Multiple Satellite points in newly renovated house

curiousbuyer

Hi All,
I've recently had the house fully renovated, we have installed TV, Cable and Ethernet points throughout the house, with everything wired back to a hub. There is an existing aerial which I was hoping to use, I had a TV Satellite Installer look at it, he said they no longer use the analogue aerials and that Satellite is the way forward. To use the satellite each TV will need its own Sat box (not a dodgy box) just looking for the free TV.
Question is there a Distributor Box for a Sat? I have one for analogue and never had any issues.
My Second question is around the Ethernet how do I activate the points? I luckily have e-fibre (currently brought in via utility room) I have all the ethernet connections wired to a patch panel with signal being sent via the modem but I have no signal in any points. Do I need a switch to run the patch panel? At a bit of loss.

The Cush

For clarity, there is no such thing as an analogue or digital aerial, an aerial is blind to the transmission standard. A distribution amplifier will split the Saorview signal around the house.

How many coax cables to each TV point?

curiousbuyer

2 x cables

Schorpio

Just to echo what The Cush said - there is no such thing as an analogue aerial, and I would be very wary of dealing with an installer who a) stated that there was, and b) recommended ditching your aerial in favour of satellite. It smells like he's trying to sell Sky on commission.

The optimal free TV set up in Ireland is a combination of aerial (for Saorview, Irish channels) and satellite (for the UK channels). I'm not an expert on satellite distribution (my house isn't big enough to need to worry about that!!). The standard setup for most homes will be that each satellite point is connected directly to the dish (to the LNB). Boxes with satellite recording functionality will need 2 feeds from the dish (one for watching, the other for recording). So, for example, if you get a 4-way LNB for your satellite dish, you could bring satellite feeds to 3 rooms, with one room having a recorder. There may be more complex satellite distribution systems - there are other most competent posters who might be able to advise you on that.

You should know that you can combine aerial and satellite feeds on a single cable, so if you have a room without a dedicated satellite recorder box, you could in theory use a single cable to the room.

Regarding your networking setup, it's hard to see from the photo, but it looks like you have a grey network cable connecting from your patch panel to the WAN port of your eir modem? Presumably your fibre box is wherever that port of the patch panel leads to (ie. your internet is working at the moment)?

You'll need a network switch if the number of rooms you want to supply is greater than the number of LAN ports on the back of your modem. You can just connect the 4 LAN ports on the modem wherever the rooms are coming in on the patch panel to supply 4 rooms now.

curiousbuyer

Just to echo what The Cush said - there is no such thing as an analogue aerial - my mistake
It smells like he's trying to sell Sky on commission - he wasn't it never came up in conversation (and i am not interested)

The optimal free TV set up in Ireland is a combination of aerial (for Saorview, Irish channels) and satellite (for the UK channels). - Up to when the house was renovated I got Irish & UK channels on the aerial.

The standard setup for most homes will be that each satellite point is connected directly to the dish (to the LNB). Boxes with satellite recording functionality will need 2 feeds from the dish (one for watching, the other for recording) - this is what i think he was referring to.

There is 4 x cables tied to together marked main dish satellite and then for each room there is individual cables labelled.

Networking setup - Eir Modem>Netgear router>repeater system (bought before house renovated thankfully) I can't any internet via patch panel, come to the conclusion that I need a switch.

Schorpio

Ah right okay - where are you located? If you were getting UK channels via an aerial, then you are close enough to a transmitter (likely in the North) to get overspill reception. For most people in ROI, that's not an option, and satellite is the only way to go to get free access to UK TV.

In that case, it's up to you really. You know what channels you get via overspill. Have a look at the channel list on the freesat website. It doesn't give you the full list of the free UK channels available, but it shows the main ones. It'll be up to you if there's anything there you want, over and above what you were already getting.

Regarding the switch, the only reason you will need a switch is if the number of rooms you want to supply is greater than the number of LAN ports you already have. If you're not getting internet to any room at the moment, a switch won't fix that for you.

I'm presuming the Eir modem is in bridge mode, and your devices are connected to the Netgear router? Is the route also located within that cabinet?

curiousbuyer

Ah right okay - where are you located? - in Wicklow, it quite hilly ground always get better UK signal than Irish

Netgear router is in the cabinet, not visible in the photos, all devices are connected to both eir and netgear, but signal drops on the eir.
I can't figure out how to get the panel/ethernet to work the points just are not active and it does not make sense

At this point I probably need an engineer to look at it