Will a £756 Sky Q system benefit your dual-screening lifestyle?

Sky Q, a premium system rolling out this month, is the company’s attempt to own the “dual screening” lifestyle of switched-on families who like to watch TV while surfing on their phones and tablets, and whose children are watching other streamed content upstairs.

Unlike Sky’s previous propositions, this isn’t just one set-top box but a whole suite of receivers that can send programmes on demand from your satellite dish or the internet, to devices around your home.

At the top of the range is the Sky Q Silver box, a highly-specified unit that’s almost like having 12 TVs in your living room. That’s the number of tuners it has, but as you can’t watch more than one at a time it uses the others to record up to four programmes and let you watch different channels in other rooms. It will also support ultra-high definition in the future, if you have a suitable TV.

Even the “budget” Sky Q box has eight tuners - five more than your current set-top box probably has.

To watch in other rooms, you need a further box - the Sky Q Mini - which connects to your system either via wifi or through your domestic mains using its its built-in Powerline networking. Once you’ve recorded a programme, you can sync it to another device - your iPad, for instance - and watch it on the go.

How much you pay for all this depends on the package you order, but by any reckoning it’s expensive: £756 over your minimum 18-month term for the most basic option and just over twice that for all the bells and whistles. There are installation costs, too, and a typically labyrinthine set of conditions which vary according to whether you’re also taking Sky’s broadband. On the plus side, your subscription includes any repair and servicing costs.

The on-screen experience looks and feels nothing like the traditional - some would say, dated - Sky electronic programme guide. Instead, there’s a text-and-graphics arrangement which bears a passing resemblance to the iPlayer and similar services. Taking a cue from Tivo, the original personal video recorder, the guide tries to “understand” your viewing habits and offer programme suggestions based on the time of day and the likely audience.

Sky Q doesn’t replace any of the regular Sky packages, and in fact the company is mounting a simultaneous assault on the other end of the market, with a third-generation version of its £15 Now TV box, which streams content from selected internet sources.

So is the new package worth the money? That depends on how much TV you watch, and even Sky will admit that it’s not aimed at the casual viewer. It isn’t the only multi-room system out there: a mini-PC under your TV will do more or less the same thing, but you’ll need to configure it yourself and supply your own content. However, for those who like their TV on a plate, as well as from a dish, Sky Q is, for the moment at least, the gourmet choice.