Quick note, you’ll see me interviewed in today’s edition of The Times-Herald Record. The story centers around one customer of ours (“ours” being my employer WVT Communications) who seems to be having ongoing issues with her cable TV service. The first time I ever heard about her was on Monday (12/14/09) when she left me a voice mail in the afternoon while I was at PT. I returned her call early yesterday morning (12/15/09), but only got her answering machine. I then got another call later that day from a reporter with the Record requesting an interview. With our CEO’s permission I gave a rundown on the good, the bad, and the ugly about digital RF off air reception including addressing how you deal with as a TV cable provider an overall weaker local channel signal level and a higher susceptibility to co-channel interference. Of course the upside is that same local channel signal provides better picture clarity and audio, as well as, allowing multiple channels to be broadcast within a spectrum space that once only allowed one. I haven’t heard back from Mrs. Watson, but I hope I do– I honestly feel there are other issues at work here aside from the digital off air transition issues as she’s stated to the Record she saw them on all channels (not just the local NY/NJ channels) and that leads me to believe there may be something unique to her house happening that is causing her ongoing issues. Either that or there’s a bigger problem I’m not aware of. She alludes to other customers having the issue as well, but makes no firm identification of who those individuals may be. My hope is one of those other customers (or Mrs. Watson herself) allows WVT to look at their equipment and isolate the issue, which may have nothing to do with those previous digital off air transition issues. Only then can I offer all the effected subscribers resolution and restore their service to proper working order, which of course is my ultimate goal.
