In the last post we talked about mounting a TV on the wall, and touched on how to get the TV signal to the TV when it’s up on the wall away from your TV receiver box. In that article we talked about Sky TV, but of course there are other options like Virgin Media TV packages, or perhaps you’ll be swayed by a BT Vision Review. If you’re happy with the free to view channels, then there’s always Freeview. If you don’t already have a digital aerial, you’ll need a digital tv aerial installation to get the best signal quality and full range of channels.
Regardless of the company you choose, you’ll need to have the company out to your home to complete the installation. BT’s options can be the least invasive, as most homes already have a phone line on their network, and if you’re lucky, it will be close enough to the TV to provide service, or you’ll be able to deliver the service over a wireless signal.
Sky engineers will need to mount a dish on the side of your home, and run a cable to the location of your TV (or TVs if you choose a multiroom package). This can involve a long cable running along the external wall of your home, and you will need to have a hole drilled through into the house for the cable to run through.
Virgin Media are limited to the areas they can supply digital services to in that they don’t have the whole of the UK cabled. If you’re lucky enough to be in a cable area, the installation will involve running a wire from the street into the house. This will ultimately reach a box that’s going to split out the signal to your TV, phone and Internet, which may or may not be in different places in your home. The internet service connects to a cable modem, which more often than not will connect to your computers, laptops and mobile devices over wifi, and your TV connection is via a set top box similar to Sky’s technology.
Whichever company you end up choosing, you’ll need to get the installation completed before undertaking any decorating or more comprehensive interior design, as the engineers will almost always need to drill through walls, floors or ceilings to get the cabling to where it needs to be. There’s nothing worse than completing hours of decorating only to find someone needs to start drilling through it to install your chosen digital TV service!