Freesat / Freeview Distribution

[Cha0s]

We are having some major works completed on our property and the whole place will need re-plastering etc..

While all this is going on I'm taking the opportunity to install Cat5e in all the rooms.
There will be 2 cables going to the kids rooms and more going into the master.
8 behind the tv, loads into the study.
These can then be used for network, hmdi etc.
So I think I have things covered where Cat5 is concerned.

For TV we will be using an old Sky dish with a 4xLNB.

The plan was for 2 of these LNB outputs to come down to the living room to feed the freesat recorder.

The other 2 could be used for the kitchen and study feeding non-recording freesat boxes as required.

The other rooms will all have coax going to them, this will be used for freeview.

I was planning on having a patch panel in the loft for all of the connections. So we can switch which rooms receive freeview/freesat etc.

Am I missing anything.. What I mean is should I be putting in any other cables / components?

I would ideally like to avoid the clutter of a freesat box in the kitchen, could i locate one remotely say in the loft, or should i make provision for a coax cable on top of the kitchen cupboards to allow placement of the box up there out of the way? (or simply buy a freesat enabled small TV!)

Would I benefit from having a "LoftBox" to split / distribute the LNB signals to any / all rooms in future? and do I have enough wiring in place to allow this?

Lots of questions..
Thanks for looking.

 

[fixo]

How would you be controlling the freesat box in the loft? Phone app over WiFi? If it were me, which it will be at some point soon, I'd run coax and cat5e (or maybe 6) to all places where I was expecting to need connectivity / put a TV and patch everything in the loft so sounds like you've got it covered with cabling wise.

 

[Cha0s]

I guess id either control it with a magic eye type thing or some kind of IR over cat5 thing.

 

[Lucid]

The correct way to achieve what you want is with a Quatro LNB (replaces the standard Quad LNB), and a device called a Multi-Switch. This acts like a distribution amp but the big difference is that it will distribute the LNB signals in such a way that they can feed all rooms at the same time. An ordinary distribution amp can't do this. The Multi-Switch will also accept an aerial signal to distribute Freeview too.

If you go this route then a single cable in to a room can provide Freeview and all of the available Satellite frequencies without risk of clashes with any other satellite receiving TVs or boxes in your home. What you'd do in practise though is wire one cable per reception socket in to each room. e.g. for the main lounge with a dual tuner Freesat recorder and a Freeview TV you'd put in three cables.

 

[Cha0s]

Funnily enough I have just been reading about quattro lnbs.

That's what I'll do then.
3 coax to the living room. 1 each to the kids rooms. Versatile enough.

There will be plenty of cat5e for things like streaming off the nas and iplayer etc.

Cheers.

 

[winston1]

You can't get quatro LNBs for Sky dishes. So fit a standard round dish. Get a 60cm one as a quatro setup needs a larger dish.