Flat Refurbishment Wiring (Wiring Plan Fixed!!!!)

[robbigee]

Hi all,

Am undertaking my first flat refurb from scratch and trying to get my head around what wiring needs to go from where to where.

I'm in a block with shared Satellite dish and Shared terrestrial aerial.

I plan to have Sky HD in the Living Room with output via RF2 to the two bedrooms (possibly with MagicEye but yet to be confirmed).

I also plan to hardwire RJ45 sockets in each room for internet/network access and keep the wireless router out the way in the hallway next to the master phone point.

Untitled

• robbigee
• 2 Jun 2011
• 1

Could anyone give me some really basic advice on where, if I have, I've gone wrong??

Thanks

Rob

 

[plugwash]

Your image doesn't seem to want to load.

 

[robbigee]

Thanks Plug.

For some reason I couldn't get it to upload yesterday so tried using an offsite photo site.

Have no managed to add to my albums.

 

[plugwash]

looks reasonable.

Do you know if the TV and sattelite systems are seperate or part of an "integrated reception system"? if the latter then you will need to use an appropriate "triplexer" to split out the TV (and FM which you aren't using) feeds from the sattelite signals.

I'd suggest running at least two cat5 cables from the switch to each network point so multiple devices can be connected without adding yet more switches. You also want to put the switch somewhere reasonablly accessible and/or arrange some way of turning it off and back on since I have seen switches crash occasionally.

 

[frusc]

I would consider running two more pairs of Cat 5 (or a HDMI cable) to each of the bedroom TV points aswell. By use of a HDMI splitter/matrix and HDMI baluns (assuming you run the Cat 5 not HDMI cables) this will allow you to distribute HD sources to the bedrooms in future.

Cat 5 is relatively cheap (even HDMI cables are these days) and therefore in my opinion its worth future proofing while you have the opportunity. When I refurbed I ran a couple of Cat 5 cables, a HDMI cable and Coax to the TV point in each bedroom/living room/kitchen/dining room. I only have a 4x4 HDMI matrix wired right now, but in the future I can also add the other zones if required.

 

[robbigee]

Hi all,

Looking at what kit I need to achieve what I want to do.

I wired the cables up as described in my diagram thinking this was OK but now it looks like I have too many cables in the living room??

I assumed my Sky panel would be like this one:

http://www.screwfix.com/p/labgear-screened-socket-quadruplexed-return/31909

At the moment I have 5 cables hanging out the wall as follows:

Sky cables x 2, RF cable from Aerial, RF cable to amplifier for distribution to other rooms and 1 x telephone cable.

Reading info on the web it suggests this is too many cables for the number of connections on the back of the quadplex socket?

Can anyone help me out??!

 

[ChrisFrost]

I'm glad you've got too many wires there, because putting the dish feed through the aerial amp is a recipe for disaster.

Do the following...

1. dish feeds direct to the Sky box
   RF2 out from Sky box to the Return socket on the wall plate.
   (Return socket wires back up to the amp as you know)
   Aerial cable in to the Sky box RF input*

* This last isn't ideal. It is better to have the aerial connected directly to the distribution amp, but if that isn't practical then this will do.

 

[robbigee]

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your reply.

Maybe I'm being really thick but I still don't understand what wall plates I would use for this ?

I seem to have too many wires that would go into a traditional Sky+ Wall Plate??

 

[ChrisFrost]

It would be lovely if you could get a wall plate with RF return without having the satellite feeds. I haven't yet found such a beast though. That's why you'll have two redundant sockets on the wall plate.

 

[robbigee]

So I've got Sky1 and Sky2 cables coming into the inputs, then a cable from the return socket back to the amplifier??

The redundant sockets then being the TV and Radio ones?

If that's the case do I need a single RF wall plate in order to receive the cable from the aerial on the roof to input it into the Sky box??

Finally, if I was to do this again, should I just have installed a loftbox style distribution unit in the cupboard next to the fuse box and then run the cables from there to the quadplex plate in a traditional manner??

 

[ChrisFrost]

So I've got Sky1 and Sky2 cables coming into the inputs, then a cable from the return socket back to the amplifier??

Yep. That's correct.

The redundant sockets then being the TV and Radio ones?

The TV one can be used if you want to watch Freeview. In all the systems I've installed it's rare for anyone to use it though when the Sky box is what they normally watch. But if it bugs you having an empty socket then simply connect the TV socket to the aerial input on the telly.

Radio (FM/DAB) socket. If you have an FM or DAB aerial on the roof, and you have a radio receiver somewhere near the TV & Sky box then hook it up. If not, then this socket will be empty.

Finally, if I was to do this again, should I just have installed a loftbox style distribution unit in the cupboard next to the fuse box and then run the cables from there to the quadplex plate in a traditional manner??

I wouldn't bother with a quadplex plate to be honest. A grid plate with a diplex module (TV/Radio) and a simple RF socket module for the return would have done fine. If you wanted the Sky cables on sockets rather than on cables through the wall a Sky installed then two simple F sockets would have done fine. Grid modules are a little more money than an all-in-one socket as you linked to before, but at least you can better match the sockets to a real application rather than them being redundant.

Sky still like a phone line to be connected to the box, and it's now useful to have a network cable connected to the box if you have Sky broadband for their net-enabled services such as Anytime+.