A/V Doctor

A brand new Audio / Visual equipment setup service from the AudioWorks.

Got a problem with a projector, a plonker of a plasma or a 5.1 system that can't tell it's centre from it's sub? Then this service is for you.

For a call out charge of £90, which includes the first hour on site, we will ride to the rescue. Available in the south Manchester and Stockport areas. For other locations, please call.

Call the shop, or email us for more details or to discuss whether this service may be just what you need.

Blog:

Sept 29th, 2007 -

It's been an incredibly busy couple of months since the last posting.

The big news items...

1) New Lucid AV web site coming soon, courtesy of web master Rick Ogden. All being well we hope to launch it in the 3rd week of October.

2) Lucid AV at the Northern Sound & Vision Show!!
I have just confirmed a deal with the event organiser to run calibration demos for the two days of the show. If you ever wondered what all this calibration stuff was about then this will be your chance to see what is involved and the sort of results possible. More details to follow...

The Northern Sound & Vision Show is held at Radisson Hotel, Manchester Airport on the weekend of Jan 26th & 27th, 2008.

Outline details of the show are available at the organisers web site: www.chestergroup.org

You can also download privileged tickets for reduced entry to the event.

All the best

Chris Frost
Lucid AV

Posted at: 22:11 on 29-09-2007

* * * Lucid's Blog * * *

Here's a little taster of the sort of work I'm doing for other people at the moment...

Mr.L lives in Hazel Grove. He's just bought a big Loewe TV from The Audio Works and mentioned he was having problems with his AV system. Could somebody have a look.

Ed took care of the TV install in the lounge while I looked at the cinema room in another part of the house.

To be fair to the original dealer (a franchise of a well known and reputable national chain) most the the problems with Mr.L's system were down to one ex-member of staff. The gap between this guy's ego and his ability to deliver is summed up when you see insulation tape holding together interconnect plugs on a £35,000 installation.

At the heart of this system are two very expensive touch screen remote controls. These should have made the whole thing a dream to use. Unfortunately our star salesman cum installer was true to form and left the job part complete. Mr.L and family had been struggling with the system for over three years. Along the way a plasma screen blew up and their £1600 ARCAM DVD player stopped working. The final straw was when sound was lost on the front three speakers rendering the AV system totally unusable.

The faulty ARCAM was a bit of a surprise. The brand is normally quite reliable. When I asked Mr.L why it hadn't been repaired he told me that it may need a new drive and that would make it uneconomical to repair! I took the machine home and replaced one component, fixed a few dry joints and updated the software. It hasn't missed a beat since.

As for the rest of the system, the speaker fault turned out to be an incorrect setting on the AV amp. I've reprogrammed one of the touch screens to operate the entire system so it now works with just a couple of button presses. Mrs.L was particularly pleased with that, saying "We've never had anything like this before. It's so easy." Sky HD is now hooked up in high definition.

In the final couple of visits I'll deal with the rats nest of cables in the equipment room, finish the second remote control and then fine-tune the sound system settings in both rooms. For less than 3% of the original purchase price Mr.L and family with finally have a home entertainment system of which they can be proud.

If you have problems with your AV system then get in touch through The Audio Works and perhaps I'll help turn your bad dream into a sweet one.

All the best

Chris

Posted at: 02:17 on 30-07-2007