By Dan Cash Business Security • CCTV • Do It Yourself • Home Security • • 0 Comments

From Fish Tanks To Vacuums, Smart Devices Need Smarter Security

Image courtesy of https://www.pexels.com/@kabita-darlami-2613403Because Briant Communications staff are proud to call ourselves “professional installers” it is infuriating when we see people on the news who’ve been made victims of crime because of a substandard installation. If you follow our blog you’ll have read about how we recommend applying rigorously high security protocols for all of your Internet of Things connected devices because default settings and lax passwords create a chink in your armour, so it’s frustrating when we hear stories such as the following.

Something Fishy Going On With This Casino’s Security

Not long ago a casino was hacked and the personal information contained in a database of clients’ details was stolen by criminals who gained access to the business’ computer network via a Smart fish tank thermometer. Darktrace’s Nicole Eagan reported that:
“The attackers used that to get a foothold in the network. they then found the high-roller database and then pulled that back across the network, out the thermostat, and up to the cloud.” Read more

By Dan Cash Home Cinema • Home Entertainment • • • 0 Comments

Why Now Is The Best Time To Start Looking For Your New Flat Screen TV

flat screen wall mountingIs now the best time to buy a new flat screen TV or other home entertainment tech, or is it better to wait until the trade shows are over?

If you’re in the market for a new television, hifi, or any Smart automated home devices you’re almost always stuck in a quandary, when is the right time to buy to get the best deals without missing out on the latest developments?

If you’ve ever bought an off-the-lot, straight out of the showroom car you’ll have dealt with the same questions. You could buy a “brand new” car today with this year’s registration at full price, or wait until this years’ new releases come out and buy the car as ‘nearly new’ at a discount as the dealer wants to clear the showroom forecourt to make room for the latest models.

The same goes with electronics. Retailers such as Argos, Currys PC World, Hughes, and Richer Sounds only have so much shop-floor and warehouse space so they can’t have ‘old’ tech cluttering up the shop when the new lines are in demand. The problem is timing. Get in too soon and you’ll buy a product today which will be on offer at half the price in a few weeks. Leave it too late and the deals are over, the old stock is already sold or sent back to the manufacturer to be resold in a different market, or shipped away to be recycled and made into more of the pricey technology of tomorrow. Read more

By Dan Cash Broadband • WiFi • • 0 Comments

Why We Keep On Doing Our Work Maintaining TV Receivers & Data

You may be asking how come Briant Communications are still open for business while so many other businesses are on furlough or have shuttered for the duration. The simple answer is that we take our customers and clients health and safety very seriously, and as well as obeying all the government and scientists’ recommendations, we go above and beyond.

First of all much of our work is still considered vital. Life in the 21st century without TV, or broadband data wouldn’t just be dull, it would be almost unimaginable! We’ve come to depend so much on electronic technology that we would be lost without it. Lord Reith’s diktat for the BBC when it was established almost a century ago was for it to “inform, educate and entertain”. Imagine being in lockdown with a poor TV signal or no internet; how would you get your news, homeschool the kids, or keep them from getting bored staring at the same four walls. So that’s why we keep on doing what we do. Our offering is a vital public service. Read more

By Dan Cash Broadband • General Information • Tips and Tricks • • 0 Comments

We Love To Network, Be That Face To Face Or Cable

fibre installation, fibre optic, ultrafast fibre dataWith lockdown coming to an end in a few weeks many of us are itching to get back into the office. A lot of people are pointing out that coronavirus has shown how easy it is for many of us to work from home, but then there are plenty of other people who need the structure, free of distractions, that working in an office alongside their colleagues brings. We like networking, seeing other people’s ideas, discussing our own ideas with experts, and not the cat or our partners or children. We need spontaneous interaction which doesn’t involve someone you made a part of your bubble weeks or even months ago popping around and chatting to you for hours when you’re actually on the clock and trying to get some work done!

This is the quiet before the storm for many workplaces. As we get back to normal, or adjust to the new normal depending on how much your workplace has been affected there is a brief window currently available to get a great deal of infrastructure work done.
A lot of businesses didn’t take advantage of the furlough over the last summer to get routine maintenance and planned improvements done. I have personal experience of managers who were frustrated by their higher-ups because they didn’t use the time which was available to them to make the necessary improvements which had been discussed long before Covid even became a ‘thing’. Instead they adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach which meant that when people were able to briefly return to work in the late summer & autumn they were met with the same problems they had been facing previously, rather than enjoying souped up, improved, and effective improvements. Read more

By Dan Cash Construction • General Information • Home Entertainment • • 0 Comments

How Important Are Cabling, Satellite Dish & Aerial Servicing & Repairs?

cable installation, secure cable, cable, TV, TV cable, satellite TV, TV aerialWere you tricked by the weather? Did that brief glimpse of sun at the beginning of the month have you fooled that spring was here & that you’d soon be on the beach enjoying an ice cream & a few cold ones around the barbecue any minute now?
Weren’t we all! And now March is back in full effect. “In like a lion, out like a lamb” as the old expression goes. But I guess we all wanted something to look forward to so we thought winter had ended early. No such luck!

Gales and storms are back with us once again, and with that come the inevitable storm damage to aerials, satellite dishes, and loose cabling. The damage that storms and gales can do to TV receivers is obvious. They’re large surfaces secured to your wall or chimney by only a few bolts, bolts which can easily rust of become loose over time if not properly serviced and maintained. If the wind catches them hard enough, or long enough eventually they are going to get so loose that they fall down or fly away, presenting a huge danger of injury or property damage to anyone or anything which happens to cross their path.

Loose Cable Causes No End Of Problems

Loose cabling isn’t a problem so often addressed, although it can do a lot of damage and interfere with your TV reception far more quickly than an aerial or satellite dish if they were properly installed at the same time. Read more

By Dan Cash Design • Do It Yourself • General Information • Home Entertainment • Renovation • • • • 0 Comments

Our Latest “Before And After” Cable Installation

before & after, cable installation, rewiring, satellite, aerial, TV, television, expert, professional, skilled engineerWe make mention a lot about our ‘professional cable installation‘ and you may wonder why. After all, it’s just putting cables under floors and behind walls, no big deal, right?

If you look at these before and after photos from a recent job our engineers undertook you’ll start to see why it’s so important to do the job properly. Various different installers of varying degrees of expertise all seem to have had a go at this in the past.
It’s easy be break or damage a cable, especially if you don’t know where it is, and that’s why professional cable installation is so important, whether it’s in your HMO, apartment block, office or industrial unit. Read more

By Dan Cash Broadband • Design • Do It Yourself • General Information • Renovation • WiFi • • • 0 Comments

Building, Renovating Or Refurbing? We Need To Talk About Data Cable!

fibre installation, fibre optic, ultrafast fibre dataWhether you’re renovating an old building, adding an extension, or building a new project from the ground up, it’s always a good idea to think about futureproofing. You wouldn’t leave electric wiring or plumbing out and add it as an afterthought, so why leave data cable to last?

Can installing digital infrastructure really be considered ‘futureproofing’ at all? We can all see how digital broadband data is here to stay, the only question is, how much of it we’re going to need as we become ever more data hungry? Ten years ago you would have been happy for one computer in your house to get fast access to Facebook to see who had most recently thrown a sheep at you or poked you (no, nobody knew then, nobody knows now. It was just one of those things), but today we need ‘instant on’ when we’re streaming movies, watching online TV, downloading and sharing music, and of course, checking our news feed on Facebook… And that’s not even considering the data that’s needed for Smart Home Automation devices and the demands that Covid has put on us in regards to working from home, always being in & needing to find ways of entertaining the kids and breaking up the Groundhog Day-like monotony of lockdown after lockdown. Putting all those aspects of modern home life and, together with Moore’s Law that technology becomes cheaper, faster and smaller with every passing year, it’s hard to imagine what the home without a broadband spine leading from the router to the street, or a strong, stable ultrafast wireless broadband connection would look like to Future Us. Read more