I am moving to a new build and have booked a home move with Sky.
The new build has a media plate in the lounge with cables in the loft.
The media plate TV module looks something list this one:
Amazon product ASIN B003D1B5D4
View attachment 1622144
I checked with the electrician who has done the wiring at the site, and I've been told that a twin coaxial cable is connected at the back of media plate module and the other end of the twin coaxial is in the loft.
I checked with Sky home move team if their installer will be able to use the cables in the loft and connect to them, but I have been told that due to covid regulations and health & safety, the engineer will not be going into the loft and will possibly try to run their own cables. It probably means that they will try to drill through the walls in the new house which I don't want them to do.
Any ideas what I should do here?
Also, I have two more single TV aerial sockets in the bedroom and another one in the diner. and I have been told that there are two more single coax cables in the loft which connect individually to each of these TV aerial sockets.
I have two old Sky+ HD boxes which I want to use for the free channels in the bedroom and diner.
What is the best way to get this done? I am aware that I need a hybrid LNB for a start, but it is the cabling I am worried about.
In addition, I do need a freeview aerial feed coming in and a FM/DAB antenna feed as well. I read somewhere that the TV/FM/DAB/Sky+HD signal can be multiplexed on the same cable. But Sky Q signal can't.
Any suggestions will be very helpful.
I have a similar setup that works (though only with SkyQ, not extra SkyHD boxes). You need a dSCR or standard multiswitch which will go in the loft. They're about £150 - £500 or more depending on how many outputs you need. All your cables from the dish/aerials plug into it, and all your coaxial cables from your rooms plug into it.
This place sells them and they know what they're talking about:
Satellite dishes, Satellite receivers, Satellite accessories. Caravan satellite. Big discounts. Satellite Superstore UK.
Regarding your dish, I have a quattro LNB (n.b. not quad. Fitted by a professional aerial firm) which is different to what Sky provide. This allows SkyHD to be split and sent to different rooms (I had SkyHD prior to SkyQ). I'm not 100% sure you can split SkyHD or other satellite signals via a multiswitch
without a quattro LNB but it may be possible with a Quad LNB / wideband LNB| (read on re Triax multiswitch).
For SkyQ, engineers normally fit a wideband LNB (two cables to the SkyQ box). I believe they can fit, if requested, a dSCR LNB which will give you SkyQ along a single coaxial cable. You can then connect this via an f type coaxial coupler/joiner in the loft directly to the coaxial cable that feeds your quadplex plate. (Though you may still need the original LNBs for your SkyHD)
Your terrestrial TV / FM / DAB cables from the three aerials need to go into a combiner, either located outside near the aerials or in the loft if all three cables go into there), which will send all three frequencies along a single coaxial cable. This then goes into the multiswitch as well as your SkyHD and SkyQ. I'd get a professional aerial company to fit the combiner, unless you're handy with these things. You can also get them to fit your terrestrial TV aerial/FM/DAB aerials outside if required. You will also need triplex wall plates in the rooms you want to use SkyHD if the TV sockets you're referring to aren't. They're cheap and very easy to fit yourself, replacing the old wall plate with the new (I'm presuming you have satellite grade coaxial cable to all these rooms).
The multiswitch will then send the signals along your coaxial cables to your rooms. For your main room, the SkyQ ideally needs to be along its own dedicated coaxial cable, which goes to your quadplex wall plate. No problem if you have two coaxial cables running to your quadplex plate.
However, if you're using a dSCR feed, your terrestrial TV/FM/DAB should be able to travel along the same cable. You'll need to check this but I've read that whilst wideband LNB uses frequencies that are used in the TTV/FM/DAB range, dSCR does not. However, the wideband LNB input signal is possibly a moot point because I think (need to check) that some multiswitches change the wideband frequency to the higher range (like Freesat / SkyHD or quattro LNB use) in dSCR mode which is outside of the TTV/FM/DAB range, thus allowing all four of the signals to travel along a single coaxial cable.
Thus it's said that
direct Wideband LNB signals may not work properly with quadplex plates as the decombiner in there can strip out some of the SkyQ feed that is using the same frequency as TTV/FM/DAB.
So you should ideally go with the dSCR route.
Re the above, this is why some say the SkyQ feed should goto the Sat 2 socket in your quadplex plate, which is a straight data pass through. I use dSCR and I've tried Sat 1 and Sat 2 on my quadplex plate and whilst they both show a signal quality of 90, on Sat 2 the signal strength is marginally higher, switching every few seconds between 70 and 80 whilst on Sat 1 it is 70 permanently. So it does seem the decombiner is interfering a little, even in dSCR mode.
Regarding your SkyHD feeds, they can travel along the same coaxial cable to your other rooms as TTV/FM/DAB all have different frequencies. Hence why triplex wall plates exist.
You should be able to get a single multiswitch for your SkyQ / SkyHD / terrestrial TV / FM / DAB. My Triax multiswitch sends SkyQ and FreeSat to my quadplex wall plate and I can switch between both on my TV. Triax have got newer multiswitches that can take a signal from quattro or wideband LNBs as well as your TTV / FM / DAB.
Multiswitches like the one I have (Triax TMDS 42 C dSCR) can take feeds from a Quattro or Quad LNB and convert them to 2 x outputs for SkyQ (dSCR) and 2 x outputs for SkyHD or FreeSat. This may mean that you don't need a dSCR LNB fitting though you might want to for future proofing (n.b. this Triax model doesn't take a TTV/FM/DAB feed, you'll need a higher model that includes this).
I'd advise you use a local professional aerial firm that can fit the combiner (and aerials etc if required) if there isn't already one in the loft/outside. The multiswitch you can do yourself, it's very easy, all you're doing is plugging cables into it. You'll need screw on coaxial f plugs for the end of coaxial cables (easy to fit) or compression fit if you want to get fancy.
From there, you just need to enable dSCR on your SkyQ box. There are further instructions on other posts on AVforums about enabling this etc.
It's pretty straightforward.
Good luck mate.