Neat-O: Kudos to the Cable Guy
By Arlen Schweiger
Installer lands takeover job due to solid relationship with cable guy.

Usually it's the CE pro complaining about - and cleaning up - the cable company's mess. Not this time. In an unlikely twist for Neat-O!, we present an integrator that had nothing but good things to say about the local cable provider … and actually landed this takeover job because of their solid relationship.

The project came about after CTC (Consolidated Telephone Company) went to this Nisswa, Minn., vacation home to swap out a cable box. The rest of the A/V components within the same cabinet had been stuffed in by another integrator during construction, and among the resulting problems were IR flashers falling off gear, leaving little to work properly.



"It didn't go very well," says Chris Schucker, project manager for Tom's TV in nearby Brainerd, installer of the cable box replacement. "We love working with CTC, but [after seeing the setup] I told them it didn't matter who you sent out, it wasn't going to go very well. 'You're spinning your wheels here, and you're not going to get anywhere.'"

The homeowner hired Tom's TV to completely reorganize the cabinet, which is in three sections - two that stowed the components and media, and one for a subwoofer. Schucker worked on the plans with technician/programmer Scott Johannes, who did the installation to make this system work and have the components be less of an eyesore.

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