Standard of Sky installation

No reason to have a join on a new install!! + joins should be well avoided on digital.
 
No reply from Sky Yet.

Are the screw connections OK or are they supposed to be using crimped ones?
 
Twist on connectors are fine.

Also one joint wont make any difference on signal if its made correctly,after all its a joint at the box and at the dish.

In the perfect world no joints is ideal, but perfection is rare :)
 
Just got back now from my days route ! 17 hours today .

The pictures of your install aren't fantastic - but come on - throw the old LNB and cable reel in the bin and spend half an hour tidying the cable - job done .

Running cables along the eaves can contravine some of Sky's ridiculously prohibitive health and safety laws and breaching these can result in the sack.

A loft must be boarded out - have a switched light and a permanent access before we are allowed to even look in it !

I put myself at risk every day to try and please punters with little or no gratitude given ( or even expected sadly ) and at the end of the day it just isn't worth it.

Unfortunately to be able to complete our work we have to be a bit hard faced - and the time pressure on us leads to sometimes sloppy work.

I have been suspended twice by Sky for refusing my routing and work schedule and have reported them to the Health & Safety Executive as well - but nothing changes.
Sky are only interested in dishes on walls - ( which is why a quarter of an installers wages is made up of bonuses for reaching completion targets ).

I don't like saying it - but - faced with a shitty garden and a festering front room and an arrogant punter ( which we do face - very regularly ) your system is gonna be thrown in as quick as possible with little or no consultation.

However I am currently considering making a short documentary for Channel 4 ( if I can get the funding ) which I hope will expose Sky for the ruthless, greedy ,money grabbing sods that they are !
 
av2diefor said:
Twist on connectors are fine.

Also one joint wont make any difference on signal if its made correctly,after all its a joint at the box and at the dish.

In the perfect world no joints is ideal, but perfection is rare :)

You obviously know nothing about signal reflection and loss. There is no reason what so ever for a new install to have a joint in the cable,nor should it have one. Stick a digi meter on the cable prior to the join and then after-see what the difference is ;)
 
Still no reply from Sky..

Copter, throwing the stuff in the bin isn't a problem but when I used to work for BT, I'd never have considered leaving that mess!
 
the_sanguine said:
Still no reply from Sky..

Copter, throwing the stuff in the bin isn't a problem but when I used to work for BT, I'd never have considered leaving that mess!

BT standards have obviously slipped too-i come into contact with BT engineers every week-they leave off cuts and wires on the floor where they were working,standard of work is also **** poor(like tacking a cable around a cabinet instead of asking for it to be moved-it was EMPTY too! Cable route looked a little silly when the cabinet was moved to it's normal location-it had been moved FOR BT!!lol)
 
DRGL said:
You obviously know nothing about signal reflection and loss. There is no reason what so ever for a new install to have a joint in the cable,nor should it have one. Stick a digi meter on the cable prior to the join and then after-see what the difference is ;)

Utter crap, what if you move the digi-box?

Do you run the wire back to the dish?

Ive moved dozens, negigible loss and perfect pq ;)
 
I'm realy glad installers give their point of view, but I've seen 3 installers over the years. The first guy who put analog in in 92 was brilliant, Sky digital in 2000 was fantastic, even ripped out the old cable as I said I'd do the loft, because he said the old had several nipps. Unfortunately I had to have the dish moved because of a tree in leaf in a neighbours garden the following summer and this guy clearly couldn't give a s***e as after the first big rainstorm the pq went down badly. When I looked at the dish there was about half a wrap of tape around the cable going into the LNB so I went up undid it and redid it. No wonder he did it all so quick. I guess he was rushed.
 
av2diefor said:
Utter crap, what if you move the digi-box?

Do you run the wire back to the dish?

Ive moved dozens, negigible loss and perfect pq ;)

So why would a new install need a join?! It doesn't need it nor should it have it. Do you not think $ky training would stipulate it as OK to have joins if they could get away with it?(saving ££££!!) If you think signal reflection and loss don't exist it's time to get the training manual out.
 
Read what i said!

It shouldnt have any joints,but one wont harm it, if its done correctly.

so your saying to move a box 10m you would run a new cable to the dish?

Yeah right :rolleyes:

Looking at these pictures, i know who should have read the manual :rotfl:
 
I can't say i ever had to move a box. If the dish was ever moved then yes,a new cable went in. Some people do the job correctly-and others do the above! $ky don't even issue the connectors to join cables(or cetainly didn't). Yes one join may be fine but there's no need for it on a new install-that just shows how sloppy the job was!
 
When we had Sky+ multi room fitted for free earlier this year the installer was fantastic. Both rooms were virtually empty anyway as all the building work had just been completed and I was going through all the cable fitting.

He walked in and saw the metres and metres of cable runs labellled up behind where the skirting was going and all the cables laid out behind the av unit and said " right then mate, do you wanna tell me what you want 'cause there is no way I am gonna try and tell you what you should have!"

We went through routing the cable over the house (helped him do this) and I did the wiring up in the living room and putting the Sky+ box in whith my other kit whilst he did the upstairs multiroom fit.

He got everything activated, and then we had a cuppa whilst chatting about projectors :D . He was a fantastic young lad who couldn't have been more helpfull (he even took his shoes on and off every time he came in and out of the house as it was a new floor even though I had offered to put sheets doen whilst he did the job).
 
Two points about cable joints.
Firstly they have a tendency to deteriorate over time due either to movement or oxidisation.
Secondly the trouble with a joint is that is very difficult to maintain a constant impedance at high frequencies on jointed coaxial cables but you would probably need an expensive piece of test equipment to actually measure the effect (you would need a return loss analyser or similar).
There are certainly situations where the only sensible or easily practicable course of action is to add a join though - and in many cases the effect will not be noticeable to the viewer.

Chris Muriel, Manchester
 
While i dont condone joints on a new install i would only fit it internally.

You can actually buy extension cables from a reputable satellite dealer for
moving boxes so it can be done by the homeowner.
 
Well if the engineers dont like the job, get another one !!!

Just about every cctv company are crying out for good engineers why dont you apply for one of those, or is it because they expect a decent standard of installation ??

I've never ever seen a single acceptable sky install, it seems even clipping a cable across a wall is too difficult for them without it being like the hind leg of a donkey, crushed flat by the hammer or bent round corners.

When it comes to fixing faults they will swap your nice new box first then when the crappy reconed box doesnt work will replace the scart and not even bother put your new new box back.
 
I too had Sky+ and multiroom installed this week.

I'd run the co-ax cable where I wanted it before the young lad arrived, so I don't consider myself a lazy a**hole thanks.

We agreed the location of the satellite dish before he started, he then managed to fix it too far away so the pre-installed cables are now too taught/over stretched.

I don't mind having to sweep up the mess he left but the broken tile is really annoying, especially when I told him not to walk on the valley as the tile to replace is a cut tile!

The TV in the bedroom (multiroom) doesn't have a scart socket so we had to use the co-ax input. It worked fine (good pq) when I had telewest. This now had very bad reception/interferance which was unwatchable; I was told this was because the quality of the RF siganal is cr*p (his words). When he left I remade the joints and got a perfect OK picture. They were all screw/F connectors and this lad does not believe in the outer braid being in contact with the connector.....but then what do I know?

Yes, I know he had a large work load, I tried to help him and myself in the process. I didn't know the pay was so bad (.......Why do they do it? There are better paid jobs out there than that), but is that an excuse for such low standards?

I also had a question which I emailed to Sky. It's only been 4 days, but they don't like to reply do they?
 

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