Dundee Wharf has a communal system which provides access in every flat to a range of television signals. It is not permitted for individual flats to install their own external aerials, antennas or satellite dishes. Each flat has a small wall panel in the living room which has three silver sockets on it. Two of these sockets are conventional ones for co-axial type plugs. The upper one of these is for terrestrial television reception and the lower is for FM radio reception.

Simply plug a conventional television (or video recorder) into the upper socket with an ordinary (coaxial) television aerial cable and you will get access to the UK’s five standard (‘analogue terrestrial’) TV channels – i.e. BBC1/BBC2/ITV/Ch4/Ch5 on their normal frequencies in this area. In addition the Dundee Wharf system has a second set of higher frequencies for these channels which have been specially engineered to provide better reception which is less subject to ‘ghosting’ (double images caused by reflected signals from adjacent tall buildings). Tuning to these alternative frequencies may provide an improved picture.

The Dundee Wharf system has also been adapted in the past year to give access to the ‘Freeview’ service (‘digital terrestrial’). The Freeview signals will automatically appear at the TV set or VCR without any alteration to the connection as described above. However to view them it is necessary to have a ‘digital-ready’ television or to purchase a Freeview digital set-top box from a supplier such as Comet, Currys, Dixons or even Amazon.co.uk.

For FM radio, the aerial cable from the tuner should simply be plugged into the lower coaxial socket on the three socket panel.

The maintenance of the conventional (analogue & digital terrestrial and FM Radio) access system is included in Dundee Wharf’s annual service charges. If you experience any difficulty with obtaining good signals after following the above procedures, you should contact Community Vision – the company who have been contracted to supply Dundee Wharf’s TV system maintenance and on-site assistance: Community Vision’s telephone number is 01892 722887. If you have any problems in getting satisfactory service from Community Vision, please refer the matter to Matthew Kirk at Dundee’s Managing Agents Rendall & Rittner.

If, in addition to analogue and digital terrestrial channels, you also want to access Sky Digital satellite, please contact Community Vision directly. They will supply the necessary Sky subscription form and arrange for the set-top box to be installed and connected (this utilises the third socket on the right of the wall panel) as well as connection to be made to Dundee Wharf’s communal Sky Digital dish system. An annual fee is payable (curently GBP78) to Community Vision for this connection plus a one-off connection charge (currently GBP125). This is in addition to the monthly/annual Sky subscription.
Any subsequent reception problems should be taken up with Community Vision; for issues relating to choice of channels, package costs etc, Sky should be contacted directly.

Many flats will have an additional white socket beside the three socket panel. This is not an aerial socket and simply connects through to the main bedroom in order that signals in the living room can be relayed to that room. The simplest way to utilise it is to buy a ‘splitter’ plug (shaped like the letter Y) from Dixons or similar and plug this into the upper coaxial socket on the wall panel. Plug the television or VCR into one ‘arm’ of the splitter and use a short coaxial lead to connect the other arm into the separate white socket which feeds the bedroom outlet. This will enable access in the bedroom to the full quality communal aerial system.
Again please contact Community Vision if you need any assistance with this.