Multiple tuner IPTV gateway

Eric Cartman

Ok so I need a solution (preferably 1 or 2 boxes) to take 8 satellite tuners and broadcast them over a LAN where they can be viewed by 15-20 tv's , obviously we only need to choose 8 satellite channels and then the tv's can change between the 8 + their own inbuilt tuner ,

currently I was looking at a dreambox 8000 with 4 tuners , does anybody know if it can broadcast 4 individual streams (1 per tuner) over the network ?

and if not does anybody have an alternative in the sub 4000 euro mark ?

also on the topic of the dreambox , do I need 1 sky card for all 4 tuners or 1 card for each tuner ?

watty

Can a network that is doing other stuff reliably handle one HD stream never mind 15?

Using one sky card for 15 to 20 TVs wit 4 to 8 tuners breaks Irish Law and Sky T&C.

Why are you using IP? Unless it's 1G E with QOS management and vlans it can't do this well.

A Satellite distribution system and a sat tuner at each TV is how to do it. You can distribute one dish to over 1000 TVs and up to 500m+. Ethernet is 100m


One €270 multi-switch will feed 16 TVs with built in sat tuner from FOUR satellites (say Sky, 23.5E (or 9E), 19E and 13E) or Sky boxes with HDMI monitors. It's easily expanded to 32 TVs.
Then each of the 8 to 16 TVs has all the channels from FOUR satellites.

Eric Cartman

were using IPTV because we need to use computers as tv's / recorders sometimes , ok so we need multiple sky cards, not a problem ,

its 1G Cat.6 wired Ethernet over managed switches with multicasting and Qos enabled so thats not a problem , the TV's will be on their own switch too , the only time the video stream will go over our existing network is when using 1-2 computers as recorders/monitors.

a satellite distribution system may work for the most part but Id be interested in an IPTV solution that is in 1 box that can serve 4 streams (1 per tuner) even if theres a box without CAM's we only really need 2 sky tuners , the other 6 can be FTA satellite

12 element

The Johansson ProStreamer range can do this in one unit. Each module has 16 tuners and can output 16 channels from the one quattro LNB. They have a module that has a CI slot that does 12 encoded channels and 4 FTA that would probably suit. I don't think you can get a physical CAM that can decode sky, but I did hear rumours awhile back that this might be changing soon.

link : http://www.johansson.be/en/products/MDU/DIP/IP.html

Mr McBoatface

Eric Cartman wrote: »

ok so we need multiple sky cards, not a problem

I'm afraid that Sky's T&C forbid the use of a sky card in a non-SKY box so there is a legal issue. Also as far as I'm aware software cam's which can't be discussed on this forum would be required to decode SKY.

cormacl

The DM8000 Ethernet device is also only 100Mbit.

watty

It would also be theft of service to watch more than one channel with a single Sky card.

IPTV is a poor way to pipe TV compared to Sat IF unless you want kilometers and to build an IPTV / VOD service via fibre. For 16 to 1000 TVs in hotel, pub, Guest house etc RF /IF coax is the way to go. Higher quality (HD broadcast as is), 2500 channels per TV and cheaper.

Nehaxak

I stream my own Dreambox (DM800HD) from downstairs to PC's upstairs, saves running extra cable et all, just use the normal network cable I ran up and through the attic from the switch downstairs for internet access.

It will stream the HD channels but it can be problematic at times if there's anything else going on on the network and you haven't setup dedicated bandwidth - HD channels take an awful lot of bandwidth and the Dreamboxes only have 100MB not GB NiC's.
Sounds like you'd have a decent setup in regards your network though so it should be able to handle the amount of data but I'd just be worried how the dreambox itself will handle streaming multiple channels out over it's single 100Mb NiC, especially if they're HD.

I don't use sky on the dreambox though (just FTA on that Sat) so couldn't comment on how their channels would run over it, which as others have said, is illegal anyway.

You might be better in the long run going with the normal distribution setups (like what watty mentioned) and just buying simple/cheap enough TV capture cards (USB or otherwise) on the PC's if needed. I really don't think the Dreambox could handle what you want to do anyway, especially with it only having the 100MB NiC - if it had a GB NiC then maybe.