SkyQ is still relatively new on the market. Whilst its fresh new look menus and on screen navigation are an attractive draw you may be asking ‘what are the benefits’? Should I make the change from Sky HD?

Well we can confirm that there are advantages starting with the introduction of 4K UHD (ultra high definition) content. So if you’ve already upgraded to a 4K TV, Sky is promising you’ll be able to view higher resolution content. There is also the added bonus that you can record six channels at once whist watching a seventh. The boxes can even extend your wireless network so they say (this is true if set up correctly). Voice search is also an attractive feature on the bluetooth remotes.

However, SkyQ is causing problems for some of our customers!

First issue which springs to mind is the height restrictions which Sky engineers now face. It is not uncommon for a Sky customer to be upsold to SkyQ with the promise of an easy installation. The main change to the system is a simple swap of the LNB on the Sky dish. this should be an easy task although once upon a time when health and safty was a little more relaxed with Sky some dishes were placed out of reach with the new regulations not allowing engineers to service them. Often the sky engineer will visit and say he is unable to change the part on the dish as he cannot reach the height (chimney stack for example). A specialist team will be called in a week or so later and these guys are still working under restrictions so the customer may find themselves looking for an independant sattelite installer to make the change. We have coordinated this precedure a number of times now taking the stress from the customer making the switch a simple task.

As SkyQ no longer supports the RF2 CoAx output as the Sky HD box did, many Sky customers have made the change to SkyQ and found multiple TV’s in the house no longer having Sky available on the traditional ‘magic eye system’. This is a problem we have worked hard to find a solution for and there is no straight forward one solution fits all. In many cases we have been able to modulate the HDMI signal sending the picture to every TV in High Definition. This combined with a little box of tricks back at the sky box will enable the magic eyes to work once again. This is only possible if all of the TV’s have the capability of HD freeview. If you are having similar issues and would like to discuss options please contact us.

We have also received many phone calls regarding connectivity problems between SkyQ silver and mini boxes. Sky designed the system to work wirelessly but WiFi has its problems. It could be the distance between the boxes and WiFi isnt strong enough, it could be the fabric of the building, it could be any number of factors which hinder or affect WiFi performance. Wherever possible we prefer to wire SkyQ boxes onto a wired network, this isnt always possible due to cabling restrictions. It doesnt mean that we cant find the solution, please call us, perhaps we can help, maybe we can improve your WiFi?

And finally, as Control4 dealers we have received call outs from existing Control4 customers who have made the change to SkyQ expecting their system to operate the functions of SkyQ just as it has always done with Sky HD. The IR codes on SkyQ are completely different from those of Sky HD meaning we would need to install a new driver. for a while it would seem that Control4 was unable to repeat the IR codes to SkyQ sucessfully leaving many Control4 customers unhappy. We are delighted to say that we have road tested the recently developed Chowmein IP driver and it work a treat. Please contact us if you require an driver update to operate SkyQ with your Control4 system.

If you are experiencing other distribution issues with SkyQ or you are planning  a new build or renevation and would like to discuss the project to enable you get the most out of SkyQ we would love to hear from you!