DSTV Installer for Mackenzie Park, Benoni

The cheapest-looking way to get a second TV working is to split the existing cable. It is also the reason a lot of houses end up with two screens that both freeze. A satellite feed is not like an aerial feed: each decoder needs its own line from an LNB output, or both ends fight over a signal that was only ever strong enough for one.

We check what your dish already has on it. A single-output LNB has to be swapped for a twin or quad unit, which is a small part and a short job, and then each decoder gets a proper dedicated run. It costs a little more on the day and saves the call-out you would otherwise make in three months.

The second cable is usually the fiddly part. Going through the roof space is normally neatest — up from the dish, across, and down inside a wall or behind a cupboard — but it depends on what is up there and whether the ceiling can be reached from both ends. Where the roof route is not practical we run outside in conduit and bring the cable in close to the TV.

We agree the route with you before we start, so you know where the cable will appear and where a hole has to go. Nobody enjoys discovering a new cable across the front of a lounge wall after the fact.

Once both lines are in, the decoders are connected and linked on your account, and each is scanned and checked on its own channel so we can see them working at the same time rather than one after the other. If one of them is a newer Explora and the other an older unit, we will say which room is better served by which.

Before we leave we run through the basics with whoever will actually be using it — swapping between sources, what to do if a recording stops, and the one restart that fixes most temporary sulks. A five-minute handover prevents a surprising number of call-outs.