Cable Forum - View Single Post - Communal cabling systems / co existing with Sky

SMHarman · 29-07-2005, 12:14

I believe the frequencies that Sky, CATV and Freeview play out on are sufficiently similar that you cannot put them all down the same cable. It would be like having three telephone conversations on the same phone line at the same time (IYSWIM).

To maintain freedom of choice you could put sat grade coax from each dwelling to a central point (in a star network), at that central point the relevant installation company can hook up / distribute, so you would have three (or more cables coming in Freeview, Sky, NTL) and they would then be split and distributed to the appropriate dwelling. If you wanted to change supplier the supplier / you / the dweller would need to access the router cupboard and put the cable onto the sky / freeview segment as appropriate.

This should work for Sky and Freeview (where you will have shared sat / aerial) but may be a bit more fiddly for NTL wher they may want to bring in more cables if more customers want their product.

Can the building have risers but into it so a cable can be pulled if necessary?

EDIT:
Reading your post more thoroughly - you would probably want at least two coax to each property, one for a terrestrial broadcast, combined with AM, FM and DAB and another for the Sat OR CATV/BB feed.

Are you thinking of putting some CAT5 wiring to / thru each property too?

29-07-2005, 12:14	#3
SMHarman Inactive Join Date: Jun 2003 Services: Cablevision Posts: 8,305	Re: Communal cabling systems / co existing with Sky I believe the frequencies that Sky, CATV and Freeview play out on are sufficiently similar that you cannot put them all down the same cable. It would be like having three telephone conversations on the same phone line at the same time (IYSWIM). To maintain freedom of choice you could put sat grade coax from each dwelling to a central point (in a star network), at that central point the relevant installation company can hook up / distribute, so you would have three (or more cables coming in Freeview, Sky, NTL) and they would then be split and distributed to the appropriate dwelling. If you wanted to change supplier the supplier / you / the dweller would need to access the router cupboard and put the cable onto the sky / freeview segment as appropriate. This should work for Sky and Freeview (where you will have shared sat / aerial) but may be a bit more fiddly for NTL wher they may want to bring in more cables if more customers want their product. Can the building have risers but into it so a cable can be pulled if necessary? EDIT: Reading your post more thoroughly - you would probably want at least two coax to each property, one for a terrestrial broadcast, combined with AM, FM and DAB and another for the Sat OR CATV/BB feed. Are you thinking of putting some CAT5 wiring to / thru each property too?