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West Dunbartonshire Council

The development

West Dunbartonshire Council is responsible for a wide area of South-West Scotland – from the beautiful banks of Loch Lomond to the shores of the Clyde estuary – taking in the towns of Dumbarton and Clydebank and the Vale of Leven. The region borders the west of Glasgow and contains many of the city’s commuter towns, villages and suburbs.
The Council provides social housing for thousands of people, and manages about 11,000 flats. Its property portfolio ranges from four-storey blocks, usually containing between eight and twelve flats, to high-rise blocks each with more than a hundred flats.

The challenge

Most of the Council’s social housing was built in the late 1940s, during the post-war period of regeneration. For many decades, these blocks of flats were served by communal terrestrial TV aerials that gave access only to the main terrestrial channels. Many of these communal systems deteriorated with age, becoming less reliable and causing reception difficulties. Not surprisingly, some residents chose to put up their own minidishes, especially those who wanted digital satellite services, even though other residents objected to them. And even that wasn’t an option for tenants living above the first few floors of high-rise blocks, because it was uneconomical for installers to run cables that high for single installations.
With the digital switchover fast approaching, West Dunbartonshire Council knew it had to act fast to ensure that its tenants throughout the region would be able to continue watching television after mid-2011 – the deadline for the switchover in that part of Scotland.

The solution

Early in 2006 the Council started an ambitious communal TV aerial upgrade programme to be carried out in five separate stages throughout the region, with the last to be completed no later than the end of 2010.
The Council knew that Integrated Reception Systems (IRS) would offer the best solution, providing the most flexible and reliable platform and giving residents the freedom to choose their provider of TV services – whether it be Sky, Freesat (from Sky or BBC/ITV) or Freeview. Importantly, it would “future-proof” residents’ TV entertainment and is one way to give them exactly the same digital TV choices as those enjoyed by  people in houses, including access to Sky+ and Sky+HD and alternative satellite providers like Turksat and Arabsat.
After a competitive tendering process, a local Sky-approved installer (Campbell & Kennedy) was awarded phase five of the work, covering 1,100 flats. Installation would be carried out to Sky’s specification by highly skilled, qualified and experienced engineering teams.
Campbell & Kennedy immediately formed a project-management team and began surveying properties and designing suitable systems to meet the Council’s requirements – ensuring that tenants would have access to digital or satellite television services as well as DAB and FM radio.
It designed the systems so that TV signals would be sent to each flat in a block through five main cables from a single, discreet roof-top satellite dish. In most cases, the cables would run through the attic space (if available) and then, encased in “trunking”, down to the flats through communal areas. Elsewhere, the cables would run down the outside of the block and then through the walls to the TV outlet point in each flat. Campbell & Kennedy also offered to remove any existing minidishes while connecting their owners’ flats to the new communal systems.
The project was expected to take 20 weeks, but was completed in only 12, without compromising quality or installation standards. John Kenny, the Council’s senior engineering officer, was pleased that the process was so straightforward: “Work has gone ahead well with little or no disruption,” he said. “The contractors have organised all the work and we’ve been able to leave them to it. It has been very satisfactory and we will certainly return to them if further work is needed.”
John was particularly pleased that Campbell & Kennedy gave proper consideration to cable routes. This is one of the most important parts of any IRS installation, and something that can cause dissatisfaction among tenants if not done properly. “The contractors have done this well,” says John, “and got it all agreed in each property in advance.”

The result

According to John Kenny, the feedback from tenants has been very positive. In some blocks, nearly all tenants have already decided to link their TV sets to the new communal system, and he expects many more to do so as the 2011 digital switchover nears.

Since June 2009, Tracy Robertson and her two daughters have lived in a 12-flat block in Clydebank, and they’ve been particularly pleased with their Sky+ service. “It’s just great,” says Tracy. “My eldest daughter is just coming up to her eighth birthday, but she’s more than capable of using Sky+ and recording programmes for herself. We’ve subscribed to Sky’s Entertainment, Children’s and Music packs, and they’ve all worked out just fine.”


 
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