Saorview for multiple tv's

Brian2011

Hi,

Just something that I am curious about, could someone tell me how do places with lots of tvs receive digital / saorview tv, places such as hotels, B&B's, Hospitals etc. Do they have like a special system that works all the tv's and what is it?

Also many of these places would still have the old type tv's, I stayed in a Bed and Breakfast there last september just before the digital switch and all the rooms had the old type tv's, I would imagine many hotels would still have the old tv's. I mean is there a special system that they install to work all the tv's, I would imagine how expensive it would be if the owner had to buy set top boxes for each tv or upgrade to saorview tv's.

And for example, would the B&B owner not have to get new saorview approved tv's anyway as it would be such a hassle for guests to have to to turn on the set top box first and then use another remote to work the tv???

Just something I am curious to know about, Thanks

Play To Kill

A receiver is used for each channel so for the 8 Saorview channels you would have 8 receivers, each one programmed with a different channel. Each receiver is then given a unique frequency to output on and fed into a distribution system that has all the cables from the rooms connected to it. The tv's are then tuned and the channels come in on the frequencies that the receivers were programmed to output on. Thats a basic explaination.

Peter Rhea

An example a lot of people would be familiar with, is the Sky box RF output, except, as above, with each box taking care of only one channel that can be selected on multiple tvs.

The same principle applies to professional modular systems & afaia, modules are available to convert between, say, digital satellite input signal & digital terrestrial output, which would allow a lot more channels to be crammed in, for tvs with the necessary tuner.

zg3409

Yes most small to medium hotels send about 17 channels down a cable to all TVs. It's like a mini cable TV system. It means older TVs can be used, no set top boxes, and possibly lower cost.

Also some TV's have a "hotel mode" where the max volume can be limited and menus and retuning can be disabled, to prevent finger trouble.

However if we could get hotels to ensure the system works correctly. At least 50% of hotels I visit have missing basic channels or dodgy signal.