CATV and MDU Distribution: Television and Broadband for Multifamily Properties

What property-wide distribution includes#

Telelink Business Services is a licensed C-7 Low Voltage Systems Contractor, CSLB License #472017. CATV is one of the systems named in the C-7 classification, and we design and install property-wide television and broadband distribution for multifamily and senior housing across California, including in buildings that stay occupied during the work. Little Tokyo Towers in Los Angeles and Horton House in San Diego both received it, each an occupied renovation where CATV distribution went in alongside property-wide Wi-Fi, cameras and access control.

A multi-dwelling unit (MDU) distribution system has four parts, and the design has to get all four right:

• The headend, where the provider’s signal or the property’s own sources enter the building and are conditioned, amplified, or converted for distribution
• The riser and trunk, the backbone that carries the signal from the headend to each floor or wing
• The distribution, the taps, splitters and amplifiers on each floor that divide the signal to the units
• The in-unit outlets, the drops and wall plates in each living room and bedroom where a television or a gateway connects

Our scope covers all four from the provider’s demarcation point to the last wall plate, plus the pathways, the bonding point coordination, the testing, and the documentation.

Headend, RF and IPTV: how the signal gets into the building#

The headend is the room or rack where the property’s television and broadband begin. What sits in it depends on how the service provider delivers the signal.

RF distribution is the traditional method. The provider delivers a broadband RF signal on coax, and the headend amplifies and conditions it for distribution over the property’s coax plant to every outlet. A television connects directly, or a set-top box does the decoding. It is simple, proven, and the reason coax is still in most buildings.

IPTV delivers television as data over the property’s network. The headend converts the provider’s signal, or receives it as IP already, and each set-top box or smart television pulls its channels from the network over category cable, fiber, or Wi-Fi. IPTV suits buildings that are being wired with category cable or fiber to each unit, senior housing operators who want a property channel for announcements, and any property where the owner wants one plant for television, internet and phone.

Hybrid systems are the common answer in a renovation: a modernized RF headend and riser to serve the existing coax outlets, with a data network beside it for broadband and for IPTV in common areas.

A satellite or off-air headend adds a dish or antenna on the roof, which adds a structural mount, a roof penetration, and a bonding requirement. We coordinate all three with the GC and the electrician.

Riser, distribution and in-unit outlets: RG6, RG11 and fiber#

Coax is not one cable. RG6 is the standard for drops from the floor distribution to each outlet: flexible enough to pull through a unit, low enough loss for the distances inside a floor. RG11 is the larger, stiffer, lower-loss cable used for the riser and trunk runs from the headend to each floor, where the distance and the number of splits would starve an RG6 run. RG6 in a riser is a common defect in existing buildings, and it shows up as the top floors getting a weak, noisy picture.

A well-designed coax plant is a set of calculations: the signal level leaving the headend, the loss through each length of cable, the loss through each tap and splitter, and the level that has to arrive at the farthest outlet. Amplifiers are placed where the numbers say, not where there happens to be a closet. Every run is tested for level and for the return path, which is what broadband over coax needs to work, and the results are recorded outlet by outlet.

Fiber to the unit replaces the coax riser and drops with a strand of single-mode fiber to each unit, terminated at a small unit box where the provider’s or the property’s equipment converts it back to television and Ethernet. It is the future-proof choice for new construction and for a full rewire, and it fits with the property-wide fiber backbone we install for Wi-Fi and cameras. See our fiber optic cabling page for how the backbone is designed and tested.

In an occupied renovation the decision is usually to keep the RG6 drops that test clean, replace the riser with RG11 or fiber, rebuild the floor distribution, and replace the headend. That produces most of the benefit of a rewire with a fraction of the time in each unit. Coax and fiber from CommScope, Belden and Corning are commonly specified on the California MDU plants we build, and we install to the named line.

DOCSIS and MoCA in plain terms#

Two acronyms come up on every MDU project, and both describe how data rides on coax.

DOCSIS is the standard that cable providers use to deliver broadband over the same coax that carries television. A gateway in the unit talks to the provider’s equipment through the property’s coax plant, using channels above and below the television signals. For DOCSIS to work, the plant has to carry those frequencies cleanly in both directions, which is why the return path test matters and why an old amplifier with a dead return path breaks internet service on a whole floor while the television still looks fine.

MoCA is a standard for a data network over coax inside the unit or the building. It lets a provider’s gateway in the living room feed a set-top box or a network device in a bedroom over the existing coax, without pulling category cable. MoCA uses frequencies above the television and DOCSIS bands, and it needs a filter at the point of entry so one unit’s MoCA network does not reach into the next unit’s. When a property keeps coax as the in-unit medium, we design the splitters, filters and outlets so that MoCA works in the unit and stops at the unit.

Bulk service agreements and coordination with the provider#

Many multifamily and senior housing owners buy television or internet for every unit under a bulk service agreement and include it in rent or a fee. The agreement decides what the property-side distribution has to carry: RF, IPTV, DOCSIS broadband, a provider-managed Wi-Fi network, or a combination. The provider will also have a specification for what the property’s plant has to look like at the demarcation and often at each outlet.

We ask for the agreement’s technical terms and the provider’s MDU specification before we design, and we build the plant to meet them. We coordinate the demarcation location, the headend space and power, the bonding point, the riser pathways and the outlet standard with the provider’s engineer, and we schedule the provider’s activation in step with our testing so units are not cut over to a plant that has not been proven.

We install and test the property’s side of the system, and the service agreement itself stays between the owner and the provider. That independence is useful to an owner comparing offers, because our plant design is the same regardless of who wins the agreement.

CEC Article 820 and what the inspector looks for#

Article 820 of the California Electrical Code covers community antenna television and radio distribution systems, which is the code’s name for CATV cabling. In plain terms it requires three things that show up on an inspection.

Bonding. The outer shield of the coax entering the building has to be bonded to the building’s grounding electrode system as close as practical to the point of entrance, with a listed grounding block and a bonding conductor sized and routed as the article specifies. That bonding connection to building ground is electrical scope, and we show the location on submittals so the electrician and the inspector are looking at the same drawing.

Listed cable for the space. Coax that runs in a plenum has to carry a plenum listing, cable in a riser shaft has to carry a riser listing, and general purpose cable stays out of both. The listing is printed on the jacket, and an inspector will read it.

Separation from power. CATV cabling is kept out of raceways and boxes that carry power conductors, and separated from them along its route, with the exceptions the article allows. Shared pathways with other low voltage systems are fine; shared pathways with line voltage are not.

The same principles govern the property-wide structured cabling and fiber, under their own articles, which is why one contractor installing all of the low voltage systems on a rehab produces fewer inspection surprises than three.

Working in occupied units#

CATV is the one low voltage system that reaches inside every unit, which makes an occupied renovation a scheduling and communication project as much as a cabling one. Little Tokyo Towers and Horton House were both occupied throughout, and this is the approach we bring to that work:

1. Headend, riser and floor distribution first, so the new plant is ready to test before any unit is entered.
2. A unit survey by unit type, with property management, to record existing outlets and identify units that need new drops.
3. Written notices from property management in the languages the building uses, with an appointment window and a description of the work.
4. A small crew per unit, with a property management escort where the program requires it, a drop cloth standard, and a test and sign-off at every outlet before the crew leaves the unit.
5. Cutover by floor, with the old service left running until the new plant has passed on that floor.
6. An outlet schedule by unit, test results, riser diagrams and headend documentation at closeout.

Our guide to low voltage work in occupied buildings covers noticing and access rules on HUD and LIHTC properties, and the multifamily and affordable housing market page shows how CATV is typically scoped with Wi-Fi, cameras and access control on a rehab.

Next step#

Send us the unit count and building plans, the bulk service agreement’s technical terms or the provider’s MDU specification if you have them, and whether the building will be occupied during the work. Use request a bid to upload drawings and we will return a bid with the demarcation, bonding and headend handoffs drawn. General contractors can start at for general contractors for our prequalification packet.