Say Goodbye To Balcony Dish Problems!

How It Works

Blue Top Communications builds, installs, and maintains a shared-dish system, known as a "headend system" which is usually located on property.  The headend system will process digital satellite TV signals which are then distributed to each apartment unit on the property.

We have designed, built and installed systems not only for Multiple Dwelling Unit properties (MDU's), but also for Home Owners Associations, Hospitality establishments, and/ or commercial professional office properties.

In most cases where our headend systems are installed, only a few small satellite dishes (roughly 30" in diameter) are required to provide a signal to a headend system.  Further, most of our headend systems are technically capable of delivering our service over your existing coaxial cable wiring on the property, so there's no need to rewire your community.

Our headend systems allow us to bundle other services such as Internet.  It's like having a cable company right on your property, dedicated to serving only your residents.  Click here to view the benefits.

Our system designs are flexible and scalable, allowing changes to the channel lineup at any time to satisfy the current resident base.

Our TV & Internet systems offer a revenue sharing opportunity, creating a new revenue stream to enhance rent collections.  Blue Top allows you to pick the level of involvement that best suits your needs.

Don't Be Fooled By Imitations

Whether your property resides in the Midwest, East, South or West, forget about calling a small "satellite dish retailer" to find a real solution for your property.  Almost all retailers are focused exclusively on installing single family homes. 
In fact, the goal of most satellite TV retailers (when dealing with the installation of an apartment resident) is to mount a dish on a balcony, porch area, or even in some cases your common elements.

Some of the more adventurous retailers may propose installing a couple satellite dishes per building, which looks almost as bad as installing one per balcony.  In order for this application to work, a coaxial cable must be installed from each residents cable outlet, to the exterior cable box located on the outside of the building. Since most buildings do not currently have this type of coax configuration, rewiring would be required. Even for a solution like this, retailers will expect you to foot the bill.

The big satellite TV providers (DISH Network and DirecTV) have strict policies that do not allow retailers to simply just go out and install a shared dish system and sell individual subscriptions.  Retailers must first register your property with the satellite provider, and a contract must be signed.  Once that's taken care of, there is a specific shared dish program that must be followed.

Even if the retailer is approved and the system is installed, many retailers are not focused on serving apartments and condominiums.  As a result, your resident who is experiencing service issues may have to take a back seat while the retailer installs a new single family home customer.  For this reason, residents will end up with worse service than the incumbent cable provider they had before.

Here are some of the most common problems owners will face when seeking a solution from a local satellite retailer:

1.  Many satellite retailers are under-capitalized and unable to subsidize the installation and customer equipment.

2.  Many satellite retailers lack the customer service resources (call center, technicians and back-office systems) required for providing adequate levels of billing and support.  Try getting someone to answer your resident's phone calls on a Sunday night at 10pm.

3.  Of those retailers that do participate in serving multifamily properties, most of their proposed solutions will require 100% participation in digital TV service (digital bulk programming). 

4.  Although residents don’t like hefty-increases from local cable companies, they have grown accustomed to “bundled” Internet and TV packages.  DISH Network and DirecTV retailers typically don’t provide both.

Instead of taking your chances on that local satellite TV retailer, you should be looking for a company that provides a "shared-satellite dish solution" with a core focus of serving multifamily properties. 
These "multifamily" shared-dish providers differ from satellite retailers because they are fully focused on apartments, condominiums, senior housing, and other multifamily-type properties.