Perhaps a bit off topic, but there is a sports bar near me that has at least 25 large flat-screen TVs. I asked the waitress about the setup. She said it is DirecTV. I asked how many Genie boxes that have in the back, thinking there must have been a cabinet somewhere with a stack of Genies. She said there is no such cabinet and each TV has its own little box mounted on the back. So they have to walk up to each TV with a remote to change the channels. They do use the same remotes for all the TVs though.
Presumably there is a Genie Mini on the back of each TV and also presumably they are using infrared mode on the remotes, so that it only controls the closest unit. Also presumably they are all keyed to the same remote(s). (She said they just walk up to the TV they want to control, all with the same remote)
Sounds crazy. I don't have any intention of doing this myself, I'm happy with my HR44 and 3 Minis, but I'm a little curious how it all fits together. There are questions such as... Is there a central Genie box that nobody touches? Is at all operating off one satellite dish? Is it a "MOCA" setup that doesn't actually use any Genies? I thought those were all built into the TVs themselves... But she said there are little boxes on the back of each TV. Not that important to me but next time I go I might try to peek behind one of the TVs and/or ask to talk to the manager or owner.
