Television Signal

Television Signal Issues

Background

Residents are contracted to receive terrestrial and satellite signals.  This is paid for via their service charge.  If a fault occurs it is the responsibility of the ResManCo and their managing agent, Urang, to rectify the fault with no resultant charge to the resident.

Of the 13 residents who replied to Urang, 8 have issues with their television signal.  Of these 6 have satellite through Sky and 2 have terrestrial with no satellite service. The houses are on three sides of the square.  For these homes this will be their second Christmas without a television signal as the fault was not rectified by the previous managing agent, Firstport.

The satellite and terrestrial signals are gathered on top of Roebuck House where a satellite dish is located.  This signal is then distributed down through Roebuck House and underground to a main distribution box located beside the first house in the square from where it is distributed to two further distribution boxes.  There is no distribution panel for the houses in Roebuck House.

Our engineers are familiar with the transmission system as they have already rectified faults with transmission for each of the apartment blocks. 

The signal emitted from the satellite dish which serves the square has no issues.  The signal is degraded when it arrives at the first distribution box and is further degraded when it arrives at the other two boxes.  The engineers have tested a reverse signal which does not suffer the same degradation.

Solutions

The Board is reviewing a number of solutions which, once their costs are confirmed, they intend to put to house owners to vote on.  This has a complication touched on below.   

1. A temporary dish

This would be located on a building at the rear  of Number 36. It would be on top of the existing electrical substation and building.   The dish would be sited behind 1.8m high screens to protect residents' views.  We do not have elevations to establish how effective this would be.  The effectiveness of the dish to correct issues would be established within a day.  The cost for this would be approximately £1,200.

1. A permanent dish

As 1 but the dish would be a permanent solution.

1. Installation of new cabling

A new cable would be installed between the dish and the first transmission box. This would entail considerable groundworks as we understand that a  new cable could not be pulled through the existing cable route.  Urang are obtaining an estimate for this cost but it is likely to be expensive and may not resolve the issues.  We would have to engage with a further cabling company to assure that this is a technically viable route.  It is likely to be the most expensive route by a considerable factor.

1. Pay for alternative solutions for the affected homes

The Res ManCo is contracted to provide television signals and rectify faults.  The cost of this is shared by all homes. A further solution may be for the affected homes, if they agree, to find an alternative solution via their existing ot a new satellite provider with a streamed service.  A home specific dish based solution would not work for the houses which have line of sight issues or where the home owners do not accept a dish based solution.

The cost to the ResManCo would be any additional cost suffered by the home owner if, for example, they had to continue with their existing supplier for contractual reasons. 

All affected home owners would have to agree that this solution is acceptable to them as the contract which underlies the service is personal to each home.  It should be noted, as detailed on the square WhatsApp group, that the alternative streaming services are deficient in one or more aspects compared to existing satellite services. If it is not acceptable then one of the other permanent solutions would have to be adopted.

Issues

The owner of the home, no 36, which looks on to the building where the satellite dish would be erected has objected to the siting of the dish on the basis that it would be an unacceptable intrusion on the view from their house and that it would have a negative impact on the value of their home.  No 36 has further objected to a temporary dish on the belief that it would inevitably become permanent.  2 other home owners have agreed with No 36s objections.  

The homeowners whose signal is affected have been equally insistent that a permanent solution be found and that a third Christmas should not be affected, particularly if a temporary solution is available.

The Board  wants to find a solution which has the most support amongst competing claims noting that while no homeowner has the right of veto in respect of the proposed new dish, temporary or otherwise, it wishes to adopt a solution which causes the least friction amongst all owners.  The position has been made more febrile in that it has been threatened that some homeowners would forcibly remove the satellite dish, if installed,

Interim Solution

While the Board has decided to put the final decision to a vote of all eligible homeowners, it will take some more time for costs to be established.  This vote may take some weeks to allow costs to be established. The Board will expedite matters such that the vote takes place in the shortest time possible.

In the meantime, as homeowners continue to be affected over the Xmas period, the only practical solution is a temporary dish.  The Board has agreed that a temporary dish is erected on the roof of the electrical substation with screening to address the objections made. The dish would not be made permanent without a further vote of all homeowners.

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