4 replies to this topic

[VuJuicer]

Hello,

 

I live in an apartment building with quite a large deployment of coaxial points (I have one on each room). I am trying to find a method of detecting the distribution system behind this coaxial in hopes of being able to find a splitting mechanism. Near my TV, I have a coaxial point connected to my twin-tuner Vu+ Uno 4K SE. From the coaxial point, I can get a single cable that carries 3 satellite positions (13E, 7W, 26E) on Port A, B, C (under Advanced settings for my tuner selection). I would like to use the single point to split this signal to two so I can run two cables into the box. The use case will be to record and to dedicate some of the tuners to SAT2IP > TVH.

 

If I am able to detect the distribution, I am hoping to find a splitter which can take the single coaxial faithfully, and split the Port A, B, C into two coaxial cable to the 2 tuners, and potentially watch on channel on the box, and stream another (from another satellite position). For fuller information, the tuner in the box is FBC capable.

 

Any thoughts on how I can approach this? 

 

Thanks! 

[WanWizard]

Sat ports in an apartment are either outputs of a multiswitch, or Unicable. Given the fact you can detect positions, you're dealing with the first.

 

Multiswitch outputs can't be split, they can only be connected to a single tuner, because only one position can use the coax at any given time, DiSECqC signalling is used to determine which of the positions is active.

[VuJuicer]

Sounds pretty straightforward. Thanks for your help! It seems that I will abandon trying to get two positions on two tuners. Does the FBC give me any additional functionality on a single position? (Do I understand correctly that I can access other frequencies beyond the one that is currently engaged?)

[WanWizard]

Yes. When you select a channel, the DiSEqC command will select a quadrant (high/low, horizonal/vertical).

 

A standard tuner will then tune to the transponder frequency, and you are limited to other channels on that same frequency. As an FBC module has multiple tuners, you can use a second tuner to tune into a second transponder in the selected quadrant. So you have access to more transponders.

 

Normally, appartments have a central distribution system somewhere in the building. It contains a stack of cascading multiswitches, usually fed by quad LNB's or if newer wideband LNB's.

 

If you are allowed access to that (or if you can get someone to do it), you could add your own cascading switch to it that has the correct number of cascading inputs, and a unicable output. That would give you up to 32 tuners on a single cable, which can be split easily using unicable splitters.

Downside is that those switches aren't cheap, the only I use (for a 4 x quad LNB's cascade, so 16 inputs) is about 700 euro's.

 

If that isn't possible, see if getting a second output from that distribution stack is possible. You could then use a Johansson Stacker to multiplex the two outputs on a single cable, and split it again into two in your house. That should be doable for around 100 euro's.

[VuJuicer]

 

Yes. When you select a channel, the DiSEqC command will select a quadrant (high/low, horizonal/vertical).

 

A standard tuner will then tune to the transponder frequency, and you are limited to other channels on that same frequency. As an FBC module has multiple tuners, you can use a second tuner to tune into a second transponder in the selected quadrant. So you have access to more transponders.

 

Normally, appartments have a central distribution system somewhere in the building. It contains a stack of cascading multiswitches, usually fed by quad LNB's or if newer wideband LNB's.

 

If you are allowed access to that (or if you can get someone to do it), you could add your own cascading switch to it that has the correct number of cascading inputs, and a unicable output. That would give you up to 32 tuners on a single cable, which can be split easily using unicable splitters.

Downside is that those switches aren't cheap, the only I use (for a 4 x quad LNB's cascade, so 16 inputs) is about 700 euro's.

 

If that isn't possible, see if getting a second output from that distribution stack is possible. You could then use a Johansson Stacker to multiplex the two outputs on a single cable, and split it again into two in your house. That should be doable for around 100 euro's.

Great. Thanks very much for your help. I'll get in touch with the property manager to see if I have any luck accessing their equipment. The stacker-destacker route also sounds interesting (perhaps for setting up with two of the rooms that are closer to each other in my apartment (that are not the one with the TV), then running the two FBC tuners to serve the services over IP (or something similar).