FTA Terrestrial & Satellite for 20 apartments.

frankmulveen

Hello,
Can anyone advise as to the best way to install free to air terrestrial and satellite tv in an apartment block of 20 apartments. Would one UHF aerial do?
What about satellite dish/dishes? This is the Galway area. Thanks.

Gerry Wicklow

http://www.technisat.com/en_XX/Multiswitches/352-58/

Have a look around this site. It has some useful information and examples.

frankmulveen

Thanks Gerry.

The Cush

frankmulveen wrote: »

Hello,
Can anyone advise as to the best way to install free to air terrestrial and satellite tv in an apartment block of 20 apartments. Would one UHF aerial do?
What about satellite dish/dishes? This is the Galway area. Thanks.

20 apartments, how many feeds per apartment - 2 in the main room for Sky+ or Freesat+/Saorview, 1 per bedroom/kitchen etc?

One aerial will suffice, quattro LNB feeding the multiswitch. Is it just the Sky/Freesat satellite feeds (28 deg. East) you require or will you require other satellite positions for non Irish/UK occupants also?

zg3409

Al already said it depends on what your needs are.

Some questions first

1) Is this because you want more channels or is there a real apartment wide demand to pay for an installation?

2) What channels are currently available to everyone?

3) Are personal dishes currently banned and is this ban enforced?

4) Is UPC available in your area?

5) Is UPC MMDS available in your area? (If unsure call them on 1908)

For just the Irish Saorview one aerial can be split quite cheaply. For UK Channels and dish needs to be fed to a multiswitch and a SEPERATE feed needs to be run to each room (two feeds for Sky+ record while watching etc). This can work out quite expensive per apartment. A major factor on cost is existing cabling, ducting and how practical it is to run all new cables.

Can cables be ran on the outside walls of the apartment block?

Is there existing ducting to every apartment?

If you know your needs you can get a few quotes from apartment TV specialists. Be sure to include a guarantee period and a quote for ongoing support etc.

frankmulveen

Hi lads,
The management company want to dispense with UPC and install Saorview and either Freesat or FTA. I have to quote for same over the next few days. Will carry out a survey of building first to evaluate cable runs etc. and try to establish a basic package for each apartment.

frankmulveen

On a different note, I take it that a UHF grid aerial is capable of receiving Saorview. Is this correct? If so do I need to change the direction of the aerial from its present one which was used for TV3 & TG4 in order to pick up Saorview?

ardmacha

If so do I need to change the direction of the aerial from its present one which was used for TV3 & TG4 in order to pick up Saorview?

Probably not, but it depends where you are.

The Cush

frankmulveen wrote: »

On a different note, I take it that a UHF grid aerial is capable of receiving Saorview. Is this correct? If so do I need to change the direction of the aerial from its present one which was used for TV3 & TG4 in order to pick up Saorview?

A grid aerial is wideband (21-69) I believe and with the upper UHF band (61-69) moving over to LTE mobile next year and with the possibility of interference to broadcast TV from LTE a grouped aerial might be a better idea.

If the current aerial receives analogue TV3/TG4 from a particular direction, then that direction will be OK for Saorview, all transmitters carrying TV3/TG4 have been upgraded for Saorview.

Rippy

frankmulveen wrote: »

Hi lads,
The management company want to dispense with UPC and install Saorview and either Freesat or FTA. I have to quote for same over the next few days. Will carry out a survey of building first to evaluate cable runs etc. and try to establish a basic package for each apartment.

Why would they not get an experienced tv distribution systems installer to quote for the work ?
Not being funny , but if you have to ask for basic advice on Boards as to how to carry out the work , and if a grid aerial is suitable for Saorview , you are not the right man for the job. There are a lot of potential pitfalls.

ISAA

Hope the apartments don't have a technical issues in the future, with someone with so little experience quoting for this type of job.

Does he know what a satellite dish looks like ? What satellite, what cable, what type of equipment to use.
Sure i'll get smacked for my comments.
But would it not be better to involve the job with a professional installer with experience ?

zg3409

I would agree with Rippy. Setting up such a system properly is not easy and requires expensive and hard to use analysers.

You don't seem to know the basics for setting up one house yet, let alone an apartment block. The risk of under quoting, or the system not being at all reliable are very high.

You should at the very least get a professional installer who has done similar installs to help and advise and provide backup.

All the aerials and dishes will need to be setup 100% correctly or tenants will soon be complaining.

St Senan

Frank your an electrician. As some of the guys here and in satellite have said It might be better to leave this job to a systems installer who specializes in head-end and communal systems also you have a same thread over in satellite http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=80456014 maybe a mod here could merge these or close 1.

Extinction

An electrician who doesn't even know what type of aerial to use will have a lot of trouble adapting especially since it's obvious that he wouldn't have a clue where to start with a single dwelling unit never mind a block of 20 apartments. An average systems installer would have far more training and qualifications in this field than an your average electrician. This reminds me of the many times I've seen pre cabled houses where an electrician has run one cable from an exterior of a house to a utility room thinking as many satellite feeds as needed could be split from it. Many times I've had electricians telling me that I didn't know what I was talking about and that of course it was possible to just split the satellite feed. For all their training and qualifications an average electrician knows very little about tv distrubrution and it is not a matter of adapting but rather a matter of training and qualification for this kind of work. The only place an untrained electrician has on this kind of work is to sign off on the earth bonding, the rest should be left up to a trained and qualified systems installer.

If Frank wants to do it himself then he should get the required training and qualification, first he'll need to train for domestic satellite and aerial installations and demonstrate that he has working knowledge before he will be considered for training as a systems installer, realistically it will take over a year to do this. Other than that I'd suggest he contracts in someone who knows what they are doing. As mentioned above, there are many pit falls in this kind of work and even the most qualified and trained installers often find systems extremely challenging. I doubt Frank (like most electricians) would even know the difference between RG6 and CT100.

Ronnie Raygun

Extinction wrote: »

An electrician who doesn't even know what type of aerial to use ... blah ...

I doubt Frank (like most electricians) would even know the difference between RG6 and CT100.

No Shit, Extinction. I think the point being made was that the average electrician would cop on to the principles involved in tv systems a hell of a lot quicker than most who actually see it as a "trade" & will run rings around the likes of you if there's any money to be made.

dxhound2005

I dont know how relevant this would be to the discussion but I was impressed by the apparent knowledge of the contributors to the thread and it could be useful for some people here.

http://www.satellites.co.uk/forums/multi-receiver-tv-systems-domestic-only/200264-new-house-build-multiple-satellite-outlets.html

Extinction

What do you mean by the likes of me? Who would run rings around me? What exactly do you know about me or my qualifications? Would you like to share that information on here?