Watching Sky in other rooms for free (guide)

Dec 17th, 2007 by Los Havros

This post was originally written on the City In The Clouds blog.

Introduction
I was going to call this ‘everything you ever wanted to know about watching Sky for free in other rooms of your house’ yet that came across to me as a bit long-winded, so I penned something a little more succinct I think you’ll agree. This article assumes you already have a Sky box installed and working in one of your rooms, and have a basic working knowledge of how to wire coaxial connectors. (NB: I’ve formatted this article in such a way that you can read key points at-a-glance. Also, this article consolidates information I have read elsewhere, combined with personal experience.)

Decisions
Now, you have two options;

1) Get Sky multiroom which is “£10 a month per additional box on top of your Sky TV subscription and mirrors your channel package” yet enables you to “enjoy different Sky TV programmes in different rooms at the same time”.

2) Use the method I am about to explain. below. In Sky-speak, you’ll still “get all your Sky TV channels on another TV ” like in option 1 but you won’t be able to “enjoy different Sky TV programmes in different rooms at the same time”. However, you’ll be pleased to know that after initial setup costs, this method is free; no extra subscription charge per month.

What you’ll need
Assuming you’ve chosen option 2 (good choice, I might add) then you will need to buy the following:

Plenty of coaxial cable for what you require
1 Marmitek Powermid Receiver
A Marmitek Powermid Transmitter for every room you want to get Sky TV in
An additional ‘Rev8′ Sky remote for every room you want to get Sky TV in
An aerial booster which splits the signal into at least 4 more cables

Regarding the Marmitek Powermids, you can find them on Amazon.

The concept
You need to run a coaxial cable from one of your RF Output ports on the back of your Sky box, to the aerial input on the booster/splitter. Then you just add additional coaxial cables running off from the splitter to the different rooms in your house where you want Sky TV.

Additionally, you can also blend or merge your terrestrial signal with your Sky signal, using a a simple 2-way splitter before feeding the cable into the input. This enables you to watch different terrestrial TV channels in any room with the addition of Sky.

A little snag
Sky of course, don’t want you to do this. They want you to get Sky Multiroom and pay them an extra £10 a month. You may need to enable RF Output on your Sky box. To do this, press ‘Services’ on the Sky remote, then type 4 0 1 and press ‘Select’ then select Option 4 “RF outlets”. This should enable you to watch Sky TV on any other room in your house via a coaxial cable.

Finally
Remember those Marmitek Powermids? You just plug the receiver into the mains and set it up so that it is facing your Sky box. You then simply place a transmitter in each of your rooms next to your TV, facing towards you. With your additional Sky remotes, this enables you to change your Sky TV channel on your Sky box, without being in the room where the box actually it is.

Important note: If people are watching Sky TV in multiple rooms, then they will have to watch the same Sky channel, as if you change a Sky channel with the remote, you will change the Sky channel on all the TVs watching it. Feel free to do what you want with terrestrial though.

If there are any mistakes in this article, please let me know and I’ll endeavour to correct them as quickly as possible as I am a perfectionist. I hope you’ve found this information useful.