Audio Visual
TV aerial and satellite installation in Kent
Aerials, satellite dishes, Freeview and Freesat installed, repaired and realigned across Kent, plus communal IRS systems for blocks of flats.
- Free estimates
- Insurance work undertaken
- Domestic & commercial
Most aerial faults are not the aerial
When a picture starts breaking up, the assumption is usually that the aerial has failed and needs replacing. It is the least likely explanation. Aerials are simple metal objects with nothing in them to wear out, and they routinely last decades.
What actually fails is everything attached to them. Water gets into a connection at the mast head and corrodes it. A cable that was fine for years perishes where it crosses a roof edge. A cheap distribution amplifier in the loft gives up. Or the aerial has simply been shifted by weather and is now pointing a few degrees off the transmitter, which is enough on a marginal signal.
It is worth knowing because it changes the price of the fix. Diagnosing before quoting is the difference between a repair and a replacement you did not need, and we would rather do the first.
Which transmitter you are on matters
Most of mid Kent is served by Bluebell Hill, which sits just up the road from us at Aylesford. Parts of east Kent look to Dover instead, and there are pockets that do better on a relay than on either main transmitter.
This is not trivia. It decides which way an aerial points, whether a grouped or a wideband aerial is the right choice, and whether a property in a dip or behind a hill is going to need a higher mast or a different transmitter entirely. Two houses in the same street can want different answers if one has a tree line in the way. It is the sort of thing that gets established properly with a meter on site rather than guessed from a postcode.
What we install
Reception, distribution and the wall plates at the end of it, for houses and for buildings with a lot of flats in them.
- Digital TV aerials, sited and aligned to the transmitter that genuinely suits the property
- Freesat and satellite dishes, including realignment and dish replacement
- Communal IRS systems, where one installation feeds every flat in a block
- Extra points to additional rooms, cabled properly rather than run through a window
- Distribution amplifiers and splitters, sized so the last point in the chain still works
- Repairs, realignment and fault finding on existing installations
- TV wall mounting and the cable management that makes it look finished
Blocks of flats and communal systems
An IRS system feeds television and satellite to every flat from one set of aerials and dishes on the roof, which is the only sensible arrangement once a building has more than a handful of dwellings. The alternative, everybody fitting their own, ends with a roofline covered in dishes and a freeholder with a problem.
The failures on communal systems are usually in the distribution rather than at the head end, and the thing that decides how expensive a repair is turns out to be whether the original installer labelled anything. On a system where nobody documented which cable serves which flat, half the work is finding out. It is worth asking about on any new communal install.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a new aerial or just a repair?
Usually a repair. Aerials have nothing in them to wear out and often last decades, so a picture that has started breaking up is far more often a corroded connection, a perished cable or an amplifier that has failed. We test before quoting rather than defaulting to replacement. Where the aerial genuinely is the problem, it is normally because it is the wrong type for the transmitter or it has been knocked out of alignment.
Can you get Freeview working in a weak signal area?
Usually, and the answer is rarely a bigger aerial. It is more often a higher mounting position, the correct aerial type for your transmitter, or switching to a different transmitter altogether. Occasionally the honest answer is that satellite will give a better result than terrestrial at that address, and we will say so rather than selling you a taller pole that does not fix it.
Do you install satellite dishes and Freesat?
Yes, including new installations, realignment of dishes that have drifted, and replacing dishes that have corroded. Freesat is genuinely useful where terrestrial reception is poor, because a dish only needs a clear view of the southern sky rather than a clean path to a transmitter. On listed or conservation-area property the siting needs thought, which we would look at before committing to anything.
Can you add a TV point to another room?
Yes, and it is worth doing properly rather than running a cable round a skirting board. We cable it in and terminate it at a plate, so the room looks finished and the signal at that point is still usable. Where several points are being added, the distribution needs sizing so the last one in the chain still has enough signal, which is the step most often skipped.
Do you work on communal systems for flats?
Yes, both new IRS installations and repairs to existing ones. On a block, the practical difficulty is almost always documentation rather than hardware: if nobody recorded which cable serves which flat, tracing it is most of the job. If you are a freeholder or managing agent commissioning new work, insist on a labelled and documented handover, because it saves a great deal later.
Free estimates
Want a free estimate in Kent?
No up-selling, just simple honest advice. Domestic and commercial work across Aylesford, Maidstone, Medway, Sittingbourne, Gravesend, Canterbury, Tunbridge Wells, Sevenoaks, Dartford, Bromley.