Residents’ associations in Valls: communal aerials and ICT
Valls is the capital of the Alt Camp and a good share of its residents live in blocks of flats. In the streets that grew around the Barri Antic, and in districts such as El Fornàs, buildings of several decades stand alongside far more recent developments. You can see it on the roofs: communal aerials with amplifiers fitted a very long time ago, and buildings with ICT under Royal Decree 346/2011.
When an association rings us, the symptoms usually run like this:
- Channels that come through on the lower floors and fail on the top ones, or the other way round.
- Dropouts that began after the second digital dividend of 2020, when the 700 MHz band was released and everything had to be retuned.
- Pixelation from 4G and 5G mobile interference.
- Residents who have added their own sockets and thrown the distribution out of balance.
Our communal aerial work for buildings starts at the head-end. We measure what the aerial delivers, inspect the amplifier or the programmable central unit and follow the distribution down the riser to each flat’s connection point and sockets. With that in hand we put together a clear report for the committee chair or the property manager.
Communal aerial or communal satellite
If there are residents in the building who want international channels, the best answer is not a balcony full of dishes. A communal satellite dish with a multiswitch carries the signal to each flat that needs it and leaves the facade alone.
Door entry and video entry in blocks
The door entry system is the other great source of call-outs in the associations of Valls. Weathered entrance panels, handsets you cannot hear, lock releases that will not respond or power supplies that fail intermittently.
With door entry and video entry we set out two paths:
- Repair of the specific part, when the system still takes spares and the rest is in good order.
- Renewal to video, using 2-wire systems that reuse the cabling, or IP video entry that diverts the call to a phone.
Either way we put the quote to the association before starting, so the committee decides with the full picture.
Car parks, shops and units: cameras and access control
In communal car parks we fit CCTV with IP cameras and an NVR recorder, the monitored-area notice and access to the recordings limited to whoever the association decides. In the units and offices on the industrial estate we combine cameras with access control by card, code or phone, which is useful where there are shifts or staff who change.
Houses in the Barri Antic and the outlying villages
In the narrow streets of the Barri Antic, around the plaça del Blat, there are plenty of houses over several floors with an individual aerial and old cabling. In Picamoixons and Fontscaldetes detached houses predominate, sometimes with aerials badly exposed to the wind. Here we work house by house: new cable, realignment, extra points and, if the house has a courtyard or a gate some way off, a simple video entry system.
Before it goes to the residents’ meeting
A lot of repairs in associations stall because they reach the meeting without any figures. So that this does not happen, after the visit we leave you a written account of what we found, what is urgent and what can wait. If there are several options, say repairing the present amplifier or replacing it with a programmable central unit, we explain the merits of each in plain language. The chair or the property manager can then present it clearly and residents vote knowing what they are approving. If the association prefers, we can bring the aerial, the entry system and the car park cameras into a single quote and plan the work in stages.
The way we work
- First contact: you describe the problem; if you are the property manager, you tell us who to speak to in the building.
- Technical visit: we inspect the head-end, the distribution, the entry system or the cameras, whichever applies.
- A free quote, itemised so the association can compare it.
- The work, with as little disruption to residents as we can manage.
- Final checks with a field meter at sockets on different floors and a test of every call on the entry system.
Coming out to Valls
From Salou we head towards Tarragona and take the A-27 towards Montblanc; forty minutes or so later we are in Valls. We cover the centre, El Fornàs, the industrial estate, Picamoixons and Fontscaldetes. In the same area we work in Alcover and Montblanc, and on the way we look after Tarragona.