element

Sully wrote: »

Seems to be no solution available to allow for simple one box wired into each room, but allowing each room to watch whatever they want. Without the cost of a box per room.

You can buy a box per channel and put together a system easily enough although I wouldn't recommend daisy chaining because of the added noise from the modulators and one box failing causing the whole thing to go down.

Tom Slick

There would be a need for more channels than rooms in the kind of establishment he is thinking of.
Is there some resistance to having the boxes in the rooms?

Sully

Tom Slick wrote: »

There would be a need for more channels than rooms in the kind of establishment he is thinking of.
Is there some resistance to having the boxes in the rooms?

Space. Plus I fear the cost of boxes might be high, but maybe not.

12 element

Sully wrote: »

Space. Plus I fear the cost of boxes might be high, but maybe not.

What channels would they like?

Tom Slick

12 element wrote: »

What channels would they like?

Yes, there's not much point in buying say 15 boxes to feed 6 or 7 rooms.

byte

How many rooms are we talking here?

Depending on the number of rooms, a box per room might be prohibitive. Whereby we're back to a rack of receivers (each receiver outputting a different TV channel) and maybe a distribution rack consisting of video to RF modules, each allocated to a different frequency and distributed as analogue signals to the rooms.

12 element

Tom Slick wrote: »

Yes, there's not much point in buying say 15 boxes to feed 6 or 7 rooms.

I agree I'm not quite sure why you quoted me though!

Tom Slick

Maybe 6-10 rooms? B&B or guesthouse, not sure if specific location.

Tom Slick

12 element wrote: »

I agree I'm not quite sure why you quoted me though!

For the OP's benefit, just to show that a box per room makes more sense in a small scale operation, as regards channel availability.

Sully

Most have about 6 TVs (6 rooms), then one in the main living area. Depending if you have a family suite, that could be 10 TVs and then one in the main living area.

There are smaller operations, 2/3 TVs but not many.

Not only in my parents instance will it need to be changed probably before business re-opens in March/April, but ill be advising others in the area also. Most seem oblivious.

As for channels - well at the moment they have whats on the analogue. I think there is about 8 channels or so. So to try give them the Irish channels and some of the English would be nice, but some B&Bs may settle just for the Irish channels due to expense.

Tom Slick

If tv channel availability is important in the hospitality business (I don't know) then it would be money well spent. You also have to consider tourists from abroad (mentioned earlier in thread) so satellite is probably a must.
Depends on the individual setup I suppose.
When tvs come up for replacement, careful speccing as regards tuners etc. will cut out the need for add-ons at a later date.

12 element

Tom Slick wrote: »

For the OP's benefit, just to show that a box per room makes more sense in a small scale operation, as regards channel availability.

My post never stated otherwise.

Sully wrote: »

Most have about 6 TVs (6 rooms), then one in the main living area. Depending if you have a family suite, that could be 10 TVs and then one in the main living area.

There are smaller operations, 2/3 TVs but not many.

Not only in my parents instance will it need to be changed probably before business re-opens in March/April, but ill be advising others in the area also. Most seem oblivious.

As for channels - well at the moment they have whats on the analogue. I think there is about 8 channels or so. So to try give them the Irish channels and some of the English would be nice, but some B&Bs may settle just for the Irish channels due to expense.

It really depends on what exactly is needed, but the most important thing is that any new TV's that are bought meet the saorview spec.

If you are looking for any free to air English channels and you want more channels than rooms then your better off with a receiver per room. You might be better off with it anyway as you'll have a lot more choice in each room.

Joe7

12 element wrote: »

My post never stated otherwise.

If you read the original thread posted on this subject, you will see that Mr. Slick was on the case long before you were.

Sully

Ah lads, don't be fighting over me. Your making me blush :P

St Senan

byte wrote: »

How many rooms are we talking here?

Depending on the number of rooms, a box per room might be prohibitive. Whereby we're back to a rack of receivers (each receiver outputting a different TV channel) and maybe a distribution rack consisting of video to RF modules, each allocated to a different frequency and distributed as analogue signals to the rooms.

That's exactly what Sully needs. I have done a good few of these for B&B's. Its like a small cable system each room will have about 17 channels
Thats why i posted the link to this thread.