12/02/2025
New homes & renovation nightmares.
Unfortunately, I come across a lot of jobs where the customer & often the tradies like builders & electricians are not thinking about sorting TV points & connections until after construction of the building is already or nearly completed. Long term it's far cheaper to call someone in like myself earlier, to make sure sufficient cables, connections & joins are done correctly. Joins in walls that can’t be accessed easily once plastered are a big mistake unless done carefully & with good quality connections. An all-too-common occurrence is a renovation where an extra TV or re-located points are required, someone has found a cable & just connected to it, without checking where it goes & if a signal is on it or can pass through it. It's much harder & more costly to do it later.
So, give it some serious thought before it’s too late. Things like a good quality HDMI cable or two in the wall for that wall mounted TV to connect to the Blu-ray or Hubbl box, is easier to run before the gyprock goes up. If you’re pre-wiring for Foxtel as well, you need three coax cables down the wall. Two for the Foxtel box & one for free to air. In some cases, you can get away with two.
I have the utmost respect for electricians, they do a hot & very physically demanding job and especially here in the north where weather conditions are very taxing. But 90% of electricians who do pre-wiring or even complete TV systems have no training in TV systems or the equipment to test systems correctly. A Fluke multi-meter just doesn't cut it for Digital TV. It’s a different field of expertise. I work with & can recommend several electricians who are very good at what they do in these systems.
Even connecting a TV & seeing what you perceive as a perfect picture is no guarantee your signal is up to scratch. Check with your builder or electrician if they have tested the system correctly. Some jobs just limp through when new, but it doesn’t take long as things start to deteriorate & weather conditions change before you find out you have problems.
Good quality cable and connections are a must. Nearly all electricians use good quality TV cable, but a lot use very poor-quality connections, like the old twist-on F connectors. These are the worst and should be avoided! They are too easy to get wrong. I’m constantly going to near new installations where these little devils are the problem to signal woes. Same as the screw and saddle type connections on TV wall sockets. These shouldn’t be used unless the issue is a confined space in a block wall. They don’t meet minimum digital standards as there is no shielding against interference to the centre wire connection.
A little planning at the start when it comes to the TV system when building or renovating, will save you headaches & money in the end
