Additional Sky Q request in a block of flats

[E.Merrilees]

I am a volunteer director at a development where I own a flat. We have been asked by the management company to give our permission to a resident who wants Sky Q installed. Apparently there are already two residents in the same block with Sky Q already & so without an extra installation from Sky at £400 this will not be possible. Is this right? Can anyone explain? . It seems an awful lot just to get Sky Q . The directors have all said this is not a payment that should be footed by the maintenance charge. Also there are five blocks so if it is the same in each block it will be very expensive!

[MightyQuinn]

Hi @E.Merrilees   It sounds like you need https://skyhomes.sky.com/sky-homes-hub/managing-agents/

[Godfrey · Accepted solution]

---

@E.Merrilees wrote:..........We have been asked by the management company to give our permission to a resident who wants Sky Q installed. Apparently there are already two residents in the same block with Sky Q already & so without an extra installation from Sky at £400 this will not be possible. Is this right? Can anyone explain? 

---

Alas, that Sky website information does not make it clear that there are two distinct ways of upgrading an existing communal Integrated Reception System (IRS) Legacy Universal LNB multiswitch in order to provide a compatible feed for residents who wish to use Sky Q receivers and concentrates on the 'marketing' opportunities over the engineering requirements.

The first, simplistic, method merely involves a Sky Multiple Development Unit (MDU) trained engineer diverting four feeds from that communal multiswitch through a 'FREE' Unitron dCSS-422 Sky Q Plug-In Adaptor in order to provide a Sky Q compatible feed for up to two residents. But there is usually a physical, and technical, limit on how many times yet another 'FREE' Unitron dCSS-422 Adaptor can be squeezed into the central communal Integrated Reception System (IRS) distribution cabinet.

This is when the second method will be required to be adopted, which will involve the managing agent employing an independent, Sky certified, contractor to install the required upgrades for either just a few more residents or preferably all their residents. 

But, we would require additional itemised information in order to understand exactly what this £400 installation will involve, particularly how many additional residents will be provided with a Sky Q compatible satellite feed by this modification, in order to make further specific comments. 

Unless Sky have very recently changed their policy with respect to their own MDU trained engineers, they do not modify existing communal IRS installations, apart from providing 'FREE' installations of a Unitron dCSS-422 Sky Q Plug-In Adaptor which merely involves diverting 4 of the existing Legacy Universal LNB output port feeds through this adaptor in order to provide Sky Q compatible feeds for up to two residents.

Godfrey.

[Godfrey]

@E.Merrilees 

Before your management company gave Sky their permission to divert the IRS satellite feeds of the initial resident who requested Sky Q and the IRS satellite feeds of up to three other residents, I wonder if your management company had investigated what would happen in the event of that Unitron dCSS-422 Sky Q Plug-In Adaptor developing a fault.

This unique device is manufactured for Sky to their specification, it is therefore only provided to Sky engineers and is not available as a replacement part for purchase by your usual communal IRS installation maintenance engineers from their normal replacement part distributors; 

a)    When that initial resident had either ceased their Sky Q subscription or moved out and the new resident was not a Sky satellite tv subscriber.

b)    When any of the other residents who have had their satellite feeds diverted through this device reported having reception problems caused by this device either within the initial Sky resident's  'Warranty' period or during any subsequent period when Sky were no longer supporting this device because it was no longer being used by any Sky subscriber, even though Sky would have not then arranged to remove this device from your IRS installation.

Sky Q™ Where Sky have installed a dCSS onto the existing IF ports of a multiswitch, this unit (the dCSS), shall have a lifetime warranty from Sky, (“Lifetime” deemed the full contract period of the Sky Subscriber connected to the dCSS), and not to any non-Sky installed equipment the dCSS is connected to.

Thus, it would appear that any unfortunate neighbour/neighbours who had their IRS satellite feed/ feeds diverted through this Unitron dCSS-422, who then discovered that they were having reception problems caused by a subsequent failure of this device, who did not also have a contract with Sky for satellite tv, would be totally unable to arrange for the restoration of their IRS satellite feed/feeds, without you arranging for your usual IRS maintenance engineer to remove it, or replace it with just one dSCR multiswitch, which could of course then support up to 16 of your residents who wished to have Sky Q.

Godfrey.