Hello, i have a job which i fear will bite me in the arse very soon if i dont get things sorted, this job is not helping with my stress levels.

I have inherited a job half way through, it was ready to be 2nd fixed, previous contractors had left when builder got thrown off site about 6 months ago i believe.  I am on day rate so have no chance of loosing money its more getting a decent job at the end of it.  The job is a large extension on a farmhouse to a very high spec.

The installation was carried out by a NIC AC (i dont want to make this thread NIC bashing) and on first looking at the job seemed to be of a reasonable standard, after liasing with BC got that side sorted and work can commence.  

Now the problems started, the installation was not what it appeared to be.  After taking floor insulation up install was very scruffy no pride in it at all, very poorly conceived design.   My first job was to get circuits 2nd fix so they could be tested before UFH goes down everywhere and cabling becomes inaccessible.  

After finding and rectifying numerous problems.  And explaining to the customer my concerns about the installation, the customer has now gone into detail of the spec required for the network and AV side of things and i get a little lost.

There are approximately 20 data points in extension wired in cat5e and TV points to every TV position wired in single run of RG6 .  There are not data points at every proposed tv position.  The customer wants to be able to have a centralized DVD system and Sky HD distributed throughout, each room will have a SONUS system for the sound. They would also like to view CCTV images from six cameras through the TVs.

The cabling installed a present seems woefully inadequate for this i realise this is all a bit beyond me and there will have to specialists involved at some point but i just need a idea of what cabling needs to be installed the achieve all this so i can inform the customer of the current deficiencies in the way system has been wired.

Many thanks for input on this one if really is appreciated.

What exactly do they mean by "distributing Sky HD"?  Find out what they think it means as it's not normally possible to distribute SKY _HD_ like you can ordinary Sky _SD_.

A Sky HD box doesn't have a High Definition RF output. The RF output is only Standard Definition. This is done to stop people copying HD movies. So you can't distribute Sky HD as like you can Sky SD using a "loft box distribution amplifier".

The HD output on a Sky box is HDMI which was not designed for "distribution". There are some devices available that will send HDMI signals over network cable but I've no experience with these.  In any case I don't think they "distribute" the HDMI signal, I think they only send it point to point. I would be nervous about guaranteeing that these will work over any old network cable let alone through a patch panel needed for routing to the required TV.

If they want to be able to put a Sky HD box at any TV point they really need something better than one unknown quality RG6 cable. Ideally they want TWO good quality cables from the dish to each TV point.  Then if they fit the right kind of LNB to the dish they could have upto four Sky+ boxes dotted around the house.  If they want more than four sky boxes _at once_ then they will need a special distribution system.  

Only rich people can more than two Sky HD boxes so a more normal set up would be to install two sky HD boxes and distribute the SD RF output around the house to other TVs. To do that you really want THREE RG6 cables at the TV points where the Sky boxes will be. Two of those will carry the Sky+ signal down from the dish to the Sky box. The remaining one will carry the SD RF output back upto the loft for distribution to other TVs.

In summary, I would run:

TWO RG6 from the dish are to most TV points.
THREE RG6 to the two TV points most likely to have Sky HD boxes.

That will cope with most eventualities.  

Edit: I think if they want better than this they need a specialist company to design the system and have you wire it.
 

thankyou for your replies i will get the customer the write down exactly what she wants, then give you a bit more info and go from there.

I realise they will be needing specialist help here i just need as much info as posiible as it seems the previous sparks were 'yes men' without having much of a clue and i have to back up my concerns.

Even on the old boxes that had component outputs Sky could turn them off remotely but I don't know if they ever have. It was done because the content providers were afraind someone would invent a cheap way to record component out in HD.

Here is someone asking the same question as Wozzy...

http://www.avforums.com/forums/cat5-cabling/1198127-how-split-skyhd-5-hd-tvs-via...

They appear to suggest you run the following to the TV points:

2 or 3 CAT5e/6 cables (HDMI adaptors added later as they are expensive).
1 RG6 for the magic eye back to the Skybox (and/or Standard definition TV).
1 RG6 or similar 75Ohm for SPDIF (sound).

So looks like you could justify running 3 network cables and 3 co-ax cables. Perhaps telephone cable as well?

thanks for the answers i have been doing alot of reading!

a quick update spoken to the customer and they have scaled back their plans some what which is great weight off my mind.  Ive explained the advantages of double runs of coax and are going for this, i will be using HYC100.

Network is staying as it is.

panic over.

ive spent most of the day trying to figure out how to put virgin media over two screens from a single source, not as easy as i first imagined! i quite enjoy this sort of stuff though!