I just wanted to share the details of my Voom install today, but first a little background:
I have been keeping an eye on this forum for the last several months, especially as it looked like Voom was nearing release of it's DVR. I have had DirecTV, Dishnetwork and a Canadian service (Starchoice) as well as C-Band in the past, but recently moved into a new apartment that only had cable.
Being a stickler for PQ I knew D* and Dish were not the way to go, I do like the Canadian service, but decided to try Voom with their 3 for 1 offer. So for $1.08 out of pocket I signed up online last week. I received confirmation emails, with an install date of 1/27 (yesterday). After reading the horror stories of installs gone bad and the fact that Voom seems to have 1.5 feet in the grave, I was not expecting anything come the day of the install. Lo and behold Kevin from Installs Inc. calls yesterday morning as he is about to leave and come to do my install. I explain that I live in a 14 story apartment building and that the dish would have to be mounted on the roof (above a service room on the roof). I told him I had my landlords permission (which I did - great landlord!). I also explained that I wanted a non-penetrating-roof-mount to avoid permanent damage to the building. No problem - he didn't have one with him, but would bring one today.
Kevin arrived this morning at 10:00am as promised and I, along with the building super walked him through the roof access, and the location of drops through the 14th floor, hallway and eventually my apt. Total length of cable ~250ft!
Kevin took care of the dish mounting and running of the cable. Once the cable was inside the apt, he tied into the existing apartment wiring (which is new). Rather than the OTA antenna I had him couple the multi-switch with my TimeWarner cable, which I still use for basic cable and cable modem. This was super, I have full basic/digital cable, cable modem and Voom all coming through the existing jacks in 3 rooms feeding 3 Voom receivers. Signal strength is a whopping 96 - something I worried about with the cable length and the fact that he use dual RG-6 rather than RG-11.
Another "benefit" is by removing the cable splitter at the point where the Time Warner Cable is split to my 3 jacks and replacing it with a mutliswitch I actually jumped to TW 6 megabit cable modem service - 50% download increase!
Total install time - 3 hours. Not bad considering is 0 degrees outside and -15 with the wind chill on the roof. All receivers downloaded the latest update and are working great. Even if Voom goes belly up tomorrow I have a Star Choice dish I can put in it's place and the wiring is all taken care of!
BTW I do like Voom, what little of it I have watched - the receivers seem very responsive and while I don't have too much confidence in Motorola made satellite equipment, this seems to be the best I have used.
So... if Voom hangs in there and resurrects itself I will be a happy camper, if not, I just paid $1.00 for a great install I can re-use!
I have been keeping an eye on this forum for the last several months, especially as it looked like Voom was nearing release of it's DVR. I have had DirecTV, Dishnetwork and a Canadian service (Starchoice) as well as C-Band in the past, but recently moved into a new apartment that only had cable.
Being a stickler for PQ I knew D* and Dish were not the way to go, I do like the Canadian service, but decided to try Voom with their 3 for 1 offer. So for $1.08 out of pocket I signed up online last week. I received confirmation emails, with an install date of 1/27 (yesterday). After reading the horror stories of installs gone bad and the fact that Voom seems to have 1.5 feet in the grave, I was not expecting anything come the day of the install. Lo and behold Kevin from Installs Inc. calls yesterday morning as he is about to leave and come to do my install. I explain that I live in a 14 story apartment building and that the dish would have to be mounted on the roof (above a service room on the roof). I told him I had my landlords permission (which I did - great landlord!). I also explained that I wanted a non-penetrating-roof-mount to avoid permanent damage to the building. No problem - he didn't have one with him, but would bring one today.
Kevin arrived this morning at 10:00am as promised and I, along with the building super walked him through the roof access, and the location of drops through the 14th floor, hallway and eventually my apt. Total length of cable ~250ft!
Kevin took care of the dish mounting and running of the cable. Once the cable was inside the apt, he tied into the existing apartment wiring (which is new). Rather than the OTA antenna I had him couple the multi-switch with my TimeWarner cable, which I still use for basic cable and cable modem. This was super, I have full basic/digital cable, cable modem and Voom all coming through the existing jacks in 3 rooms feeding 3 Voom receivers. Signal strength is a whopping 96 - something I worried about with the cable length and the fact that he use dual RG-6 rather than RG-11.
Another "benefit" is by removing the cable splitter at the point where the Time Warner Cable is split to my 3 jacks and replacing it with a mutliswitch I actually jumped to TW 6 megabit cable modem service - 50% download increase!
Total install time - 3 hours. Not bad considering is 0 degrees outside and -15 with the wind chill on the roof. All receivers downloaded the latest update and are working great. Even if Voom goes belly up tomorrow I have a Star Choice dish I can put in it's place and the wiring is all taken care of!
BTW I do like Voom, what little of it I have watched - the receivers seem very responsive and while I don't have too much confidence in Motorola made satellite equipment, this seems to be the best I have used.
So... if Voom hangs in there and resurrects itself I will be a happy camper, if not, I just paid $1.00 for a great install I can re-use!
