VOOM Installations

Well my VOOM install just came and went and the installers, SIGNAL FINDERS out of Meadville, PA, never showed up or contacted me. On 3/5 I received an email from INSTALLS INC informing me that SIGNAL FINDERS would do the install. ON 3/7 I emailed SIGNAL FINDERS and provided details about the install. Told them they could use an old D* run which would make it a somewhat easy job.

Wasted a morning away from the office. Boy I hate dealing with these jokers. Guess they'll be no VOOM for me.
 
Did you call Installs Inc? what did they say? send an email to "Joe Harkins" <jharkins@installs.com> to see what happened.
 
Sean Mota said:
Did you call Installs Inc? what did they say? send an email to "Joe Harkins" <jharkins@installs.com> to see what happened.


Just sent the email. We'll see what happens.
 
grumpy1 said:
Just sent the email. We'll see what happens.

Send "Wilt Hildenbrand" <wilth@optonline.net> the same email. Sorry for not including him. I thought I had copy and past both emails.
 
Sean Mota said:
Send "Wilt Hildenbrand" <wilth@optonline.net> the same email. Sorry for not including him. I thought I had copy and past both emails.


Email sent. Thanks Sean.
 
My installation is scheduled at 8AM on 3/12 and I called professional satellite installers, riverside, ca and they confirmed it will be tomorrow 8am. Will report once everything is done
 
Just received a call from Melissa at Installs Inc. She seems very nice. She is trying to find a different installer to come out today to do the job.
 
My Western New York Installation

Well, today was the day. I ordered Voom about a week ago and the install was set for this morning, but delivery issues of the 'kit' prevented it till this afternoon.

Of course, after reading the horror stories I was a little skeptical that it would even take place. But sure enough at around 12:30 this afternoon my installer Kevin called me on his cell phone looking for directions. In the back of my head I'm saying "great, here we go", but after giving him the directions he said "be there in a few". Sure enough he was.

He showed up in a pickup truck equipped and ready to go. After a view of the site and determining that I had a line of site to the Sat he said "were good to go". I was starting to feel good about this guy. He seemed enthusiastic and when I started asking questions for answers I culled from this forum he answered them all.

I started to discuss my preference for where I wanted the dish to be installed, and before I could open my mouth he said "the last resort is the roof". Music to my ears and I pointed out my preference on the house wall and his only response was "works for me". I'm thinking this is to good to be true, but it just got better.

I procede to ask him while he's getting his tools ready whether or not he's done a Voom installation before. He responded by saying thats pretty much his territory and that he did them all in my area. Cool as ice.

I noticed a Voom dish and Stealth lying in the back of his truck and asked "that for me". Turns out it was a de-install he just got done performing since the previous customer couldn't get all his locals (Some are not even on the air in my area). This will prove to be to my advantage as you'll read later.

So he grabbed his stuff and headed off to do his thing. I figured I was bored and would be his shadow for the day. He opened the box and started pulling out all the components. I hear a "uh oh" and respond with a despondent "what". He says the Sat mount is damaged "will it be OK with you if I use the one from the de-install". "Hell yeah" I answered. He seems as relieved as me.

So he goes about doing his thing and we start to discuss the Stealth. He didn't really seem to positive about it and says he hasn't had much luck with it. He noticed I already had a SquareShooter and asked how my reception was. I said "great, it picks up all my locals". He asked if I minded using that instead. Of course since it was mounted I said "sure". He told me I could keep the Stealth if I wanted along with the mount. It's now in the garage.

He installed the dish in a flash and ran the cabling. No qualms about the two cable install. He actually preferred keeping the diplexer out of the equation.

I'll fast forward to my reaction to Zoom since by now you've figured out the install went flawlessly.

He went thru his routine of calling in to activate the box and then sat down and went over the functions (he actually has it installed in his own home). The box crashed about two minutes into showing me features. Of course he knew all about the re-set and I'm happy to say that after three hour of changing channels and general 'usuage' it's been perfect. All the channels that should show up do including the locals that are mapped. There are a few that are not 'officially' on the air as of yet, but more in trial mode. I could get those with my D* box when they were broadcasting with the scan feature in that box. I sure hope Voom adds that feature soon.

So far after viewing the HD channels I couldn't be more pleased. Haven't really noticed any issues. Maybe one audio drop out but no tearing. The SD channels look about the same a D*'s. All the ones I have checked out don't show any signs of 'sparklies' or abnormalities. I have to admit I havn't viewed them extensively. The STB is kind of a dinasaur, but we all know that. I'm sure the SW updates will go a long way in making that better.

My viewing so far has been on a Panasonic 37" plasma. The real test will be tonight when I fire up the NEC HT1000 projector via DVI and view everything on a 92" screen. I already know what SD will look like...crap. Just like D*. But I'm a Voomer because of the HD content, so thats what I'm looking forward to.

Thats about it. So far I'm happy I made the move and look forward to a happy relationship with Voom. I can handle some of the growing pains that surely are part of being an early adoptor, and if Voom can continue getting market share all the better.

Go Voom!!


Bill
 
My Voom install (thursday march 11)

My Voom install:

Location is about 35 miles East of Atlanta. I got a clear view for both the dish and the ota antenna.

Voom package came in late to the installers so the installer called on saturday march 6th to move the install date from monday, march 8th to thursday march 11th.

Time window was 8am to 12pm. He came around 11:30-ish. Van said Installs Inc on the side. Nice Jamaica man came out and I showed him what my plan was as far as cables go. (cable under crawl space to 2 rooms, where one basically was within reach of the crawlspace opening of the side of the house.). He said that crawlspace or attic installs is $55 per run. (i thought it was included). Anwyays, we drilled holes in the floors and it took me ~3 minutes to go pull the cable in the crawlspace. No big deal, just thought it was included.

He also wanted to pull just one cable to each receiver, and I talked about people having signal loss on the ota part when combining the two into that grey locking box on the back. He said he knew and that he didnt use that box, basically he just used a splitter, with two small cables going to the respective places on the back of the receiver. Ok, at least he knew about the signal loss problem on the lockboxthing on the back. He also said something about it being a different brand, motorola or something, cant remember now.

He had the antenna already assembled to save time and he had a ladder and a charged drill ;).

Installed the dish and stealth antenna and we went the hd set to plug it all in. Garbled picture. Thanks to this forum i knew to check for 1080i/720p/etc. My tv cant handle 720p and that is what it was set for. 2 second fix.

He said the activasion on the phone took alot longer than usual (he had installed Voom before)

We get picture and sound on both the hdtv and the sdtv in the other room. Signal quality is around 62-64 on the dish, ota 20 :(

The stealth isnt picking up abc, fox, upn good, cbs is ok. nbc is good, as is tbs and wb36. He tried to wiggle the antenna around but no luck. Btw, he had printed out our address map on antennaweb so he knew where the stations are (all in a single line, all within a few degrees of eachother). Will come back tomorrow/next day and replace the amplifier(?) inside the antenna. If that doesnt work, I have to find a good spot for a bigger antenna. He did try to run the cable straight from the antenna to the receiver, but still the same.

All in all and first impressions:

+ A nice installer, said he was glad I knew about most of the stuff concering voom/signal/basic technical stuff. (i know some, but not all ;) )

+ A fairly quick install, except for trying to get the ota signal stronger. that took a little while.

- Didnt know if crawl space/attic install was extra, i thought it was included, is it?

+ HD channels look awesome. SD channels really good compared to our cable. Soft, but still clear.

+ Unlike some, i kinda like the remote. Sturdy and heavy. Channel switching is slow, but not the remote's fault. Go Go receiver update!


Ok, thats all i can think of :D lengthy read. reply if you feel like it, im off to watch some hd. :cool:

EDIT: All atlanta channels were correctly mapped.

EDIT2: Changed location. It's directly EAST of atlanta (tower-wise)
 
Glad everything went well for the most part.

You might suggest to him when he returns that the single feed may be preventing you getting the OTA. From what others have mentioned here, it could reduce the strength by about 30%.

Of course since you fished the line thru yourself you could have it set to go when he gets back.

Good luck and enjoy!


Bill
 
Glad to Here of another Good VOOM install!!! I too just got installed today!! All i can say is wow!! The HD channels LOOK GREAT!! I live in Medford Oregon in a valley surrounded by moutains.. The installer was shocked that we could get a signal.. Anyway eveything works great except my local mapping is wrong!! Hope to get this fixed soon..
 
BlackHitachi said:
Glad to Here of another Good VOOM install!!! I too just got installed today!! All i can say is wow!! The HD channels LOOK GREAT!! I live in Medford Oregon in a valley surrounded by moutains.. The installer was shocked that we could get a signal.. Anyway eveything works great except my local mapping is wrong!! Hope to get this fixed soon..
Great!

Going from very very very very crappy local cable co cable, to this... drooool.:shocked

:cool: :cool: :cool: :cool:
 
Installation Blues Continued

Well, in my last post I talked about how the installer called me on Sunday, the day before my install was supposed to happen, to tell me the equipment hadn't arrived. I have called him back every single day this week (4 days) on both his "office" number and his cell phone number, and he hasn't called me back once. He did actually answer his cell on Wednesday, and he told me he was on a roof and would call me back to reschedule the install for Friday. I never heard back from him, even though I've left another message on both his home and cell numbers. Feeling very frustrated. By the way, the company is Integrity Satellites in Elkton, Maryland. Some integrity he's showing.
 
Sean - Just registered...this thread has me a little freaked about my voom install (Sat March 11) 8-12 :eek:. Since I have been a cable subscriber all my life, I have no clue what to expect or ask the installers. A couple of questions for you (You rock, by the way, for helping everyone out)

1. My landlord objects to drilling holes in the roof. What are the other options for the dish/OTA attena?

2. There is an old TV Antenna up on the roof. Do you think that Vooms OTA Antenna would be better. It's nothing special, by any means, just a regular old antenna. If not, I'm guessing i could ask the installer to mount the dish next to the antenna?

3. I noticed that you were from somewhere New York area...I called the number for the Installer Inc and got the number for my installer. I called: they confirmed my appointment. The place is called SAS Inc. in Queens, Brooklyn, or the Bronx, judging by the 718 area code. Do you, or anyone reading, have any experience with them....more importantly, do you know if they have experience with voom?


I will report fully on my install experience and impressions.
 
Saphite said:
1. My landlord objects to drilling holes in the roof. What are the other options for the dish/OTA attena?

Be also aware that as a renter you may be required to get a signed letter of consent to install the dish from your Landlord.

They may let you sign a 'waiver', but that puts all responsibilty on you, not the installer.

Bill
 
Saphite said:
Sean - Just registered...this thread has me a little freaked about my voom install (Sat March 11) 8-12 :eek:. Since I have been a cable subscriber all my life, I have no clue what to expect or ask the installers. A couple of questions for you (You rock, by the way, for helping everyone out)

1. My landlord objects to drilling holes in the roof. What are the other options for the dish/OTA attena?

2. There is an old TV Antenna up on the roof. Do you think that Vooms OTA Antenna would be better. It's nothing special, by any means, just a regular old antenna. If not, I'm guessing i could ask the installer to mount the dish next to the antenna?

3. I noticed that you were from somewhere New York area...I called the number for the Installer Inc and got the number for my installer. I called: they confirmed my appointment. The place is called SAS Inc. in Queens, Brooklyn, or the Bronx, judging by the 718 area code. Do you, or anyone reading, have any experience with them....more importantly, do you know if they have experience with voom?


I will report fully on my install experience and impressions.

1. Chimney or exterior wall mount.
2. Hard to tell. Better to ask installer.
3. Yes, I am from the Bronx. The guy who did my Installion is called Carlos. He's an independent installer located in the Bronx. The one that come more often (about two times) so far to swap my stb is from Queen. His name is Chris. He's another independent installer. They both have done several Voom installations. Don't know much about SAS Inc but I would like to hear your report once the installation is done.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 0, Members: 0, Guests: 0)

Who Read This Thread (Total Members: 1)