Having external DAB and FM aerials installed - More than one room?

[admin_exported]

I would appreciate advice from members that have themselves had FM/DAB external aerials installed.

I am going to arrange to have an external aerial installed so that I can get good reception for both FM and DAB for a Denon TU- 1800DAB Tuner which is being delivered shortly.

While the Hi Fi system is in the main front room we have/will get other tuners in other rooms too. Have others found it worthwhile to get other rooms in the house connected to an external FM/DAB aerial at the same time as their main Hi Fi system?

I was thinking of also getting an aerial connection for the Kitchen and family room but also possibly in the kids bedrooms.

I was wondering if you would need separate aerials for each room - in otherwords if you have many rooms using the same aerial for DAB or FM does this compromise the signal?

Any thoughts aprreciated - we are going to be in the house for years and so if I am getting this done I would like to do it as effectively as possible.

Does getting more connections add significantly to the costs? Any ideas what installation costs are likely to be?

 

[drummerman]

I believe passive 'signal splitters' will degrade the signal and are not ideal for multiple connections. Another aerial or signal booster may be required.

 

[Anonymous]

I had FM and TV signals distributed around the entire house some years ago with the aerial connected into an amplifier/distributor in the loft. All worked fine but I've never had it updated for DAB. The only problem I experienced was the aerial being highly directional so that I got great signals on some stations but none at all on others. In other words it was pointing just to one broadcast mast. The TV was taken from two aerials and a satellite dish into a SKY box and PVR in the living room and then back up to the rest of the house. This means I can watch SKY and the PVR in any room. You can buy adaptors that enable you to send infrared signals via the cable.
If I were to do it all again I would probably try and use CAT5 cabling and wire it all up to the study where I have my main PC. That way I could use the CAT5 to transfer the TV/Radio signals around the house as well as MP3/Video off the PC. You can get distribution boxes and adaptors for each room that enable you to do this from companies like Keene. I'm not sure on costs. It cost £200 to have my whole house done, including satellite installation, but that was about 10 years ago.

 

[Anonymous]

You'll want something like this - http://www.tvaerials.com/product.aspx?productid=373 - in your loft. All aerials feed the box, which gets sent down to the primary room, which then has a return cable to the box, which then distributes to the other outlets. 5, in this case, but there is a 10 outlet model as well.