Communal TV systems, and the records to prove it.

Who we work with

Our current and previous work covers football stadiums, hospitals, hotels, offices, schools, apartment blocks and homes.

A good deal of it is new build. We wire developments a street at a time, house after house, to the same survey and the same testing as a single aerial on a terrace, and the developers and site managers who use us tend to come back for the next one. Some of those relationships go back years.

An Integrated Reception System, or IRS, is a single shared aerial and satellite installation that feeds every flat or room in a building from one head-end, rather than each unit carrying its own aerial and its own dish. That is most of what follows.

Alongside that, managing agents and freeholders with an existing communal system that has stopped doing its job. Whichever you are, the process below is the same and the records at the end of it are the same.

How we work

1. Survey and signal assessment. What the building can receive, from where, and what the existing installation is actually doing.
2. Design and specification. Head-end, distribution, outlet counts, and what it will and will not support.
3. Method statement and risk assessment. Written, per job, before anyone goes on site.
4. Installation. Programmed around access and residents rather than around us.
5. Testing and handover. Signal levels recorded at outlets, and the results handed over rather than just described.
6. Aftercare. A number that reaches the person who did the work.

What you will want to check, of us or anyone else

There is no single licence that covers television installation in communal buildings, so appointing a contractor means assembling assurance from several places. These are the ones that matter, and we are happy to be asked about any of them:

• Electrical connection work. Where a job involves notifiable electrical work, ask how it is certified and under which competent-person route.
• Working at height. Roof and mast work is governed by the Work at Height Regulations. Ask for the method statement and risk assessment for your specific job.
• Trade body. We have been a member of the Confederation of Aerial Industries since 1998, membership number C858, and we are a CAI approved installer. Ask any contractor which body they belong to, since when, and for the number, so that what they tell you is something you can go and check.
• Insurance. Ask for current public and employer liability cover at a level appropriate to the contract value, and check the certificate rather than the claim.
• Higher-risk buildings. For buildings at least 18 metres or seven storeys with two or more residential units, duties under the Building Safety Act 2022 apply. Ask any contractor how they work with the Accountable Person and their building safety case, particularly around cable penetrations and fire-stopping.

We will send our own documents for any of the above on request, for the specific job you are considering. We would rather you checked than took our word for it.

Talk to us

Dean Marsden answers the phone. Tell us the building type, roughly how many units or outlets, and what is going wrong or what is planned.