The dTV Commercial Division of Solutions Group (UK) Plc was formed to help anyone involved in the installation of MATV, SMATV and digital-IRS. Since the launch of the Vision V5 line-powered range of IRS equipment, dTV Commercial team member have been out on the road explaining the benefits of this remarkable system to IRS installers around the county. David Evans takes us through a typical day's work.

08.40 am - Time is money, even this early in the morning!

When a commercial installation company decides to hold back all their installers for the first hour of a day so we can demonstrate V5, you know they are serious about discovering how the product can increase the productivity and profitability of their company. Allowing the installation engineers the chance to see and handle V5 helps them to appreciate the build quality of the product. It also gives them the opportunity to ask all the questions they can think of about each item. Having taken an order, it's time to move on because we've got an hour's drive ahead of us.

10.45 am New-build troubleshooting

As all involved with system planning know, the job on paper often differs from the finished building. The next stop is a new-build site where we meet an installer who has encountered this very problem. Actual cable runs are now very different from the plans, and there is serious concern the system plan will now not work. A key word used with the V5 range is flexibility, so a walk around the building to pace the new cable runs helps to reassure the installer. The active V5 multiswitches, with stepped gain level outputs, will easily cope so no additional changes to equipment or cable runs are needed. Another satisfied customer! Time to find McDonalds as hunger is setting in…

12.55 pm Lunch

And a chance to catch up with phone calls from head office. How did we ever manage without mobile phones? David is supported in the office by other team members who can often assist installers and provide support to planners with a single phone call.

2.15 pm Local authority upgrade

Local authorities around the country are upgrading their building stock to meet new digital viewing requirements. David meets with local authority specifiers to help them choose what type of integrated system to offer their tenants and what products meet the specification. The specifiers are impressed at the meeting that V5 meets all the requirements laid down by Sky Homes for inclusion on their list of approved IRS installation equipment. They decide that this approval rating makes dTV Commercial supplied V5 suitable for the project, and ask David to send information and plans to help them produce a tender document.

Driving home - One last thing

On the way home, David takes a technical support call (hands-free, of course!) from a customer passed on by one of seventeen depots around the country. He arranges a meeting with the customer, and quickly calls head office to ensure that appropriate information is mailed out before close of business that day. This will give the customer chance to look it over before he visits the day after tomorrow and have any questions ready.