Moving a Sky Box to another room

Question

We have recently moved our tv and sky box to a different part of the house during a re-modelling, but the Sky cable isn’t long enough and an extension would mean channelling around doorways over skirtings etc. Is there an easier way to make a connection with the box?

Submitted online by Suzanne M

Our Answer

Normally, the best way of dealing with this situation is to a new connection from the satellite dish to the new room via the outside of the property. Run the lead from the dish around the outside of the house, then drill through the wall at the closest point to the new location of the Sky box.

This is often something that most people wouldn’t do themselves, although if you’re Ok with DIY, then there’s nothing stopping you. More commonly, people would get a local aerial firm or satellite dish installer to do the work. Pricing depends on the distance and how long the work takes. Contact a couple of local CAI-approved installation companies and get some quotes.

If you don’t want to go down that route, there are some other options:

Extending your cables

Another option is to extend the satellite cable using an extension lead. To extend the Sky satellite cables, you’d need an F-Plug to F-Socket lead. These are commonly available in lengths up to 5 meters. If you have Sky+ or Sky+ HD, you will need two of these, as a Sky+ box has two feeds from the dish.

F-Plug to F-Socket Satellite TV Extension Lead

Whenever you use an extension lead, there is always a risk of reducing your signal. Using extension cables over a short distance shouldn’t present a problem, but for a long run, or where you are chaining extension leads together, you will get some signal loss. Use of poor cabling, lots of connectors, and running your cables close to mains cables, can also increase the likelihood of a reduction in signal strength and signal quality. If you’re looking to run long extension leads, you should ideally consider wiring a lead of the right length, and using as few joins as you can. Maplin can supply crimp-on F-Plugs, F-Plug adapters and RG59/U 75Ω co-ax cable so that you can make your own lead of whatever length you require.

Leave the box where it is

If the idea of moving your box or running new satellite cable doesn’t appeal, you could look to leave your Sky box where it is, and simply get the picture to the new room. There are two ways of doing this:

• Run a standard TV aerial extension feed from the RF Out socket on the Sky box to the second room.
• Go wireless. Get a wireless AV video sender. These come in a kit – a transmitter and a receiver, and they connect to the SCART socket of your Sky box and the TV set.

There is a down-side to having the box in a different room – and that’s changing channels. Some Wireless AV senders support sending TV remote control commands wirelessly in the other direction, but these can be fiddly. If you’re using a TV aerial connection, there’s the Sky TV Link to send remote control commands to a Sky box in another room.

What about extending the phone line?

As you’ll probably be aware, the Sky set-top box has to be connected to a telephone line as part of your contract with Sky. If you move the Sky box to another room, you’ll need to make sure your box is plugged into a working phone line. If you don’t have a telephone extension point in the new room, you have a couple of options:

• To extend a telephone socket, you’ll need a standard telephone extension kit – These kits contain all you need to run a phone extension point, including a new socket to fix to the wall, phone cable, and cleats to nail the cable to the skirting board
• You could consider the neater, but mor expensive wireless option. You can buy a wireless DECT Telephone Extender. These have a transmitter and Receiver and use radio waves to extend your phone socket. They’re pretty effective, and we’re using one on our Sky+ HD box with no problem

Wireless Telephone Line Extender Kit with sender and receiver

Related Questions:

• Feeding Sky and Freeview to a second room
• Using the Sky RF output to connect to a second room
• Can I split a satellite cable to feed two rooms?
• Why does my Sky box need to be connected to a phone line?
• Sky Telephone Line Connections