Prewiring for Satellite TV

Satellite TV systems require special wiring pre-wiring that is not the same as cable or antenna wiring. If you are building a new home your builder needs to run special wires so that you can install satellite TV later without the installer having to run new wires on the outside of your home.  Properly installed wiring can be used for Satellite, Cable or Antennas.

 We have seen a lot of homes where the builder said it was wired for satellite but in fact it had been wired for cable tv. Satellite TV wiring can not have any splices or splitters in the lines.

Doing it correct in the first place will prevent your installer from having to run new wires in walls (extra charge for this) or running wires on the outside of your home that will show.

 First you need the correct wire and connectors. Do not buy overpriced wire.
 IF you need wire I can ship you a 1000ft roll at a cost lower than you can get 200ft.

Second pick a central point all your wires will go to. This point must be a place where the installer can easily get to without crawling around in the attic. It also must be a place where he can pull new wires if he needs them. Suggested locations are in the attic right beside the stairway or outside near the electric meter.

 Label all wires on both ends so the installer doesn't have to take an hour searching for where they go.
In some cases with more than 4 TVs a power outlet is needed for the multiswitch. Outlet should not be in the weather.

  Phone outlets are needed for PPV and in some cases you may not be allowed to get service if you do not have them so run phone jacks to each tv location even if you will not be using them. DO NOT use the combo outlet plates where the phone and sat are in the same box.

Third you need to understand the types of satellite systems that are being used so you can decide if you want to wire for just one brand or wire for them all.

1. DirecTV with a dual dish, Standard Dish Network 500 This system uses 1 wire to each TV and all wires must go to a central point where a multiswitch is located. From that point 2 wires go outside to the dish.

2. DirecTV Phase III dish for locals or HDTV. 1 Wire goes to each TV from a central point where the multiswitch is located. But 4 wires go out to the dish.

3. DirecTV TIVO units and some Dish PVR units require 2 wires to the TV (normally this is the main tv).

4. Dish Network lease systems. not DP PLus (This includes dual tuner receivers that run 2 TV sets from 1 receiver including some new dish player PVR receivers) they require 3 wires to the main tv (2 wires go to the central point and 1 goes to run a slave (second) TV set) Suggest running all wires to a central point and run 3 wires for the main receivers to that point and 1 wire for the slave tvs to the central point. You get 1 slave receiver per main tv.

5. SuperDish systems for locals and HDTV. 1 Wire goes to each TV from a central point where the multiswitch is located.  But 3 wires go out to the dish. The multiswitch may need a power outlet.

6. Dish Pro Plus wiring update. DP Plus equipment now works with one wire run see Update Diagram. 1 Wire runs from each receiver to a central point where the switch will be located. 4 Wires will run from the switch to the dish. Wires from all extra tvs without receivers run to the central point so they can be connected to a standard TV splitter.

7. For CABLE or Antenna systems all you do is run 1 wire to each tv and install a splitter at a central point then 1 wire runs out to the antenna or cable service. If you will be using cable or an antenna with a satellite system you will need to run 1 extra wires out to the dish. You can get around this by using a diplexor to combine the cable signals into the sat wires but we have found that most all cable installers do not know how to use diplexors properly.

8. Wildblue wiring. Wildblue uses 2 rg6 wires. New exede systems use only 1 wire.

9. HDTV wiring. HDTV antenna wires should be kept separate from satellite wires use RG6 and you are no longer recommended to use diplexors because they degrade the signal. Use High quality spliters and a boster amp. Take care bosting signals that are already high will degrade HDTV.

If you know for sure what system you will be using you can just wire for it but if you do not know. (you are a builder and are pre-wiring for any system) you need to wire so that any system will work without major modifications.

Universal pre-wiring:

You need understand how Dish dual tuner systems and DirecTV Tivo systems work by reading above. Companies are changing all the time and the latest thing is to use 1 wire to keep cost down so both Dish and DTV now have 1 wire options but all installers may not use them.

Every TV that might want to have a TIVO or Dish Dual Tunner PVR needs 2 wires.
Every TV that might have a Dish Network Dual Tuner lease receiver needs 3 wires. Altho new Dish DVRS only need 2 wires.

If you know where the dish will be located you need 4 wires (5 if you will be also be using cable or antenna) out to that location. If the location is not near the electric meter ground rod you need to run a #10 Ground wire from the ground rod out to the dish location so the installer can ground the dish. If you don't run this ground wire the installer will run a GREEN wire around the house to the ground rod and IT WILL SHOW. If you do not have anyway for the installer to get to the ground rod he has been instructed to refuse the install. An example of this is a house where the meter and ground rod are located in a remote location from the house.

If you do not know where the dish will be located you might want to have a site survey done to find out. Otherwise you can just have the installer run the wires out to the dish himself. (this likely will not look as good as pre-wiring and may cost extra) Or run them out to a location near the electric meter and let the installer run around the house to wherever the dish needs to be. (this wire will likely show)

More diagrams and schematics will follow.