Wind damaged TV aerials and satellite dishes.

The recent winds have not only blown fences away, but has also blown down TV aerials and shifted satellite dishes out of alignment.
I have now caught up with all of the calls that I have received to get TV pictures up and running again.

Most of the issues were poorly installed and old corroded parts like brackets or masts. Couple these with the high winds and it is a recipe for TV signal loss.

If you still have an aerial laying on the roof, pointing to the sky, or a satellite system that is blocking and freezing since the extra windy conditions, please don't hesitate to contact me here at Ashford Vision. We can even repair and realign your sky dish at nearly half the price of an out of contract Sky callout charge.

Remember, even if you are not using your TV aerial and it is laying on the roof, it could still be a health and safety issue - you don't want it to come down and hit anybody on the head!

Simon Penfold
simon@ashfordvision.co.uk
01233 333367
07756 596300
www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Customer Feedback

It can be really hard to get customers to complete feedback, even if they say that they will. So it when it comes to me via an email, it is a nice surprise!

"I just wanted to say how impressed I was the other day with your customer service and politeness. I have had a myriad of tradesmen visiting my home in the last year with the rebuild and it makes a real difference, when somebody who is invited into your home is polite and offers to cover their shoes to help protect your carpets!

I will be recommending you to friends should the need arise,

With Many Thanks

Andrea"

If you have had any work completed by myself, please take a moment to share your experience.

If you wanted to, there are 3 ways in which you can do it:

1) Happy with your Ashford Vision experience? Click here to write a review.

2) Got a Google account? Click here to write a google review.

3) Ok, so you just want to click our facebook 'like' button?

I hope to hear from you soon!

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Happy 2nd Birthday to Ashford Vision!

On the 1st of September 2011, I started trading under the name of 'Ashford Vision', with just the idea of installing TV aerials and satellite dishes for UK terrestrial channel reception, and the installation and repair of internal telephone cabling and sockets.

2 years on, and my portfolio has grown to include TV wall mounting, independent / bespoke sky installation for larger and listed properties, independent partner for Virgin Media and a qualified registered installer for Tooway Satellite Broadband.

Ashford Vision have managed to get contracts from the likes of Connells Lettings, Domestic Satellite Services Ltd, and also carry out installation services for Impossible Internet Ltd.

I have installed in offices, workshops, private residential homes, care homes, pubs and clubs and even caravans.

Balancing Ashford Vision with my children and my wife's own work commitments has not been easy, but somehow it has just about worked.
Obviously the last 2 years would not have been possible if it wasn't for my customers, so here is a MASSIVE thank you to all of you.

Have a great day, and thank you again.


Simon Penfold
Ashford Vision

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Large residential installation comprising of Sky+ HD, Tooway Broadband and a Wireless Network

Just completed a very large residential installation that comprised of re-installing and adding to the sky set-up, giving them a larger bandwidth, and spreading their wireless connection around a very large house.

The sky cables were originally buried directly in to the ground to get to various points around the home, without any protective conduit/copex. Needless to say, the cables had deteriorated (over 6 years) to a state of ill repair.
When putting the new cables down (over 400 meters in all), I used direct to bury RG6, and a protective conduit to help it's longevity.
When the cables were down and we had good signal, it was time to add 2 new Sky+ HD boxes.

The family's internet situation was something to be desired, with mum and dad wanting to be able to work, and the kids wanting to go on-line with their games consoles. The most that they could get from BT in their rural location was barely 1mb. This just didn't suit their requirements, and arguments were had!
Tooway Satellite Broadband (this installation showed 20.28 Mbps upon test) was installed to take the strain of video streaming, downloads, anytime+ and general browsing, whilst the BT is now used for gaming (due to the lower ping).

The Wi-Fi also needed to be extended as the BT Wi-Fi only covered 2 rooms at best, and now we had a second connection to deal with. Access points were installed throughout the house and outhouse/bar/swimming pool to allow the users to roam freely without the worry of losing connection on their devices.

All in all, yes it was a LOT of work, but I am glad that Ashford Vision could carry it through to completion, and hopefully there will be less arguments at the customer's home!

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Installing sky in a windmill.

Today I installed sky TV in a windmill. The windmill is located in Charing, Kent.

There is not much more to say on this one really!

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Additional Data Points at Leasehold Solutions Ltd

Louie at Leasehold Solutions Ltd gave me a call to see if I was available to add to their existing data / phone network at their offices in Croydon. Having spent a considerable amount of time working on site there in the past, I had a good recollection of the layout and submitted an estimate for the works required.

After Louie compared the estimate to the one they received from BT, I had a call back to book an appointment to go and complete the additional works for the Cat5e Data / Voice cabling and sockets.


Here is the original testimonial from the first time I carried out works at Leasehold Solutions Ltd:

"Leasehold Solutions Ltd were about to relocate to a building with more office space but shortly before moving in we discovered that the previous occupiers had cut all of the data cabling (79 lines) above the ceiling tiles. We needed to get someone out quickly to visit and provide us with an estimate to put things right, as we only had 2 weeks before we needed to be in.I called Simon at Ashford Vision and given our situation, he felt obliged to get to us as soon as possible.  We found his estimate accurate, he was fast, clean, and everything worked perfectly. He managed to turn what could have been a massive crisis for Leasehold Solutions Ltd into a smooth premise changeover.We would highly recommend him to anyone."

Louie Burns, 
Leasehold Solutions Ltd.
www.leaseholdsolutions.com



www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Summer storms over Kent cause some problems, including the loss of a Life Line service.

Most of Kent probably experienced some stormy activity on Tuesday night. It kept me awake, and the rain was immense!

Sometimes there are people who then experience dead equipment the next day, and Wednesday had no shortage of calls.
Most of the calls were regarding the total loss of TV reception where equipment needed to be replaced in order to restore full service.

There was one call however that I felt took priority over the rest and that was one that came in from Hothfield. It was a guy who's wife had a Life-Line system installed, it is needed if she runs in to any difficulties in and around their home. She presses a button either on a main unit, or on a pendant and it puts her through to someone directly who can asses the situation and arrange for medical assistance if needed.

The storm had stopped this from working, and I was called to attend. It turned out that the master socket within the property had taken the full brunt of a surge, and had given up. After replacing this and testing the other sockets in the house, I went on and performed a Life-Line test call. Everything was left working 100%, and I left them both feeling very happy that it was all back to normal. They are now safe in the knowledge once again that if needed, there would be a rapid medical response at the press of a button.

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

BT Openreach struggle with the removal of a business telephone system.

A property owner who used to run a business from their home had issues with what had become a faulty redundant Samsung DCS-816 telephone system.
He no longer had the requirement for an operational system, but did need a working residential phone line with extensions.

After his phone line went dead through his telephone system, he called BT to come and bypass it so he could remove it from his property and be left with a standard working line. He had numerous engineers attend over a period of a couple of weeks and not one could do this, 2 engineers spent all day there!

Getting frustrated, the customer called Ashford Vision to come and have a look, and gave me the full run down on the phone prior to my arrival.
4 hours in and the faulty system was out and the wiring was reconfigured to run a newly positioned master socket and 2 extensions.

Ashford Vision: 1
BT Openreach: 0

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Small office expansion.

National Engravers contacted me in regard to making their office and workshop more usable and productive.
They needed an additional telephone point and an expansion of their existing computer network which was causing them limitations in the day to day running of their business.

*Job completed*

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

www.national-engravers.co.uk

UK TV Drama is coming to Freeview!

UK TV Drama will be available Freeview channel 20 on the 8th July 2013.

http://drama.uktv.co.uk/

If you use Top Up TV, You will find that Home will move to channel 54, and Gold will move up to channel 26.

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Satellite Broadband

Are you struggling with broadband speeds in a rural Kent area?

Well struggle no more with Tooway Satellite Broadband.

Ashford Vision are now approved tooway installers and a europaSat agent, this means that we can take you from point of sale through to installation. We can normally get you on line within a week with a fast, reliable broadband connection.

Head on over to www.satellite-broadband-kent.co.uk or click the broadband tab for products and pricing.

Business premise install.

Today I had the pleasure of meeting some people employed by Rift Ltd.
Rift was established in 1999 to assist construction workers to claim their travel expenses back from HMRC, and they have grown steadily year on year to expand their services to other professions.

I was called in to carry out a TV aerial installation and to wall mount an LED television that they had purchased for the staff canteen.

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Sky said no, Ashford Vision said yes!

A customer in Chatham, Kent called sky in regard to getting his girlfriend's box up and running after she moved in with him. He had no sky dish at the property which is a ground floor flat. Sky refused to install it as it was a non standard install.
He called me last week to see if I could help and it all sounded do-able on the phone, so I booked it in for today.
When I arrived, it did appear a bit more work than I expected but agreed to go ahead and install the new dish with a twin feed for the sky+ HD box.
After a couple of cups of tea and running about 25-30m of cabling, the box was up and running.

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

A little windy for an old aerial.

Got called out to a house in Appledore, Kent today where the aerial was swinging in the wind above a shared access driveway.
Where the aerial had been installed over 30 years ago, oxidation had taken it's toll on the aerials structure and the wind finished it off.
Upon my arrival, my immediate concern was to make the area safe so nobody was in danger walking under it.
I removed the aerial that was beyond repair and installed a new one on the existing bracketry and mast as this was still good to go.

www.ashfordvision.co.uk
TV aerial and satellite dish installation & repair throughout south east Kent.

Council approved heating guys disconnect elderly man's TV.

I was called out to a bungalow in Aldington, Kent. The customer had a no signal message displaying on his TV when trying to view.
When I went up in to the loft space I could see that the heating guys had pulled the cable out of a connector and wrapped the cable around a piece of metal so tightly, that the stinger (centre core) had snapped internally.

I replaced the connectors and some cabling, and he is up and running once again.

He also had a satellite dish that he wanted installed, so I carried out the installation at the same time whilst being supplied with lovely cups of tea. Just as well, as the snow was falling and my hands were very cold!

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Freesat 'on demand' update.

Freesat has promised a select family of TV-focussed on-demand services as YouTube joins its Free Time from Freesat platform ahead of 4oD and Demand Five.

YouTube has launched the latest version of its HTML-based app for the big screen, supporting YouTube Leanback smartphone remote control feature, personal logins and adaptive streaming.

It’s part of Free Time from Freesat, the second-generation of Freesat, launched last year, which combines satellite TV with on-demand and catch-up TV over your broadband connection.

Dan Chronnell, Freesat’s director of product development, said the quick launch of YouTube’s app has validated their choice to use the familiar web technology of HTML instead of others like Flash or MHEG.

“This is the first deployment of YouTube’s latest HTML app in Western Europe on a TV service,” Chronell added. “We were able to get it up and running in weeks, rather than months, with very little disruption to the platform.

“HTML is becoming the platform of choice for broadcasters and other partners to do stuff across multiple territories and markets.”

Freesat is now tackling the final technical hurdles of adding 4oD and Demand Five alongside BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, and the new arrival.

“We see those as a really big value adds that will strengthen our service, and they are not far away,” said Dan. “There’s a combination of technical factors that we are going through.”

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Film4+1 Returns to Freeview

Film4+1 will return to the Freeview platform in the summer of 2013, it has been confirmed.
Revealing the news of the channel's upcoming return, Film4's official twitter page posted: "We're exited to announce that Film4+1 is returning to freeview in the summer! Watch this space for exact dates..."

Film4 HD will arrive on the sky platform in September.

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

Virgin Media - Services Disruption in TN23 Ashford

Some customers in the TN23 area of Ashford may experience some disruption of broadband and TV services today. There is currently a part of the network that is being temporarily powered by a generator.

www.ashfordvision.co.uk

BBC 2 HD

From Tuesday 26th of March, the BBC HD channel will be replaced by a new channel, BBC 2 HD.

Not the usual type of week

It has been a little different this week than the normal aerial & satellite stuff.

The week started with mounting a 50" plasma tv wall and the installation of an av receiver in a youth centre located in Paddock Wood.

Mid-week saw the expansion of a local Ashford broadband provider's WISP network.
The fast growing broadband internet provider that goes by the name of 'Impossible Internet Ltd', looks to be the up and coming solution for consumers and businesses who are failing to get what they need from their current providers by being offered a broadband only option.

The week was rounded off with an aerial install which utilised the existing Virgin Media cabling that was already installed within the property.
This may be the way forward for some people who are leaving Virgin Media to avoid the installation of further cabling. This keeps cables running around the home to a minimum and keeps the installation cost down.

Communication we know now, is not the communication we remember.

Communication has changed over the years. We used to talk to each other if we were in the same room. We are now addicted to the internet through our precious mobile devices, whether it be a tablet or smartphone thus not even really noticing the company that we choose to keep.

The way that tv content is delivered has changed a little with the introduction of on demand content, and the way we can easily pause, rewind and record live tv with the touch of a button.

So bring the family back together and enjoy the same experience, in the same room from the same screen. You can also talk to each other before, during and after some lush TV goodness!

So, before you put your facebook-twitters on full throttle for the evening, head on over to www.ashfordvision.co.uk and check out the freetime tab for a complete up to date digital TV viewing solution that could help preserve civilisation as we know it.

Now then, I need to share this on the internet...