Part R / TV Aerial or Coax (in this day and age?)

[Tony K]

Hi

I am drawing up the plan for lighting, switches and sockets for the new build at the moment. 

Two separate questions..

 

1. What do I need to require of the electrician in terns of meeting Part R of the Building Regs (i.e. the requirement that I must provide physical infrastructure to allow high speed electronic communication networks - or 'the internet' as it is more commonly known)?

 

2. Do I need a coax cable socket connected to a TV aerial and/or satellite dish in this day and age? My instinct is that such things must be out of date and unnecessary by now, replaced by wi-fi based TV. However, recently something has gone wrong with the coax / aerial in our existing house, and the BT TV box (which remains connected to the wi-fi) can only allow me access to apps rather than the full channel list, making me think the humble aerial remains essential...

 

Thanks!

Edited April 1, 2020 by Tony K

[ProDave]

I would not bother with what some silly regulations says, I would do what you want.

 

But personally as a minimum I have provided 3 coax cables, a cat5 and a telephone cable to every tv position, all brought back to a central cupboard.  That central cupboard has a duct to bring telephone and aerial cables in and is where the broadband router lives.

 

I also included 3 long hdmi cables tot he main downstairs tv's that allow one satellite box to live in the cupboard and be watched from either downstairs tv.

 

Most of our tv is watched live from satellite or terrestrial.

[Oz07]

Why 3 separate coax @ProDave?

 

I did coax and 1 cat6 in current place but don't know if cat 6 will ever get used. Check out @pocster devils corner thread

[Pocster]

My devils corner still has to grow !

[ProDave]

41 minutes ago, Oz07 said:

Why 3 separate coax @ProDave?

 

Provision for 1 terestrial feed and 2 satellite feeds e.g. for a sky or freesat box.

[MrMagic]

Look at quadplexers - 2x sat + terrestrial + FM/DAB all down a 'shotgun' pair of coax (i.e. 1 cable)

 

I've run this + 2xcat5e to each "point" in a room. The main living space 1+2 and office all have this + quad cat5e.

 

HTH. R.

Edited April 1, 2020 by MrMagic

[Tony K]

The quadplexer looks interesting, but is perhaps an example of my point - surely by now a lead for a radio is unnecessary and almost obsolete? If you've got Wi Fi then you have every radio channel, station and show available digitally through your mobile phone, which in turn connects to your Sonos speakers. 

 

Is the same not true of the TV?

Do any of us still need connections to aerials and dishes any more?

 

I don't know the answer to either question by the way...

Edited April 2, 2020 by Tony K

[ProDave]

I don't like those quadplexers.  they won't work for instance with the wideband LNB's now used for Sky Q for example. No substitute for extra cables.

[MrMagic]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

I don't like those quadplexers.  they won't work for instance with the wideband LNB's now used for Sky Q for example. No substitute for extra cables.

 

As soon as I posted that I thought, Sky-Q, doh! Not a Sly household here, just simple freesat. At the very least tho, you have the cable in the wall and can switch out the equipment on each end.

[Tony K]

Upon further research I have concluded that whilst it is possible to get by without an aerial, it reduces your options. Most freeview boxes for instance offer both digital apps (BBC iplayer, amazon prime, netflix etc) which work exclusively from the internet and don't need an aerial, but there are a great many other channels that don't (yet) have apps, and so rely on an old fashioned aerial. 

 

Oh well, coax and aerial it is then. 

[MAB]

For info Virgin V6 Cable TV boxes each require a coax cable connection.