New-ish House Media Cabinet

[Frank_Rizzo]

I just moved into a 2 year old house. It is fitted with a media plate in the lounge and there is this box is under the stairs:

I believe this is the media connection for VM and Sky and the communal aerial

What is this Quad device called?
Can I unplug the power if not using VM or Sky (I am just using Freeserve for TV and Fibre BB via the telephone socket)
Who maintains this device? If myself, how reliable is it and what's the cost of a new one if it fails?
There are two spare coax cables (white) presumably these are pre-installed extensions for other rooms?

 

[lucid]

It's a Global Fibre IRS Quad splitter. For large multi-dweller properties where satellite and TV signals need to be sent a long way (60+m) then a fibre optical system avoids the losses of normal coax cable.

If you haven't come across one of these before, then on a basic system what you have is the optical signal coming in at the top (via the yellow lead) and then being split in to exactly what you would get if you had your own satellite dish. There are four outputs for use with Sky+HD and Freesat receiving gear.

In bigger communal system they'll tag on the TV signal (Freeview) and radio in the form of DAB and FM. These signals work at different frequencies to the satellite signals, so all can co-exist quite happily in the same cable. This is called multiplexing. The wall plates in each room have filters that segregate the various signals back to their original individual channels. This means the cable(s) going to your lounge will be carrying Freeview and FM/DAB and satellite all from that Quad box. As a result, if you unplug the power lead you will lose Freeview and Freesat TV.

The fact that the signals are multiplexed possibly explains why one of the Quad outputs appears to be going to a two-way splitter. You wouldn't normally do that with satellite signals, but for Freeview TV or FM/DAB radio then splitting is fine so long as there's enough signal strength.

I can't answer definitively about Virgin. My gut feeling is that the signal frequency would clash with all the types that the system is designed to work with.

The current cost of the box is around £150.

 

[Frank_Rizzo]

Excellent answers.

Thank you.