Sky and New Build

Forums › Sky, Neon, Lightbox › Sky and New Build

pdh

296 posts

Ultimate Geek

#274595 30-Aug-2020 20:51

Building new house - with (legal) flat (Minor Dwelling) under.

When the long-run goes on in 5 weeks, I will have all the scaffolding up - allowing safe access to the 5 m high ridgeline.

We're north of Auckland - facing North and neighbouring houses get Freeview (from Waiatarua) with a high antenna.
So I will need to put any antenna up high on my roof's ridgeline - not a fascia mount.

I'll put a UHF antenna up for Freeview - but what about Sky ?

We've no interest in Sky'sservice - but a tenant (in the flat) might.
Also a very small chance we might rent the house out - if we go travelling.

(a) Is there a good likelihood that Sky will soon (ie: 6 months) offer their channels over Internet ?
If so - I won't bother with a dish. It is pretty old tech - and ugly.

(b) Is it worth sticking a new or 2nd-hand dish up on the roof for possible use by the tenant ?
Can I buy a new one without a contract ? Or a used one at a reasonable price ?

(c) Running coax cable from the UHF (in the attic) down to 2 spots in the flat and four in the house.
Doubt more than 2 ever in use at once - but easy to boost if I need to.

TIA for any insights.

1 | 2

2760 posts

Uber Geek

#2552661 30-Aug-2020 21:19

Sky are looking to introduce a new device based on Android TV that can run over satellite or the internet and with Vodafone TV with Sky already delivered over the internet I wouldn't be concerned about installing a new dish at all... just ensure that you've got ethernet ports to where a tv would likely be placed.

Wise

Send money globally for less with Wise - one free transfer up to NZ$900 (affiliate link).

Scott3

3924 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2552663 30-Aug-2020 21:23

You can currently get sky (and free) channels via the internet by purchasing Vodafone TV boxes.

I have heard of cheaper(kiwibuild style) new build houses in new devolpments omitting both sat dishes.

Personally I would put UHF and a sat dish on (in addition to full strctured network wiring (I have 4 drops behind my TV, 3 in use). Not that expensive to buy a dish and uhf antenna, and much easier to do while scaffolding is up. At min put in coax runs.

A decent percentage of the population has sky, and some will move with their old sky box packed.

As a side note sky normally does installs for free when you sign up, but they do it quite messy. No mousing down walls and faceplate. You get external wire runs and a fixed wire hanging out of the wall...

bfginger

1244 posts

Uber Geek

#2552685 30-Aug-2020 22:30

Prime Plus 1 is on satellite but not UHF.

richms

27982 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#2552735 30-Aug-2020 22:55

I would still put coax in if you're possibly renting it out at some stage. IP based products are not there for all people just yet. Vodafone tv is great but some people just want the familiarity of mysky and sky are years behind the ball and only talking about a IP delivered box in surveys etc at the moment.

Last thing you want is a tenant getting sky installed with one of their butcher jobs thru the cladding with the 300mm drill bit to inside and straight up the wall.

I would also put the coax in for a rooftop antenna, even if you dont install it right away. Both multiple dish runs and the roof antenna run back to your structured cabling cabinet, and then a couple of coax cables to each TV location. You can just put a coupler in the cabinet to join the cables together and forget about splitters and amps if you dont want all tvs there right away.

Richard rich.ms

pdh

296 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2552746 31-Aug-2020 02:28

Thanks all for the suggestions.

Ethernet cabling will be plentifull - I've been involved with installing it for customers since it began !

There won't be any shoddy Sky installs in the flat - it's inside of 300 mm (not a typo) thick precast concrete walls - with a 200 mm thick concrete floor between the flat and us upstairs... The ducting for power & data (cat-6 & coax & some sensor wire) is going in tomorrow.

I will put up the UHF antenna - as we (sometimes) use Freeview.
God knows why that's not easily available on the web - even if geo-fenced.
I've got the Vodafone box and am scrapping it at the end of the year contract.
It does nothing for me that I need - why blow 120 $ a year on it ?

Just had a thought.
Where does a Sky dish point ?
If it's N towards the equator, I could mount a dish on the eves (or side of the house).
All I have to do is leave some coax inside - or pull some through the soffit and cap it.
Then I'm ready for a dish if I ever need it.
Does the dish need power - or just a single coax cable ?

Apsattv

2364 posts

Uber Geek

#2552753 31-Aug-2020 04:10

Re SKY dish you don't need to do anything. Sky will sort it if needed as part of the install.

new options are coming you can already get SKY via vodafone tv over i.p. You can buy the unit $100- $149 and you get freeview (no payment) it uses ethernet or wifi and SKY can be added with no contract at XX$ per month. They even have a new offering with sky sport pack for $40 a month and no need to purchase the lower channel teirs

Sky are teasing that they also will have a similar offering via their own ip/satellite android? device. Just wire at least 2 coax and some network cable to each location and decent wifi and you are set for sky/freeview and whatever else comes along

Benoire

2760 posts

Uber Geek

#2552756 31-Aug-2020 06:21

pdh:
Thanks all for the suggestions.

Ethernet cabling will be plentifull - I've been involved with installing it for customers since it began !

There won't be any shoddy Sky installs in the flat - it's inside of 300 mm (not a typo) thick precast concrete walls - with a 200 mm thick concrete floor between the flat and us upstairs... The ducting for power & data (cat-6 & coax & some sensor wire) is going in tomorrow.

I will put up the UHF antenna - as we (sometimes) use Freeview.
God knows why that's not easily available on the web - even if geo-fenced.
I've got the Vodafone box and am scrapping it at the end of the year contract.
It does nothing for me that I need - why blow 120 $ a year on it ?

Just had a thought.
Where does a Sky dish point ?
If it's N towards the equator, I could mount a dish on the eves (or side of the house).
All I have to do is leave some coax inside - or pull some through the soffit and cap it.
Then I'm ready for a dish if I ever need it.
Does the dish need power - or just a single coax cable ?

Have you got the latest gen 2 box that does cloud enabled Freeview and sky. Freeview is free and sky can be added at will.

cyril7

9050 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#2552803 31-Aug-2020 07:11

Hi, Optus D1 from central Auckland is approx 316 magnetic, 336 true and elevation is 44.5deg, so that will give you an idea of what will work, note how the elevation, assuming you have a clear spot you can even get away with a dish low down just need to watch out for close in trees etc. I would run a coax to a suitable location with a cap to access it incase in future.

Cyril

Dingbatt

6737 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2552807 31-Aug-2020 07:31

The cost of running a few extra cables at construction time vs the cost and possible damage caused during retrofit should be viewed as cheap insurance.

Even if the cables you install only end up being draw wires for something in the future that will make life easier. With that in mind, make sure the holes in nogging are a generous size. Even some conduit may be of benefit.

If you don’t install a satellite dish, work out where it’s going to be mounted and run at least one cable to it.

If you are in an area of fringe coverage from Waiatarua, have you considered how you might want to amplify the signal?

“We’ve arranged a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science technology. Carl Sagan 1996

sbiddle

30853 posts

Uber Geek

Retired Mod

Trusted

Biddle Corp

Lifetime subscriber

#2552821 31-Aug-2020 08:05

pdh:

I will put up the UHF antenna - as we (sometimes) use Freeview.
God knows why that's not easily available on the web - even if geo-fenced.

Freeview IPTV streams are highly accessible - infact I don't think they could be more accessible. HLS streams of all the main channels that can be used in any software you want, along with being pretty good quality (although you could argue higher quality 1080p streams would be nice).

Scott3

3924 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#2552835 31-Aug-2020 08:32

pdh:

Thanks all for the suggestions.

Ethernet cabling will be plentifull - I've been involved with installing it for customers since it began !

There won't be any shoddy Sky installs in the flat - it's inside of 300 mm (not a typo) thick precast concrete walls - with a 200 mm thick concrete floor between the flat and us upstairs... The ducting for power & data (cat-6 & coax & some sensor wire) is going in tomorrow.

I will put up the UHF antenna - as we (sometimes) use Freeview.
God knows why that's not easily available on the web - even if geo-fenced.
I've got the Vodafone box and am scrapping it at the end of the year contract.
It does nothing for me that I need - why blow 120 $ a year on it ?

Just had a thought.
Where does a Sky dish point ?
If it's N towards the equator, I could mount a dish on the eves (or side of the house).
All I have to do is leave some coax inside - or pull some through the soffit and cap it.
Then I'm ready for a dish if I ever need it.
Does the dish need power - or just a single coax cable ?

Good that there is going to be heaps of ethernet.

With regard to vodafone TV, sounds like you are talking about the old box.

The new one is $180 to purchase (cheaper on special), and doesn't have a monthly charge unless you opt into sky channels. Works out to be a better deal than sky if it does what is needed.

That said, it doesn't have quite the same functionality as a normal mysky box. As the "recording" is done in the cloud (actually an on demand service for the last few days), the content rights requirements are different from local recording, and sky doesn't have the rights to provide the cloud based service for 100% of their content. As such not everybody will be happy to swap out for Vodafone TV.

Just a single cox cable for the sky dish (sky were installing dual LNB dishes for a while which had two cox cables, but I think they stopped.

I'm torn, a satellite dish (even a new one) isn't expensive (especially if you have the UHF installers on site to do the alignment) so might as well have it done now. On the other hand if the install location is accessible, might was well hold off until it is actually needed (and get a free disk from sky connected to your cox).

[edit] - regarding smart view via IP, the below artical is from 2018:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/109230007/freeview-offers-streaming-option-for-dish-and-aerialfree-homes

"The palm-sized device, made by partner Dish TV, is the first Freeview device to let people stream live free-to-air channels to a television over broadband, doing away with the need for a satellite dish or UHF aerial."

"Foden said about 10 per cent of homes did not have a satellite dish or television aerial, and that was becoming increasingly common with the construction of new apartments that were instead only connected to ultrafast broadband."

I think with the budget limits for kiwisaver withdraws and kiwi saver withdrawals developers are aggressively cutting cost out of their cheaper builds, and a TV aerial / Sat dish and associated wiring is one of the obvious things to omit given most of these are set up for UFB.

This is dongle talked about in the article, but I think a bunch of TV's can support the IP streams via an app without a separate bit of kit.

https://www.dishtv.co.nz/sv10

cyril7

9050 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Subscriber

#2552842 31-Aug-2020 08:46

Hi, just to clarify the comment above only one coax is required for Sky, a few years ago they were all set to purchase some capacity on C1, but it never transpired, and as I understand the whole idea has been dropped, further the current re sign with Optus remains with only capacity on 160E (D1) so no need for dual throat LNB or cabling. With the Internet options becoming more atractive and as we can see Sky looking at peddling one, I doubt there would be any need for more sat capacity to be purchased

Cyril