Getting Sky Satellite+Cables installed during house renovation

[Firejack]

Currently in the process of renovating a house. All the ceilings/ walls have been exposed. To run new pipes/ power cables/ etc. Ideally this would be a good time to install the Satellite cables so they are hidden away.

Speaking to Sky about getting Sky Q installed I'm being told different things, by different Sky Experts and I'm now looking for advice on what to do next.

Desired Setup
Lounge: Sky Q
Kitchen: Freesat Set-top box
Family room: Freesat Set-top box
Office: Freesat PC Receiver

Own all the Freesat equipment already.

Sky are quoting £20 to install Sky Q and £145 to install Freesat.

They state 2 separate Satellite Dishes are required (!!). Reason being Sky Q uses a new LNB. Googling this I found you can get a Hyrbid LNB. When I asked Sky about this they said a Hybrid LNB couldn't be installed.

When asked about routing cables they said they couldn't install to the exposed ceiling/wall space. Each cable would just be left loose and not into a Satellite Point/Socket.

Really don't want cables running around the outside of the house poking out of walls if we can avoid it and 2 Satellite dishes just seems silly.

Will we just have to accept this or can answer suggest a better solution?

Thanks all.

 

[tom_nieto]

If you're doing a house renovation forget sky and find an independent satellite or aerial installer. It'll cost a little more but you won't be left with a crummy install and 2 dishes!!

 

[MissChief]

You won't need two dishes, a Hybrid LNB will work but I'm unsure how many standard feeds are on one.

 

[Firejack]

If you're doing a house renovation forget sky and find an independent satellite or aerial installer. It'll cost a little more but you won't be left with a crummy install and 2 dishes!!

Getting an installer may not be the most economical option. Looking at £280 for everything from the sockets to the hybrid LNB. Would probably be better getting Sky Q Multiroom unless I can find somewhere cheaper.

You won't need two dishes, a Hybrid LNB will work but I'm unsure how many standard feeds are on one.

I wonder if this is as simple as the Sky Experts reading from a script and because I've said 4 devices the script directs them to reject Hybrid LNB installs as there are not enough feeds.

I'll call them again on Friday. If I get someone more knowledgable great, if not, I'll try asking for Sky Q + 1 Freesat STB and see if that progresses things further.

 

[MissChief]

Ok asked someone in the know, the current LNB's are of a universal type and have 6 dual purpose ports on them that will accept either standard sky or Sky Q.

 

[Mav]

Hi ..

I had a local Ariel guy do my install for me when I moved into my house ..

Fitted a new Ariel and sat dish for me .. My Panasonic tv had both free view and free sat on it
So opted for both .. Fitted a single sat feed from the dish into the house .

So this year I got Sky Q ...
The sky engineer used the sat dish already installed all he did was change a box on the
Sat dish from a single connector to a 6 way connector as I needed 2 cables for the Sky Q and 1 for my freesat on the tv

So it can be done nice and neat .. On one dish with connections to spare !

 

[tom_nieto]

You don’t necessarily need the installer to run all the cables and terminate them for you. Just someone who actually knows what they’re talking about to give some advice to start with. That person tends not to work in a sky call centre from experience.

 

[Firejack]

Hi ..

I had a local Ariel guy do my install for me when I moved into my house ..

So it can be done nice and neat .. On one dish with connections to spare !

Thanks for restoring my sanity. I knew it should be possible to do a neat job with one dish. Got a local installer coming Tuesday to quote for the job.

Ok asked someone in the know, the current LNB's are of a universal type and have 6 dual purpose ports on them that will accept either standard sky or Sky Q.

Appreciate you asking the question. Thanks a lot!
Speaking to a different Sky Expert yesterday, when running through my questions about cabling. He seemed to suggest Sky TV over broadband would be available from the near year. Googling it does seem like this is happening. To the best of your knowledge, is that what you've heard too? If the timescale is correct, I can save myself money on the Satellite cable installation.

 

[MissChief]

Thanks for restoring my sanity. I knew it should be possible to do a neat job with one dish. Got a local installer coming Tuesday to quote for the job.

Appreciate you asking the question. Thanks a lot!
Speaking to a different Sky Expert yesterday, when running through my questions about cabling. He seemed to suggest Sky TV over broadband would be available from the near year. Googling it does seem like this is happening. To the best of your knowledge, is that what you've heard too? If the timescale is correct, I can save myself money on the Satellite cable installation.

I believe it's still planned for next year some time but other than that I've not heard anything.

 

[TheVoice]

Personally I'd still go with the satellite, it'll be more reliable than the broadband connection. I've got BT TV and I get more "signal drops" on the internet channels than I do the Freeview ones.

 

[Jamauk]

Will Sky be happy with you installing the cables though? When I had Sky Q installed the installer was quite insistent on changing the dish & eventually agreed to use the existing cables as they're from a previous Sky install and run through the wall, he even insisted on using the Sky Q power lead rather than the one from the previous Sky HD box.

The idea of having Sky TV over broadband will give access to a huge market, either for properties that can't have a dish installed or for those who want to have a dish free house.

With new Sky products in mind, are there any plans for having one (or more) multi-room boxes with 4K? It's an ever increasing format and given the picture quality on one 4K TV it would be nice to get it on another.

 

[Caged]

If you get a satellite installer to do the work then you can get a dish installed and aligned, fitted with a quattro LNB and then fit a suitable multiswitch, like:

http://www.triax.uk/products/satellite/multiswitches/coax-cascade/tmds-58-c-skyq-multi-switch

Each output can connect to a Sky Q box or a 'legacy' satellite tuner like a Freesat TV.

 

[MissChief]

Will Sky be happy with you installing the cables though? When I had Sky Q installed the installer was quite insistent on changing the dish & eventually agreed to use the existing cables as they're from a previous Sky install and run through the wall, he even insisted on using the Sky Q power lead rather than the one from the previous Sky HD box.

The idea of having Sky TV over broadband will give access to a huge market, either for properties that can't have a dish installed or for those who want to have a dish free house.

With new Sky products in mind, are there any plans for having one (or more) multi-room boxes with 4K? It's an ever increasing format and given the picture quality on one 4K TV it would be nice to get it on another.

I'm not aware of any plans for UHD on more than one TV. The number of people with more than one UHD capable TV is very small.

 

[jpaul]

If you are a sports fan, the broadband 4K offering is unlikely to differ from the industry standard 15Mb/s hevc 4k bitrate, so will not look like the ~30Mb/s streams sky is putting out on satellite; next years European cup 4k broadcast is also exclusive to satellite Sky (&Sony tvs)

 

[GIBSrUS]

Definitely still get the cables run (dont need any hardware at each end necessarily) just in case you move to freesat in the future. If you buy the cable reel your electrician may do it for free.