New home TV antenna install

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Strongbad1905

94 posts

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#143646 22-Apr-2014 14:03

Hi guys I'm a week out from moving into my brand new house. Being new I have to resort to selling a kidney(jokes) to buy curtains and blinds. But what I wasn't planning on was the quoted price of getting a tv antenna!
I have a home hub so 95% of the homes wiring is done(wiring from hub to all jacks is done) I have been quoted $450 for an antenna, mount and wiring which would be no more then 10 meters and what they tell me is another possibly $350 for an amplifier. This seems way over the top to me has anyone in Auckland (the house is in Whangaparaoa) had this done what did it cost you? any recommendations or aerial installers on here I'm not keen to do this myself.

Regards
Daniel

MattR

224 posts

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#1029133 22-Apr-2014 14:08

We moved into our house in Torbay 18 months ago, and had no UHF antenna.

Cost us about $450 for a big (91 element) UHF antenna, amp, and an extension to the existing mast.

http://www.nocowboys.co.nz/businesses/northern-signal-solutions

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Dynamic

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#1029135 22-Apr-2014 14:15

I got one of these DIY kits which comes with 10m of cable, water-resistant connections (consider some silicone) and a short wallmount hockey-stick mount for the antenna on special when they were on special for $60. We are in the middle of Westie territory and the performance has been flawless. Also put one in place for the in-laws who do not have direct line of site to the Waiatarua (spelling?) tower and they have had no issues.

http://www.dicksmith.co.nz/antennas/dick-smith-hd-uhf-outdoor-antenna-pack-dsnz-l4735

The amplifier will be to do with splitting the signal among multiple cables inside the house. You only get so much signal coming down the cable from the antenna, and splitting it into two inside the house means each cable gets only half the signal strength and so on (not to mention cable length losses). At some point there will just not be enough signal for a stable picture. Whether an amplifier is required is generally just a 'suck it and see' deal. I've never used one (never had a nice new house!) but this looks like it would do the trick:

http://www.dicksmith.co.nz/antennas/masthead-tv-amplifier-dsnz-l4236

Good luck!

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#1029136 22-Apr-2014 14:15

Being on the Whangaparaoa Peninsula, you may not be able to get FreeviewHD - depends which side youre on :) Im in Stanmore Bay, and noone there is able to get FreeviewHD, so everyone is on DVB-S (dish). This could be why theyre saying an amplifier might be necessary.....
Which part of the Peninsula are you in, and do your neighbors get FreeviewHD ? If not, then save your money and get a dish installed (pretty sure itll be a lot cheaper too)

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RunningMan

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#1029139 22-Apr-2014 14:21

UHF reception is pretty poor for a lot of the peninsula, so paying for the biggest and most expensive antenna is probably reasonable, however, $450 seems fairly high, unless it is a particularly difficult instal...

driller2000

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#1029156 22-Apr-2014 14:44

when we had our place built in beachlands 5 years ago we had cable + mast + vhf + uhf elements installed

as part of the build we had aerial terminations installed into 7 separate locations in the house - so we needed a distribution box and an amp as well (as the freeview signal was weakish)

all up the aerial guys work alone cost approx $950ish from memory (note: this did not incl the room cabling + aerial terminal plates which were part of the house build)

so yeah not cheap - but probably means your price is there or thereabouts

insane

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#1029160 22-Apr-2014 14:57

I can recommend Albany City - Alarms and Aerials - 027 525 2768. He sorted my setup out that some cowboy had installed only a year earlier. First guy installed an (analogue) amplifier when I didn't even need it. Apparently a digital AMP is a whole different beast, and costs ~$200

This guy was very reasonable and straight up

http://www.albanyaerials.co.nz/

Strongbad1905

94 posts

Master Geek

#1029244 22-Apr-2014 17:37

Great we have built in Gulf Harbour and have sea views almost to the city so I think we should be fine for FreeviewHD as there are others with UHF aerials. I was thinking I would need an amp as It splits to 5 rooms. Cheers insane I hadn't tried them.

Brunzy

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#1029295 22-Apr-2014 18:58

Strongbad1905: Hi guys I'm a week out from moving into my brand new house. Being new I have to resort to selling a kidney(jokes) to buy curtains and blinds. But what I wasn't planning on was the quoted price of getting a tv antenna!
I have a home hub so 95% of the homes wiring is done(wiring from hub to all jacks is done) I have been quoted $450 for an antenna, mount and wiring which would be no more then 10 meters and what they tell me is another possibly $350 for an amplifier. This seems way over the top to me has anyone in Auckland (the house is in Whangaparaoa) had this done what did it cost you? any recommendations or aerial installers on here I'm not keen to do this myself.

Regards
Daniel

Seems excessive. I would have thought around $250/$300 for the install & no more than $100 for the amp.

Brunzy

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#1029299 22-Apr-2014 19:01

insane: I can recommend Albany City - Alarms and Aerials - 027 525 2768. He sorted my setup out that some cowboy had installed only a year earlier. First guy installed an (analogue) amplifier when I didn't even need it. Apparently a digital AMP is a whole different beast, and costs ~$200

This guy was very reasonable and straight up

http://www.albanyaerials.co.nz/

Not quite correct , thousands of old analogue amps working away out there, and if anything the new amps are cheaper than before <$100

ajw

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#1029365 22-Apr-2014 19:52

Input your address here http://www.freeviewnz.tv/coverage.aspx this will give you a idea what coverage you can expect.

Niel

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#1030224 23-Apr-2014 23:56

There are 2 types of amps, masthead LNA (low noise amp) and distribution. The first one takes a weak signal and amplifies it with high quality components which introduces little noise. The second takes an already good signal and buffers it for overcoming distribution losses, and does not (need to) use low noise components. In other countries where Auckland would be classified as only a small suburb of a much larger city, you always use both an LNA and distribution amp because they have different purposes and you need an LNA due to the geographic distance. You may ask why a gain knob on a distribution amp? That is because if you have too much gain on an already strong signal then it can clip the signal or overpower the TV tuner.

So-called digital flat panel antennas work well in most areas (but not fringe areas). They incorporate an LNA and very easy to setup due to the compact size.

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