I have a family member in Florida who will be moving into a high rise condo next month. I am flying down there next month to help them with the move and they have asked me to help them get SIRIUS installed in this new condo unit. Now, I have not see the actual place yet since I live in GA so I am not sure where they will have the SIRIUS in respect to a window facing North (for the antenna). I originally thought maybe I could go with the SIRIUS Echo home signal repeater system somehow, but I now see that it has been discontinued. This condo is located in the Ormond Beach area (just outside Daytona Beach) so a terrestrial signal is probably not an option either. Any other suggestions on how to maybe install SIRIUS without knowing too much about the geographical aspects of the unit
You are correct in that a signal repeater is probably your best option if you need to send the signal throughout the condo. It is a little hard to advise you one way or the other without knowing the logistics of the condo's layout. A lot depends on what the ultimate goal of the system will be. Are they going to try to incorporate Sirius in every room? Are there powered speakers in every room as well? Is there a central home theater receiver that can be tied into?
I think the best bet is to get a feel for the layout and then go from there.
Hope this helps.
Yea, we decided that I need to look at the unit and determine where everything will be located in relationship to the northern sky. I was told that the condo unit is on the northwest corner of the building so that is promising. Not sure where they plan to have their main stereo in relationship to a window facing north or west so will need to figure that out as well. I plan to go there next weekend and again in November (Thanksgiving holiday) so I'll just check it out this time, but then maybe install equipment in Nov.
I've also recommended the SONOS music system. In addition to it playing SIRIUS (via the internet feed), it can also play other internet stuff as well as your whole music collection and do it wirelessly throughout the house. So this might be something to consider. Yea, a SONOS system is a lot pricier than a simple SIRIUS radio, but it offers more & this family member is not really hurting for finances right now so they might be willing to pony up the dough & go this route. While they initially weren't planning to have SIRIUS throughout the house, they might want to have this option and this system allows it.
Plus, I figured it out that in the long run, it actually might be cheaper for SIRIUS on SONOS. Instead of paying a $8.99/month fee for an additional regular radio, the SONOS system would require just a $2.99/month premium internet account. I realize it would take a long time to make up for the additional cost of the SONOS equipment, but like I said before, they will also possibly be able to have SIRIUS in other rooms easier since the SONOS can feed it everywhere wirelessly. Again, more features for the money & possibly less headaches for the antenna aspect. I guess one downfall of SIRIUS on SONOS is that you won't get sporting events since its the internet stream, but they don't care about sports so probably not a hug issue.
We'll see next week, but I have heard good things about the SONOS system so I might encourage they just go this route.