BEV Home Signal Switching/Splitting/Cabling Discussion Thread

[mbalders]

Anyone running more then 4 reciver off one dish? Bell doesnt seem to offer a switch bigger then the SW44 (according to the installer they sent). He is currently at a loss on how to connect all (6) of our recivers. Right now we have the old SD only dish and a 4x8 switch all purchased around 2 years ago. Everything worked fine with that dish with the 2 coax feeds from the dish into the switch, then 6 feeds going to the recivers. However it appears that the switch doesnt want to work with the new HD dish and 4 feeds. The installer tried an SW44 and everything worked, except we didnt have all our receivers connected. Anybody have any ideas?

[dirtyjeffer]

a cheap fix may be to use a different dish for your HD receiver, or two or more regular receivers and your multiswitch (although, it may not be aesthetically pleasing).

[Skyway]

Option #1: 4 HF splitters and 2 SW44's

Option #2 a SW44 and SW44A

Another suggestion, get a installer that knows how to do it...

[mbalders]

yeah, the installer said the last resort would be to use a 2nd dish... but wouldn't my monthly bill be huge??? And running more wires from the roof to the basement would be a huge hassle.

The guy was at least friendly enough to talk to me about what he was doing and didnt assume that i was an idiot. Anyway he said that the whole thing about sat feeds is that the voltage has to stay the same in the wires, hence the powered mulitswitch. Now maybe im wrong but wouldnt putting a splitter in the sat feed before the mutliswitch cut the voltage?

The single is going to have to be split somewhere so we can use SW44s. Skyway are you suggesting using the 4 HF splitters on the feeds coming from the dish? Then into switches (it would be an SW44 and a SW22, 6 boxes, 2 of which are HD)?

I was thinking maybe splitting the single after the switch? but reading around that seems like a no no, the split comes before the switch... am i right?

Do you guys recommend any Hardware for this? anything i can get at the shack?

Thanks for the replies, maybe i can solve this before the installer comes to finish! hah

[Phil]

The simplest way would be to add a second dish. One pointed at EV Sat 91 and one pointed at EV Sat 82. This would ensure that you have access to all channels BEV offers.

If both Dish's have a dual LNB, you would have a total of 4 cables coming into your house from the two dishes.

You would then run those 4 cables into an SW-44A. Out of the SW-44A into a regular SW-44. This would give you the capability to hook up to 8 receivers.

My current setup includes 4 receivers, using two 18 inch dishes, one for EV91 and one for EV82. They go through one regular SW-44.

I am thinking of adding the 5200 dual-tuner unit, which will require two more connections (totalling 6 receiver connections for me).

This link shows you a setup for up to 12 receivers, but again, all you would need is one SW-44A and an SW-44.

http://www.microyal.com/sw-44a%20cascade%20daigram.jpg

[mbalders]

Could i do this?

Using the Dual LNB dish I have now, run the 4 cables into an SW44A (from that i can hook up 4 recivers using SW-64PIs), then continue the Sat feed from the SW44A to a SW44 and then other two recivers from the SW44...

Would this work?

Also, whats the "power supply" in the daigram? (in the SW-64PI connection)

[Skyway]

Originally Posted by mbalders

Skyway are you suggesting using the 4 HF splitters on the feeds coming from the dish? Then into switches (it would be an SW44 and a SW22, 6 boxes, 2 of which are HD)?

That correct hf splitters from the LNBF before the switches, then use 2 x SW44's, each SW44 will have a power inserter to provide enough power to keep it all working properly..

[Phil]

Originally Posted by mbalders

Could i do this?

Using the Dual LNB dish I have now, run the 4 cables into an SW44A (from that i can hook up 4 recivers using SW-64PIs), then continue the Sat feed from the SW44A to a SW44 and then other two recivers from the SW44...

Would this work?

Also, whats the "power supply" in the diagram? (in the SW-64PI connection)

This would work.

The SW-64PI Power Inserters come with the SW-44A and SW-44 switches. There is only 1 (one) SW-64PI power inserter required for each switch . You do not need one for each receiver connection.

They are needed to maintain the signal strength through the switches to each receiver port. It does not matter which of your receiver's you connect to the Power Inserter. Keep in mind that each Power Inserter will need an AC outlet to connect to. It is your typical power plug with the DC converter box at the end of the plug.

You will notice that the SW-44A has those 4 additional "Pass Through" connections on the bottom that would allow the sat signals to continue through to the regular SW-44.

Each receiver (up to 8 total with this configuration) would be connected to each of the cable connections on each side of the switches (notice that there are two on each side of each switch).

The SW-44A's run around $130 Cdn and the SW-44 is around $110 Cdn. Each of these switches come with the required single SW-64PI Power Inserter.

[mbalders]

anyone know if the setups described here would be compatible with expressvu? I dont know if this is an issue really... the installer said the reason the switch we have now might not be working is because our BEV recivers arnt compatible with the multi-switch we have. Maybe he was just saying something i dunno. anyone know if there is any truth in this. the switch is old, 2 years at least...

thanks for the help so far guys, it looks like I might be able to get this up and running without waiting for the installer to come back. could i buy an sw44A and a sw44 or the HF splitters we have talked about, at radioshack? or a sat store? any recomendations (in toronto GTA area)?

[markus_maximus]

I have a working environment with an SW44. Since I am wanting more than four outputs, I decided to try the SW44A route. I hooked the LNBs up the SW44A, hooked up the passthru's to the SW44, hooked up both power inserters, hooked up the receivers, and.... NOTHING!

The receivers would not recognize the switch (regardless of whether they were plugged into the SW44A or the SW44). I tried a 6000, 3100 and 5800. Am I missing something? Are the BEV rcvrs compatible with the SW44A?

I ripped everything out and reverted back and now all is fine again..

[ken0042]

This might be a silly question but here goes:

Wouldn't it almost be easier to throw a second dish up? Especially with the cost of some of these switches; I see they go for $100 each in stores.

I'm still just running 2 receivers, so I don't know. But I was thinking of adding a 3rd receiver and just putting up another dish for the line for it.

[Phil]

ken0042:
I could not wait for a 20" Dish, and besides, I already had a spare 18" Dish, so my current setup has two 18" Dishes (1 pointed at 82 and the other at 91).

I have 4 Receivers (2-3100's; 1-5100; and 1-6000), but I still need the SW-44 (mounted inside my house electrical panel) to take the 4 cables (two from each dish) and allow each receiver to be able to watch programming from both satellites.

I am not certain if the single 20" Dish with Twin-Dual LNB's would have 4 cables as well, or it might only have two if there is a SW21 mounted right at the dish. Someone else may be able to better answer that one.

[Tony M]

The 20" with the TWIN only has 2 outputs. This LNB has one giant "eye" molded together

The DUALS (the regular ones) have 2 outputs but only work for one satellite (91, 119, 82, etc).

[raNdOM]

This is going to read bad but...

For a NIMIQ91 & 82 upgraded dish:
You need four 1X2 switches....
and two 4X4 switches...

Run four cables from each terminal on the LNBF's. to the 1-by-2 switches...
connect cables to the outputs of the 1x2 switches...
connect the cables from the 1X2 switches to the appropriate terminals on the 4X4 switches...
connect the output cables from the 4X4 switches to your STB/IRD's and start watching!!!!

NOTE: You may need inline amplifiers to boost the signal. Make sure you buy powered 44 switches.

For NIMIQ91 dish:
You need two 1X2 switches...
and two multi-switches...

Run two cables from the LNBF terminals to the 1X2 switches...
connect cables to the outputs of the 1X2 to the in's on the multi-switches accordingly...
connect cables to the outputs of the multi-switches to your STB/IRD's and start watching.

NOTE: Again you might need inline amplifiers. You will want to make sure you invest in powered multi-siwtches.

For more information contact a technical representative at BEV.

[duck_man]

I don't normally touch satellite installs anymore - just can't be bothered, but recently I used 4 quality high-bandwidth 2-way splitters and 2 sw44s to attempt to solve this issue (suggested by 3 different BELL people) for a client and it kind of works. They had a single sw44 and 4 receivers, and added a fifth.

There is intermittant channel loss on all 5 receivers on the premises. I'm guessing this has something to do with the size of the house (HUGE) and the long wire runs. I will try the SW44a with an SW44 next week and see if it works better than the splitters. Putting passive splitters into a satellite systems has never seemed like a very smart thing to do.

We may just need more boost in the voltage/signal.

Another dish is not an option - multi-million dollar house finished in stone. There's no clean way to do it and no way the client would have another dish sticking to the side of the house.

We shall see......