Category Archives: AV Department

“Thank you”

Posted on May 7, 2013 by | Comments Off

IMG_4174

Feed and water your team  for the best results!

Here at AVD we love to do a good job. Our industry is based on trust and confidence to provide the services needed by our clients. Here is a testimonial received today for an event completed last week.

“Thank you for all you did to contribute to the success of last week’s Conference which is widely considered to be the best ever.  The technical side of things was absolutely first class.  You have a very skilled and professional team.”

Lets concentrate on that last line, “You have a very skilled and professional team.” We like to think we have a good team of full time staff but like every other AV company we rely on freelancers to support our full time staff. This they do very well in addition they also represent AVD while on site and our clients see us a single team. We believe that as such they should be treated with the same respect and equality as our full time staff.  Quite right too I hear you say… in this day and age why should this even be mentioned it should be taken as a given. Bear with me on this I am getting to the point…

So why is it that there is an industry trend to not pay freelancers their full invoice? But instead to string out payment for a couple of months if they want 100% of the value and if they insist on being paid at the end of the month they get 5% deducted. This is in our view not a fair and equitable practice, we do not pay our full time staff 2 months in arrears, we do not reduce their wages if they want to be paid at the end of the month.

Freelance staff are individuals, people with monthly bills to pay and families to support. They are not companies, who have resources and agreed credit terms with suppliers, when they do work they expect to be paid.

So we at AVD operate in a different way, we pay our freelancers as soon as we can, irrespective of being paid for the job as yet, usually this is within 14 days. If the funds are there they get paid even quicker. The event commented to above completed on Friday last week (3rd of May) we have paid all the freelance staff today (7th of May). Thanks guys for doing a grand job. :-)

Treat your staff well and they will promote you, pay them late at your peril.

 

Comments Off

Posted in AV Department, Field Stories, Hire

Philips / Bosch Repairs

Posted on March 18, 2013 by | Comments Off

With the decision by Bosch to no longer support the older conference microphones, Digital Congress Network (DCN) systems, clients have reported being advised that there are no more parts available to repair the LBB 3546 delegate unit directly from Bosch. We at AVD are happy to advise that we have a large number of these units suitable for being ‘broken’ and recycled for spare parts.

LBB 3546

If you send us your non functioning unit we can repair and return the unit for £100 + Vat and shipping. The repair will consist of the straight swapping of the mother board or any other component requiring a repair.

In times of limited budgets and with many councils and organisations feeling the squeeze it makes sense to try and maintain these systems for another couple of years at least.

The donor units are from a large well maintained system which we recently replaced due to the uncertainty introduced by the Bosch decision. If you have a system which is missing a few units or are considering replacing your system then we can help in maintaining what you currently have as well as advising you on the disposal of your old system and any new replacement you may consider.

AVD are  an independent supplier and have equipment from Bosch, Televic, DIS and Brähler in our own rental stocks.

We have recently sold recycled system components to clients in Poland, Germany, Ireland as well as in the UK.

Please contact us to find out more.

Comments Off

Posted in AV Department, Conference Microphones, Public Address, Sales

Deletext evolves with iPad display.

Posted on February 11, 2013 by | Comments Off
We have evolved our conference messaging service ‘Deletext’. We can now display to the conference chair the submitted comments and questions via an iPad or other wirelessly connected device.

 

questions

The delegates text as usual, using their own phone to a keyword and short code, but we can now display the questions to the chair via an iPad. This has the following advantages:-

  • It untethers the chair from a fixed monitor display on the stage or top table.
  • More than one iPad can access the submitted questions. (They don’t have to be supplied by us either!)
  • The full list of the questions is shown on the iPad and the chair can scroll through all the submitted questions.
  • Additional information can be added to the display in tabs so system instructions, Agenda, etc… can be quickly referenced.
  • Less equipment on site
  • Cleaner and less cluttered on stage.
  • Cheaper!
What’s not to like! :-) Contact us for more details.

Comments Off

Posted in AV Department

Vehicle Weighing

Posted on January 7, 2013 by | Comments Off

Stay on the right side of the law and weigh your vehicles! Down load VOSA’s guidance leaflet here

VOSA

 

Weighing vehicles requires a specialist set of vehicle weighing scales which can now be hired from AVD. We come to you and weigh your van up to 3000 kg per axel. Suitable for Light Goods Vehicles.

Prices from £50 call out with 1st vehicle weighed plus 40p per mile travel cost (£10 per additional vehicle). Its cheaper than a fine and penalty points and saves you driving to a weigh bridge possibly over loaded.

Wieghing Scales

 

Contact us on 01383 825709 for more details.

Comments Off

Posted in AV Department

Electric Van first week use…

Posted on December 20, 2012 by | Comments Off

We got our Kangoo ZE Van delivered last week and so far the Van it self has been lovely to drive and and my kids love it as they don’t get car sick in it! (No fumes to trigger any nausea, I remember the smell of leather car seats used to set me off!)

We have not done any meaning full trips in it yet just commuter runs back and forth as the range anxiety is quite real and even with a full charge we have a predicted range of just 40 miles! I hasten to add this is based on our driving style and usage so far… we have done less than 100 miles and the commute involves driving up and down some steep hills but I feel confident enough that on a full charge it should get us to Edinburgh and back.

Range anxiety however is the least of my worries as the Van is not charging from our installed charge point, fitted last May, so now I need to test it on another charge point so we can say definitely if it’s the point or the car as at the moment Renault say its the point and Chargemaster say it’s the car, and neither can do anything about it till the New Year! We can charge OK from a 13amp domestic socket, so we are mobile, but this proves little in terms of diagnosing the problem as the charge point is more ‘intelligent’ and requires a ‘handshake’ to start charging and it is at this point our set up is failing. So until this issue is sorted I am less inclined to travel far. We will keep you updated but as the man for Chargemaster said “things are never simple for early adopters…”

 

Comments Off

Posted in AV Department