TV/Radio wiring for 3 rooms

[abaker]

My house has never had any form of cabling laid for data or radio based transmission. During my restoration of the house I have been laying cat5e, coax and telephone cabling. I am now ready to start making use of these cables to provide services to each room. Being an IT person I am quite happy with the data side of things (and telephone) but I am a little confused with the options for TV and radio.

Mid terrace grade II listed cottage. I am providing data, TV, radio and telephone services to two bedrooms and the living room. The central hub for all this is an airing cupboard in the centre of the property on the 1st floor. Freeview and FM reception are required; DAB reception would be sensible, but I am not too concerned about Sky or Cable since both would require external modifications (cable/dish installation) and I doubt any future owner would want the trouble of obtaining listed consent for these anyway. Current reception is presumed to be good since Freeview reception is good using a TV top aerial downstairs with an amplifier.

I am proposing to install aerials in the loft. Run both cables into the airing cupboard. Combine using a diplexer. Use a 3 or 4 way splitter to take cable to 2 bedrooms and living room. (3m, 3m and 8m cable lengths respectively). In each room I will have a faceplate to provide TV, FM (diplexed) and Ethernet connections.

Does this sound suitable, or am I missing something fundamental? Do I need to address other issues as well?

I want to use good quality connections and equipment. My questions: Is there a single aerial suitable for both DAB and FM reception? Is there a diplexer available with F connections (I understand these are better) to combine the aerial cable into one? Alternatively is there a combined diplexer and 4 way unit available? hould I consider a 4 way unit with amplifier given the cable lengths? Is it right to get a 4 way unit with F connectors? Is there a modular faceplate that provides a diplexed TV/FM/DAB and ethernet connector in one? Would having the ethernet in the same box cause interference?

Any other advice or suggestions would be great also.

Thanks.

[Owain]

Don't rule out satellite; planners are often quite sympathetic to ground-level dishes mounted away from the building and screened by bushes.

It would do no harm to use satellite cable (CT100 or equivalent) throughout, put in 4 runs from a possible dish location to the hub, and

1 run (additional to the TV) to each room location. It is possible to shove satellite/TV/FM down one cable, but having a spare cable is never a bad idea.

All sounds okay to me.

Owain

[Ron Lowe]

You should look at domestic distribution systems.

Google on loftbox , and here's an example:

are others, Triax for example: {7B4B88CA-78D9-46CB-8645-561513D1A9FD}&Tab=0Hunt around the triax or TVlink sites, and you will find most of the items you mention, including the modular faceplates. This is all off-the-shelf stuff.

I'm considering the triax unit for my current RF system upgrade.

[Michael Chare]

You can run Cat 5 Ethernet cables next to CT100/PF100 TV Coax.

You can buy RJ45 wall plates with one socket and one blank, and then mount an F barrel on the blank, maybe also using an F Elbow. See

In general you should try to keep TV aerial cable lengths as short as practical, though this is less important if you have a strong signal. You can use distribution applifiers.

You might want to install more than one Coax cable, in case for example you want to passs the output from a Sky box to another room.