I have the full Sky Q package, and I find it rock solid, with uptimes of 1000+ hours and no problems.
The boosters run on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, however the mesh network only uses 5Ghz as the backhaul between the devices, so the link between the main router, to the sky boxes, and the boosters, is all 5Ghz. Clients may connect in at 2.4Ghz (say a device not supporting 5Ghz), but the backhaul is only 2.4Ghz to the nearest TV Box/booster, this then feeds back over 5Ghz to the main router.
The airties MESH is quite intelligent, it can band steer things onto 5ghz / 2.4ghz depending on the usage. Things can be daisy chained yes, the MESH system will always figure out the best, most efficient route back to deliver the traffic as required. This may mean using daisy-chain or it may mean going direct from the booster to main AP, if devices are doing more latency, rather than speed requiring tasks.
The streaming can be inconsistent, this is mainly where the WiFi signal is poor in a larger house, some engineers don't put in enough boosters, or place a booster too far from the main AP, so it's picking up a weak signal and boosting that on. The engineers have equipment to ensure this doesn't occur, but some typically rush things.
In my home I have the main router, a main Sky Q box, 2 boosters and 1 Mini box. When I had BT I had 1 router, and 1 repeater, but Sky insisted I had a strong signal in every room, as my main TV box and Mini are linked as far apart as possible. I get full WiFi all over.
The only feature I do not love about the airties MESH is the network management built into it, in effect no device can take all the bandwidth if it detects other devices are connected. It's basically a QOS built in that can't be turned off.
I can't complain too much about the system. I like how it intelligently steers me onto APs as I roam around... Never had a problem with either of the TV boxes. Some detail here:
http://wi-fi360.com/2016/01/28/airties-can-finally-t...
Worth noting, Sky has kept powerline on the TV boxes, just not on the main router. So in my house the TV boxes could effectively talk direct on powerline. My signal could even go main router - main Sky TV box - powerline- sky Mini Box - wifi - sky booster - wifi out to devices, or it could all go via WiFi.
Edited by ukhardy07 (Tue 02-Jan-18 17:27:43)