On Our Minds

Thoughts from Tim Savik: January 5, 2012

Treadmill

So, our office got a treadmill because we’re so healthy.  When it was put together, surprise, it didn’t work.  God I hate it when that happens.  Well, anyway, our Regional Manager put one of our most capable techs on the job to fix it.  I know what you’re thinking but no, it wasn’t me.  Rob was handed the task.  He didn’t fix it, well, yet anyway. 

Now, I’ve known Rob and worked with him for a long time, and he’s very good.  But the point is, Sometimes you can take a fish out of water and it succeeds, most of the time, not so.  Broadcast video repair is the same way.  You can’t take a $50,000 camcorder to just anyone.  It needs to be brought to people that know the product and have been servicing it for years.  Like us for example.  We’re smart, intelligent (those words have different definitions and therefore do not cancel each other out) and mostly, good looking.

So, to make a short little article a bit shorter.  Bring your equipment into a place that has the knowledge, the technology, and most important, the ability to service your very expensive broadcast equipment. 
Back to the beginning of the story.  The treadmill still doesn’t work.  Factory tech support still hasn’t called us back.  We will, by the way.  And do our best to answer any question.  Nobody likes to feel like they’re running in place, it’s redundant.  Treadmill anyone, we have one for sale. 
 

Tim Savik, Service Technician and all around swell guy.
 

Thoughts from Tim Savik: June 1, 2010

Service Repair

It’s the end of the world as we know it. Okay, is that song stuck in your head? Good. Okay, the truth is, it’s really not. Even though your camera or deck all of a sudden, without warning, ate your tape, no longer powers on, or whatever else went wrong. It can be repaired.
 

I’ve seen almost everything that can fail, in the most sophisticated broadcast equipment.  Capacitors, IC’s, drum assemblies, brakes, they all fail.  The symptoms are there, but they’re gradual.  You may not notice the ripple in the video, that extra noise when you’re rewinding your tape.  But we will.  We’ll find the source whether it’s some faulty capacitors, a noisy fan or motor.  All can be repaired and your deck can be brought right back to factory specifications.

People can be a little taken back by the cost of some video repairs.  But, after taking a step back, and then realizing that they may have paid $50,000 or more for the equipment.  A $2-3000.00 repair isn’t that bad.  It’s the cost of doing business as they say.  If you bring your Lexus (I don’t have one either) in for an out warranty repair, for say, brakes.  A $1000 isn’t out of the question. 

Don’t worry, be happy.  How about that song?  You will be, happy with BRC.  We’ll estimate for what’s wrong with the deck.  It’ll be fair and reasonable.  If we see another problem, you’ll be informed of it.  There are no service advisors, just us techs who have been doing this work for a long time.  We’re technical mechanics in a sense, we like to get our hands dirty in a mechanism and then get occasionally shocked by discharging a capacitor across our fingers.  That’s not as fun as it may sound. 

Anyway, the point is, we can fix your deck, in house consistently.  It’ll be clean inside and out.  Okay, that’s all I have to say for now.  This is my first attempt at a “blog” as it were.  I hope it helps, thanks.

Tim Savik, Service Technician and all around swell guy.
 

Thoughts from Rob Morris: April 1, 2010

Preventive Maintenance

Smooth uninterrupted workflow is critical to success in all businesses. It is not uncommon that reliable equipment is simply used until it fails. We have all heard the phrase: “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”.  I believe that periodic preventative maintenance is not only important in insuring smooth uninterrupted work flow, it also will save you time, money, data, and improves performance of your production equipment.

• Preventive Maintenance will save you time. Allocating a small amount of time to have the equipment inspected, cleaned and adjusted. Is universally preferred to an unexpected failure in the middle of production. Time lost on major repairs is usually inconvenient to say the least. Preventative maintenance allows you to schedule the equipment verses the equipment scheduling your production.

• Preventive Maintenance will save you money. Finding and correcting little problems early will reduce large $$ consequences. Dirt, poor air flow, drifting mechanical and electronic adjustments work slowly on the equipment, and will drive it to failure. Keeping your equipment functioning correctly will not only reduce expensive repairs, but likely your rental costs too.

• Preventive Maintenance will save you data. Whether you use analog or digital acquisition, a bad field recording is an expensive situation in many ways. You have likely been there at one time. Remember having to make arrangements to re-shoot or that one in a million shot you can never get back? Faulty recordings are expensive and down right embarrassing. Make sure your camera will record correctly and that your edit decks won’t crinkle your valuable tapes.

• Preventive Maintenance will improve performance. Electronic components degrade over time. If you have had a piece of gear that needs to “warm up” for a while before it is usable, you have already experienced degraded performance. Preventative maintenance will help identify faulty components and allow you the opportunity to make or schedule proper repairs.

Any way you look at it, preventive maintenance is a very good thing to have on your must do list. A little prevention can go a long way in reducing your costs in time, money, and performance to mention a few. To help you increase those savings, mention this article and save 10% on your next estimate through the month of April.

Rob Morris, Service Technician