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Distributing UK & Irish Channels around a Hotel or Apartment Block

Gerry asks,

I have a B & B with 10 bedrooms, 2 sitting rooms in Galway City. I have twin cables in all rooms and need to get equipment the rest of the equipment to try and get the Irish and UK channels in each room so visitors can get independent viewing in each room. Can you advise please.

Our answer;

Your options are as follows:

OPTION 1: Build a Mini Cable Head End

This system allows you give a set number of channels and run them to every room / apartment

  • TYPICALLY USED
    • B&Bs, Nursing homes, Youth hostels, Hotels
  • CHANNELS
    • e.g. give 10 channels
    • 6 Irish - RTE 1, RTE2, TV3, TG4, 3e & RTE News channels
    • 4 UK - BBC 1, 2, UTV & Channel 4
  • IRISH CHANNELS EQUIPMENT
  • SATELLITE EQUIPMENT
  • DISTRIBUTION EQUIPMENT
    • Select a TV Distribution Amplifier to feed the the number of rooms you want to feed.
    • you could use say an 8 way distribution amplifier to feed 8 * 8 way amplifier and in this way feed up to 64 rooms
  • CABLE REQUIREMENT
    • 1 cable going to each room
  • ADVANTAGES
    • Simple system to construct
    • Only requires a single cable per room
    • relatively low cost
    • easy to add on extra channels
    • all equipment kept in a central location
  • DISADVANTAGES
    • a pretty limited number of channels can be added - maximum will be 10 or 12
    • you can have interference problems due to cable runs, connectors and face plates

OPTION 2: Give a Satellite & Aerial feed to every room (<8 rooms)

This system allows to give a satellite & Terrestrial feed directly to every room.

  • TYPICALLY USED
    • B&Bs, private houses
  • CHANNELS
    • option to install a receiver(s) for all Irish & UK channels independently in each room
  • IRISH CHANNELS EQUIPMENT
  • SATELLITE EQUIPMENT
  • EQUIPMENT per Room
  • ADVANTAGES
    • Gives totally independence to room
    • Simple system to construct
    • relatively low cost to construct (until you start adding boxes)
    • can add extra boxes / rooms as required (up to 8
  • DISADVANTAGES
    • Limited to 8 rooms (or 4 rooms if each is to have Sky+ HD or Freesat HD)
    • Need to have 2 cables to each room

OPTION 3: Give a Satellite & Aerial feed to every room (<32 rooms & more )

This system allows to give a satellite & Terrestrial feed directly to every room.

IRISH CHANNELS EQUIPMENT

  • SATELLITE EQUIPMENT
  • DISTRIBUTION - MULTISWITCH
    • select the correct Multiswitch for the job from:
    • multiswitches
      • select from 8, 16 or 32 Output options
      • every room is feed directly from the multi-switch
  • EQUIPMENT per Room
  • ADVANTAGES
    • Gives totally independence to room
    • Only one cable per room
    • Can feed up to 32 rooms from a single system
    • This setup allows customers add in their own receiver to the system
    • It is possible to cascade additional cables off an additional system
    • Low cost option for large jobs
    • Works well if correctly installed
    • Only a single dish and Aerial needed
  • DISADVANTAGES
    • Even 32 output unit is limited to 16 rooms if you are going with sky+
    • Not easy to install - you need to know what you are doing
    • Equipment is more expensive than standard sky dish etc
    • Can have problems on long cable runs
  • FAQS

    • TYPICALLY USED
      • Mainly apartment blocks, groups of flats, but also B&Bs, Nursing homes (where customers want their own receiver) Youth hostels, hotels.
    • CHANNELS
      • option to install a receiver(s) for all Irish & UK channels independently in each room
    • Q: Can I re-use my chorus cable ?
      • yes
    • Q: Can I re-use my sky cable & sky dish ?
      • Again the answer is generally yes
    • How many cables will I need ?
      • if you have only 1 cable option 1 or 3 are your only valid solutions
      • if you have 2 cables (or more) then you can consider any of the above option
    • All the cables do not feed to the one point as they are spread over several buildings
      • normally on very large blocks of apartments you would put a dish per apartment block
    • I have bad signal on the Irish channels, how can I boost them ?

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