Your help please....Spec me a.....

FBi7

FBi7

FBi7

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Joined
19 Jun 2009
Posts
1,744
Location
Central Scotland
Hi folks.

Just moved in to a new build. I was advised in advance by the builders that I needed to supply my own aerial in the loft. So I bought one well before we moved in. We were also informed that there'd be 5 coax aerial points in the house - the living room plus 4 bedrooms.

Now we're in, I've gone into the attic primed to install the aerial and all I can see is 5 reels of coax, each labelled from their source - Living Room (+Sky ????) and each of the 4 bedrooms.

So, I know I need some kind of amplifier/distribution device. Trouble is, most I can see online are mains powered. I have no mains power supply up there.

Does my 'junction box' necessarily need a power supply, or are there alternates?

I could take a feed from the upstairs lighting ring, but would prefer not to do that. What options do I have/how would an AV professional meet my needs? What kind of coax connection is best - the standard Coax, or the screw-type used for satellite systems.

I'm also due to have Sky installed next week. Will/can they take advantage of this pre-installed cabling as described above?

Thanks in advance for your suggestions.

Cheers,

FB..
 
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For the amplifier specifically, yes they require mains power, but you can get ones that plug in next to your TV, and have a pass through that sends power back through the aerial socket. We had an engineer come and fit everything, but it seemed simple enough to do yourself.

It was fairly cheap for the installation tbh, I'd definitely consider a professional if you're at all unsure.
 
If your signal is strong enough in the area then a splitter will be fine, that aside you can take a feed from the lighting circuit (consult an electrician) else as mentioned above one with a seperate psu.
If there are two feeds running to the living room it can be used for sky but they would still need to feed from the dish into the loft.

The most common reason for two feeds is looping from the front room for sharing things like sky to the bedrooms, Aerial>skybox (two outputs)>one to TV>one to loft and split to bedrooms.
The fitters of these cables are usually the electricians and they know nothing about distribution (you'll be lucky if the sockets are even connected propery lol

This is now less commonly used due to Sky Q.
 
Thanks for that info @Dwarfy

Much appreciated.

I think the signal is pretty good where I am, currently using a standard aerial for the TV in the living room which is pointing diagonally through the entire house.

I do have 2 screw coax sockets in the the living room which I guess are the twin coax in the loft.

Re: SkyQ, does that mean the smart TVs in the bedrooms can access Sky via wifi?

Thanks again,

FB..
 
Sky Q uses wifi for comms from box to box, so you have a second box in the bedroom but it doesn't need a cable like the old system did

Seems odd that they mounted the feeds with f connector sockets, seems that the intention was sky to living room and aerial to bedrooms only.
 
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