Do I need a satellite dish?

[SarahLou1997]

Hi, I am waiting to have my new Sky Q box installed tomorrow but I want to ask if I need a satellite dish installed for it? 

I live in a block of flats and have no idea if I need one installed tomorrow or not, I don't have any dish wires to connect to the box as it mentions in the help guide so I just wanted to check if this is something that I need.   Thanks 

[PandJ2020]

Q only works with a satellite feed - either your own or communal.

You would probably need permission to install your own.  (If it's even possible)

[steve30x]

Yes you will need a dish. If you are in the UK you can get SKY Stream which works over the internet though.

[bob1234]

@SarahLou1997You will need permission from the "management agent" to either connect to a communal dish and you will need to find out from them where the equipment is housed.

If you need a dish then again you need permission there are restrictions on the number of aerials including dishes on a building so dependent on how many there are you may need planning permission.

If a dish can't be fitted you may have to go for "stream" which is over the internet and does not need a dish BUT it is a very different system.

[SarahLou1997]

Hi 

okay, I know there are dishes on the building already but since I moved in I've only used freeview and I had to get my own antenna to connect my tv for signal. There is a communal tv thing in our Wi-Fi cupboard which I have asked to be opened. When I spoke to my housing officer about it they had no clue what I was going on about so couldn't give me a definite answer you know? 

I guess I will just have to wait and see what the engineer says tomorrow when they arrive and hope that they can install the box for me through Wi-Fi if need be 

thank you for your help! 

[TimmyBGood]

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@SarahLou1997 wrote:

through Wi-Fi if need be 

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That would be for Sky Stream or Sky Glass: it's not an option in Sky Q

[SlenderRobert]

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@SarahLou1997 wrote:

Hi 

okay, I know there are dishes on the building already but since I moved in I've only used freeview and I had to get my own antenna to connect my tv for signal. There is a communal tv thing in our Wi-Fi cupboard which I have asked to be opened. When I spoke to my housing officer about it they had no clue what I was going on about so couldn't give me a definite answer you know? 

I guess I will just have to wait and see what the engineer says tomorrow when they arrive and hope that they can install the box for me through Wi-Fi if need be 

thank you for your help! 

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If you've ordered Sky Q (the satellite service) then that's what they will attempt to install.

Sky do not come and install Sky Stream (the service delivered via broadband) - they send you the box (or puck as it's known) and you install it yourself by connecting it to your existing broadband. 

If the engineer cannot install Q for you then you'll need to contact Sky and arrange a Stream subscription instead. 

[Chodley]

You will definitely need to get someone in the building management involved. If whoever you spoke to didn't understand what a communal dish is then I wonder what's in that cupboard and if other people have had individual dishes installed (always a bad idea  imho) then it sounds like there probably isn't a shared one. Can you ask a neighbour who had a dish?

[SarahLou1997]

The website mentions something about a communal tv system which I can only guess would be situated in our building Wi-Fi cupboard potentially. So I think that might be our version of a dish maybe 

I am trying to get in touch with management to figure this out as well. 

All your input has been very helpful though thank you!

[Chodley]

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@SarahLou1997 wrote:

The website mentions something about a communal tv system which I can only guess would be situated in our building Wi-Fi cupboard potentially. So I think that might be our version of a dish maybe 

I am trying to get in touch with management to figure this out as well. 

All your input has been very helpful though thank you!

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It has to be a physical dish on the outside of the building. There's no other way for SkyQ to work. What is in the cupboard might be hardware to share that incoming satellite dish signal across multiple apartments.

[TimmyBGood]

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@Chodley wrote:

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@SarahLou1997 wrote:

So I think that might be our version of a dish maybe 

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It has to be a physical dish on the outside of the building.

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Potentially not on (or even near) the building with a FIRS setup, but those are pretty rare.

"The losses in the cable are extremely small (in the region of 0.3dB/km) and the Global Invacom optical LNB output can be split up to 32 ways with a cable length of up to 10 km between the LNB and the receiver."

[Chodley]

@TimmyBGood Fair point. The house I grew up in had a full community setup like that which gave us a load of channels through a standard analog aerial coax connection which was properly leading edge at the time.