Expert’s Rating
Pros
- Automatically selects between as much as three antennas for finest sign
- Eliminates the necessity for a mechanical rotor
- Amplification and switching occurs on a per-channel foundation to maximise channel reception
Cons
- Performs finest when put in at or close to your rooftop TV antennas
- Not as helpful with a single outside antenna
- Not designed for indoor TV antennas
Our Verdict
The Televes Smarkom is a intelligent system that may maximize reception of TV channels, pulling collectively and amplifying alerts from as much as three antennas and taking away the necessity for a mechanical TV antenna rotator. It’s a wonderful choice for individuals attempting to drag in channels from a couple of route.
Price When Reviewed
This worth will present the geolocated pricing textual content for product undefined
Best Pricing Today
Price When Reviewed
$224.95
Best Prices Today: Televes Smartkom (mannequin 531983)
$199.95
For many people, reducing the twine and switching to free, over-the-air TV is straightforward—merely set up an antenna. But when you stay someplace that makes it troublesome to drag in your native channels as a result of the printed towers are in reverse instructions, you may want one thing like an antenna rotator. This motorized system will reorient your rooftop antenna relying on the channel you need to watch, so it may pull in alerts from towers in disparate areas.
But an antenna rotator comes with its personal set of limitations. It requires an additional cable coming into your home, an additional field close to your TV, and when you’re feeding the sign to a couple of TV, each units will likely be restricted to no matter channels can be found from the route the antenna is dealing with. That’s the place the Televes Smartkom is available in.
The high-quality Televes Smartkom brilliantly solves a specific TV reception drawback.
Rather than arrange a single antenna on a rotator, you’ll be able to set up as much as three antennas, with each pointing to a distinct transmitter. The Smartkom combines the feeds from every antenna, figures out what every is receiving, and selectively amplifies solely these channels. This not solely means the ensuing mixed feed coming to your TV tuner consists of solely the alerts your antennas are bringing in, it additionally means you’ll be able to ship all of these alerts to a number of tuners, and each can obtain all of the channels out there in your space, regardless of which route the printed towers is likely to be.
Installation and setup
This illustration reveals an instance of a Televes Smartkom set up. Note how every of the three antennas are pointed in a distinct route.
Televes
Installing the Smartkom is fairly easy. The unit is available in a weatherproof field that you simply’ll zip tie to your antenna mast. It has three ports for connections to as much as three antennas, and a fourth port for the coax cable that can go into your home. Inside the home, the coax connects to a 12-volt energy provide that feeds the Smartkom over the coax cable. Finally, there’s an output connector that you simply’ll run to a number of televisions.
When all the pieces is linked up, the Smartkom must scan for channels to find what’s out there and the way it ought to change between antennas. If you’re up on the roof, there’s a button on the rear of the unit to do that, however when you’re again in the home, there’s a button on the ability provide unit. You may use the Televes Asuite app for this process.
The 12-volt energy provide and distribution amplifier used with the Televes Smartkom is put in the house.
Televes
The app, which is obtainable for Android and iOS, connects to the Smartkom by way of a Bluetooth radio within the energy provide unit, nevertheless it additionally serves different capabilities. After scanning, it presents you with info as to what it’s determined. You’ll see which channels it has assigned to every antenna, however you’ll be able to click on on every antenna to override the Smartkom’s choices, must you want. The app additionally permits you to nice tune the amplifier and add slightly additional or much less amplification to every channel.
Day-to-day use
A sliding cowl gives further safety from the weather.
Martyn Williams/Foundry
So, how did it fare? In the situation the place PCWorld checks TV antennas, we’re fortunate to obtain stations from two broadcast TV markets in nearly the identical route, so a single antenna is often ample. But there’s a pesky VHF station off to 1 aspect that doesn’t usually are available.
The Smartkom will work with any model of TV antenna, not simply Televes fashions, however TechHive’s present prime TV antenna decide is the Televes Dat Boss Mix LR, and I occur to be additionally engaged on a overview of the brand new Televes Dinova Boss, so I linked the Smartkom to them each, utilizing the latter for reception of that secondary TV station.
Once you’ve run auto-tune, the Televes Asuite app will present which channels have been allotted to which antenna, however these picks might be manually overriden if desired.
Martyn Williams/Foundry
After set up and scanning, the Asuite app accurately assigned the Dinova Boss to reception of the off-angle VHF station and, surprisingly, a few the opposite stations I usually obtain with the Dat Boss Mix. I in contrast alerts by manually switching between the 2 antennas, and whereas each delivered a wonderful sign, the antenna the app selected was barely higher.
Another benefit of putting in the amplified on the roof is that it minimizes the size of your coax run, lowering sign loss earlier than the sign will get amplified. This resulted in barely higher sign ranges throughout most channels in comparison with my earlier set up the place the amplifier was indoors.
Further studying: This overview is a part of TechHive’s in-depth protection of the best TV antennas.
Should you purchase the Televes Smartkom?
The Smartkom is a neat and intelligent piece of equipment, of a top quality not sometimes discovered within the North American shopper TV market.
If you have got TV alerts coming from a couple of route and need to maximize the variety of channels you obtain, it might be a wonderful addition to your TV reception system alongside two or three good-quality outside TV antennas.
Note: Amazon additionally sells an older version of this system (Televes mannequin quantity 531981) that we now have not evaluated.