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16-unit condo bldg upgrade

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  • #1

    16-unit condo bldg upgrade

    I am trying to upgrade a 16-unit bldg to support Genie and other receivers installed since 2008. There are currently 2 dishes on the roof (4-story) with a twin lead coming from each dish. They run to the switch room. The switches are currently Zinwell switches that are cascaded to produce 4 outputs to each condo unit (4 leads going to each condo structured wiring panel). In each condo there are individual coax cables to each room.

    Plan is to bring the satellite signals to the panel into 4 SWM32s. Since there are only 2 leads off of each dish, there will be 4-way splitters to provide an input to each SWM. Then from each SWM we will use 4 1X4 swm splitters to connect to the leads info each condo.

    Does this sound like it will work? Should we try to run more leads from each dish to the switches? Do you see any limitations in this design?
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  • #2
    i will have to think on this for a bit ... but to start with you will need at least 4 lines coming in from the dish with a polarity locker & a power inserter & maybe 4 hf 4 way splitters

    i have only done 2 genie installs with 1 cleint each ... im not sure how this will work with whole home & multible hr & hd units one one system ... i think that other apts will see other hr units on the same system .... one of the genies was on a multi unit dwelling & would see the other hr unit ... i heard the a band stop filter should be used on the system to stop this ... but i dont see how .... maybe michael or jeff knows more ...i think there are diagrams on the site to show some wiring ...

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    • #3
      The critical question is whether you NEED two dishes. If your zip code doesn't require a dish at 72.5 or a 95 international dish, then you ditch dish #2, use a 5LNB and use the existing 4 lines and send them down into two E4 chassis with 4 SWM16s (less expensive typically than SWM32s) or, alternatively, if you have budget, talk to us about an industrial-grade housing with fans that can hold multiple SWM16s.

      Once you have the SWMs in place you are going to have to manage tuners in each apartment so as to not max out any given SWM and you use a bandstop filter before each splitter going into an apartment to ensure that one apt's traffic doesn't cross with another's.

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      • #4
        Thanks Jeff & ebmsjml. I agree that we only need one dish. The original install had two for redundancy and had split the use of each dish to 8 units each. One dish got out of alignment over a year ago and we just split the leads of the other dish.

        Regarding the use of SWM16s instead of 32s, the prices that I see show saving $$ by using the SWM32. The big question is the crossing traffic between condo units. We plan to put each condo unit on a single output of the SWM and use each SWM32 to drive 4 condo units. I don't see any probability that any floor (4 condos) will all use 5 tuners at once. Everyone has access to cable as well as satellite and most are on cable now. I do like the bandstop filter idea.

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        • #5
          The SWM32 won't cross networks from each group of 8 tuners. The SWM16 will. Bandstop filters will work, where needed.

          We see so many fewer SWM32s in the market, and the SWM16s are so solid, that we generally recommend the SWM16.
          Been here a long time . . .

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          • #6
            Originally posted by WK-Michael View Post
            The SWM32 won't cross networks from each group of 8 tuners. The SWM16 will. Bandstop filters will work, where needed.

            We see so many fewer SWM32s in the market, and the SWM16s are so solid, that we generally recommend the SWM16.
            We are about ready to do this install. Need a bit more advice. We are doing a progressive install by using only one SWM32 at this time since only two units want DVR service now. The problem is that there are 3 other units currently using DirecTV without DVR service which we need to maintain. The current system has the satellite dish feed split using 4 2-way splitters, one on each KaKu line from the dish. Can we use these splitters to provide the dish signal to the SWM32 and leave the legacy system running on the other side of those splitters?

            The difficult part of this is that none of the lines (coax) to the condos are labeled so we have to individually id these lines.

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            • #7
              You can't split the lines before the SWM32 unless the other splits are going to another multiswitch and you match the voltages. If you go right into a receiver, it'll cause major problems.
              Been here a long time . . .

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              • #8
                YEs, we are going to the existing Zinwell switches which were already configured with splitters to the two sets of switches. Our plan was to isolate the condos that currently use DirecTV and leave them on the Zinwell switches. Then use the splitters to send the satellite signal to the SWM-32 as well. The initial test gave us a signal, but it was not a good quality. Really wish the SWM-32 had legacy outputs, then we could run everybody off the SWM system. We have some existing users that have old 300 receivers. Have thought about using the SWM-32 cascade ports to drive a SWM-16 that has legacy ports. Any thoughts?

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                • #9
                  I wouldn't do the cascading - just makes more problems.

                  You likely need a polarity locker and a signal amp. You're just trying to split to too many devices. See the parts here:

                  http://www.weaknees.com/swm-directv-...tallations.php

                  See the Polarity Locker and the amp below it.
                  Been here a long time . . .

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