Yes - you read this correctly..   A B&O installer did this.  Really.  

I was de-installing a BV6-22 from the wall this evening at a customers house and i started laughing. 'What have you done?!' - I asked, laughing - expecting a laugh back and some funny joke.

But no, nothing. 'That was the installer when we bought the equipment new?' he said.  'They made an utter hash of everything in the house to be honest, and I did wonder what it was they'd pushed against the wall to hide the wires and mess.  They then cable tied a black sock over the end of that thing and just left..'

Well, i can tell you it's a CV Joint Boot.  The cheap one which you glue together, so you don't have to remove the actual CV joint.  Yes, you read that correctly. He was apparently charged £300 for this..

This is ridiculous! Cannot believe my eyes.

But at the same time, kind of funny!

What is so funny here, its a totally normal Mexican instalation praxis

Well That's fairly horrid!

Well, I seem to recall people have made BM1700 adjustment tracks from timing belts, so a CV joint boot follows the ethos...

Lee,

The standard of cabling installation around the dealer network varies hugely in my experience - as do the rates charged.

£300 to wall a mount a small TV is a HUGE amount, imo - even assuming terminating all the bare ends, it is maybe two hours from arrival to departure if you work carefully and well - so that is £150 per hour to drill 4 holes, mount the bracket and neatly terminate/dress the cables and option programme the TV.

That hourly rate is far more than a qualified electrician (with all the stautory rules and regs to obey) would charge.  Must have been down south

Whilst the exit hole is a bit messy, the cable exit sleeve thing doesn't strike me as too bad though, to be honest - particulary as it was then sleeved in cable sock, and hidden behind the TV.  The wall may have been a bit crappy too - which never helps.

I have seen so many different things used - and that is party because there is not a comprehensive range of  B&O sourced cable routing  options available to dealers. 

There are some, but not many.  Which leads to improvisation. 

Could also have been a new/subcontracted installer - not that there is any excuse for scruffy work at £300.

Had my BV10 40":

• Delivered from dealer
• Carried into my home
• Mounted on wallbracket 
• All cabling (incl PUC cables) to cablebox, Bluray, TVIX etc mounted and neatly hidden.
• Configure BV10 to handle all peripherals (PUC preinstalled at dealer).
• All garbage removed.

Cost: 277 Euro

Thought it was steep at first, but given the convenience, the speed and the professional result it was worth it. 

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I prefer to do these things myself.

Not to save money.

Not because I don't trust anyone else to do it right.

I do these things myself because it's fun.

Here here!!! I love to see it from start to finish, sometimes a bit fiddly especially by yourself but well worth the effort

Jonnie

Rich:

Maybe I'm in the minority here, but I prefer to do these things myself.

Not to save money.

Not because I don't trust anyone else to do it right.

I do these things myself because it's fun.

If the installation was included in the price and the DIY was optional I would pay for it with no doubt. To see the result is a big part in the pleasure of having the system. I can find myself watching a link speaker and thinking about how pleased I am with my installation.

SWISS_2:

unfinished hole in the wallboard

Just a note on this - if you look closely, you will see that this is a solid wall, and not made of wallboard or plasterboard.  So it is a brick/block wall, with maybe 10 - 15mm of plaster on top.  The cables are coming out of a plastic 'U' section capping. 

In fairness to the installer, this type of construction makes it hard ( more so behind a small TV) to get any kind of backbox / cable exit system sorted - hence you often see "flying cables" like in the picture.  It is still a bit messy, but when you realise there is no void to use, it maybe gets more understandable.

In 2009 I attended a B&O meeting about the forthcoming Beonet, held in part  at the National Housebuilding Centre in Swindon.

Several senior B&O Product Managers from around the world were there - including people from Denmark, the USA, the Far East and Europe.

Without exception, the non-UK delegates were amazed that it is common ( almost the norm) in the UK to have plaster on brick, with cables trapped in the plaster, or in thin conduit, as per the picture.

The NHBS has mock ups of room/wall construction (worth a visit if you work in houses) and it soon became very apparent that studd walls and platerboards are much more common abroad.  Everyone present agreed that the UK housing stock ( size, construction type, materials used etc etc) was just about the worst for link cabling - particularly retrospectively.

So, not to excuse the work done for the price paid - but when swiss2 writes "wallboard", it suggests a void behind which cables can be dropped, and in which a backbox/fascia can be mounted...not so on that picture.

When I bought my Beeovision 8-40 (wall mount) last year I asked for different quotes from several dealer. The installation costs varied from 0 till 600 eur. The dealer I chose installed it for free including all connections to Blu-ray player, Apple TV, masterlink, Wii and updated the PUC. It was done very professionally. In the old days my B&O was always installed for free, it seems that only recently that Dutch dealer have started charging and also (a bit off topic) giving (very) low trade in prices.

"

So, not to excuse the work done for the price paid - but when swiss2 writes "wallboard", it suggests a void behind which cables can be dropped, and in which a backbox/fascia can be mounted...not so on that picture. "

I think Lee can perhaps describe the wall composition in the photo.

To this member, the connecting cable wires appear to enter the wall cavity and immediately drop down and away, very typical of thin wallboard, gypsumboard, Densglas,and other composite wallboard products. I have written over 100 reports on wall cavity damage, water damage, and engineered replacement materials that have used or utilised wallboard products.

Masonry wall construction, especially thicker plastered, lath-plastered CBC, or solid block do not share these characteristics with cabling. The same also applies to soilid concrete or tunnel-form walls, reinforced or not. In that situation, the wires would continue through any cored or drilled hole in a horizontal position.

Having designed solutions for NASA construction and engineering for 35 +years, I have had to pull more than few mileage lays of cabling, while concerning myself with maintaining regulated standards of IAQ/EAQ (Internal cavity Air Quality and air balance) in existing permanent facilities. Everything has been pulled from RF to fibreoptic, and the occasional home cabling work involving B&O M-L in Europe, North America, and Brasil.

I was invited to accompany a B&O installation team by a former B&O owner (Paris) when the M-L cable first appeared to support active systems and N.Radio/N.Music. The work was done calmly, not rushed, and very professionally.

That said, I think we can both agree that the work in Lee's photo is poor and unprofessional.

SWISS_2:

Masonry wall construction, especially thicker plastered, lath-plastered CBC, or solid block do not share these characteristics with cabling. The same also applies to soilid concrete or tunnel-form walls, reinforced or not. In that situation, the wires would continue through any cored or drilled hole in a horizontal position.

Well, in the picture, I am fairly sure I can see white plastic trunking/capping below the cables, and hard plaster above the cables.   That system is typically used on a brick/block wall before it is plastered.  The cables are run vertically up the wall, and exit at the top of the plastic trunking in a sharp, almost 90% bend.  The capping is than nailed in place to hold the cables in situ, and the wall is plastered. 

In this system, cables are "captive" in the wall, with no option to pull through or push back, and they DO NOT go horizontially back through the wall - the picture shows the top edge of the plastic trunking with the cables heading vertically down the wall.

I apreciate your experience and what you have seen "in the field", however, in the UK this type of wall is commonplace, and in part leads to cable exit solutions that, once a product is removed, look a little untidy.

Just to stress, I am NOT being an apologist for the work or the price - just clarifying a problematic construction method in the UK that surprised my fellow delegates from all across the "BeoWorld", and that some overseas posters here may not be aware of.

folkdeejay:

Just to stress, I am NOT being an apologist for the work or the price - just clarifying a problematic construction method in the UK that surprised my fellow delegates from all across the "BeoWorld", and that some overseas posters here may not be aware of.

Agreed.

For all we know with the information provided this could have been a retro fit into an existing wall.  If that's the case then the installer possibly had to turn up and chisel the existing wall, then fit the trunking and cable.  Chances are they then went off site and allowed a plsterer to do his thing, then return a couple of days later to fit the TV and terminate the cables.

I am not defending the work, but to be fair I guess it looked OK once all fitted.

If that is chased into an existing wall, with trunking over, replastered and decorated to match existing then £300 is cheap!

Cable channel was cut into plaster over brick using a tool, cables run and glued, then skimmed over with plaster.

If people think this is a neat install - and using an old car CV boot to hide the mess is perfectly acceptable for a professional install by a B&O approved installer, then i confess to being way too fussy..

Sorry.

9 LEE:

Cable channel was cut into plaster over brick using a tool, cables run and glued, then skimmed over with plaster.

If people think this is a neat install - and using an old car CV boot to hide the mess is perfectly acceptable for a professional install by a B&O approved installer, then i confess to being way too fussy..

Sorry.

Lee,

I agree this CV thingy is wrong - not a suitable item for the job.

If that was done by my old installer, I owuld have expected a much neater cable exit hole, ideally covered with a neat cable exit plate ( possible to do with or without a backbox) and  with either cable sock or bl8000 rubber hose used to house the cables.

9 LEE:

Cable channel was cut into plaster over brick using a tool, cables run and glued, then skimmed over with plaster.

If people think this is a neat install - and using an old car CV boot to hide the mess is perfectly acceptable for a professional install by a B&O approved installer, then i confess to being way too fussy..

Sorry.

You are right Lee this is a job done from people that does not give a sh1t, 3 years ago I started renovating an old house here in Mexico, the way it works here is, if you can hide it you can do anything. After checking on the work of several plummers. electricians and masons I found out that, at the moment I was not present, they did works just like the one you are showing us here, the result was that I chose to do all the plumbing and electrical works myself, if I had to stay around controlling, I could even do it myself, and better.

Profesionalism (is that a word) is a vanishing art, the proudness in doing a good job is something you will have to learn from your teachers and this is offen forgotten in todays competetive market where money rules.

Talking about being proud of doing a good job;
I had a pair of Beovox Redline RL45 in for repairs recently, the owner
was not satisfied with the way they sounded after getting them back from another repairer.
I opened them and found this solution to a rattling ABR plate :

A brief look at the squeezed yellow/black carton reveals it to be from a High-voltage
flyback transformer for a TV set, suggesting that the "repair" to these speakers
was done by someone who do other repairs too.
Also high-voltage ones.
The other speaker looked exactly the same.
One wonders how much the owner was charged for this.

Martin

Thank you LEE for the clarification.

I wonder why they went to so much effort Martin

Dillen:

Talking about being proud of doing a good job;
I had a pair of Beovox Redline RL45 in for repairs recently, the owner
was not satisfied with the way they sounded after getting them back from another repairer.
I opened them and found this solution to a rattling ABR plate :

A brief look at the squeezed yellow/black carton reveals it to be from a High-voltage
flyback transformer for a TV set, suggesting that the "repair" to these speakers
was done by someone who do other repairs too.
Also high-voltage ones.
One wonders how much the owner was charged for this.

Martin

I'm baffled.

Well, they emptied the trash can AND made money. Not bad
- if you couldn't care less about happy customers, that is.
Unfortunately, I've seen lots of these cases.
It seems money is all that matters nowadays.

Martin