Some TV Magic technicians underwent a working at heights safety refresher course with practical training

At TV Magic we take safety very seriously. One area in which we have always placed a great deal of emphasis is on the attitude & culture around working at heights safely. There is a constant reminder that any fall or 'near miss', could be the 'last fall you ever have'. In addition to becoming certified to work at heights and refresher courses, we place emphasis on techniques & training that are not typically covered by a nationally accreddited working at heights training centres. Over many years of experience we have identified that an experienced roof worker has instinctual patterns & techniques for choosing ladder positioning, mounting + dismounting transitions from roof to ladder and ladder to roof including a variety of techniques for controlling one's centre of gravity.

We feel that it is imperative to pass the techniques, stories & case studies; that seasoned operators have experiened onto the new guys, so that they will learn from other people's experiences and not their own 'near misses' or something worse..You see, the way in which an experienced ladder user/worker climbs a ladder and picks the best + safest position to put the ladder onto a gutter is very different to someone who has only been doing it for 6 months and hasn't experienced any 'near misses' yet. It has a lot to do with centre of gravity of mass and walking about a steep roof as well as transitioning on and off a ladder. ... (It is equally painful to lacerate up your leg on some sharp iron even if you are harnessed in and havn't fallen, but still suffered severely, just because you weren't trained in techniques to gain access to a roof position you desire). 

We have found that this aditional training is proving to be very effective. To support this we report an extremely low % of incidents : use ratio. In our opinion, we have found that a harnessed/unharnessed roof worker should be informed and trained in these additional techniques for the simple reason that there are simply times when you are unharnessed and no safety equipment is going to save you! Typical examples of this include but are not limited to the following: A regular domestic home does not have an anchor point/tether point for a travel restraint harness system and therefore a roof worker including antenna installers would typically climb the ladder to install one :- in the mean time there is nothing stopping them from falling off the ladder! Equipment and techniques exist to deal with what I would estimate to be:- 95% of scenarios but then there are those times where throw lines and lock off ladders cannot be used. These are those 5% of the jobs that pose as a 'chink in the armour' for any professional ladder worker. Consequently if poor ladder techniques and/or positioning were utilised, the worker is in as much danger as the worker who doesn't use a harness what-so-ever.

To anyone who uses ladders all the time, this may seem like common sense or even insult your intelligence. However, if you were to carefully observe an average ladder/roof worker over the course of a day - (as we have previously done) across several job sites, you may be surprised to know that they will still place a ladder in positions where safety is compromised. It is typical, that unless they have several years of real life use and/or experienced those 'near misses' that they start to take more notice of how and where they use a ladder. They start to ignore the 4:1 ratio (as advised by the ladder manufacturers - so that a ladder can achieve the weight rating) and use a vertical : horizontal ratio closer to 5:1. If you do not know, a 5:1 ratio is a more gentle incline of the ladder against the structure and when climbing a ladder at this angle you can categorically feel the difference as opposed to a ladder positioned at 4:1. The result is a much more stable and confident climb.  

We also remind our technicians that there is an increase in reports and minor incidents occuring even with the use of safety equipment. These type of incidents are a case where a worker has become complacent and has made the mistake that safety equipment is a panacea to attitude/culture towards the subject. With over 277,000 incidents reported Australia wide, which is comprised of everything from an ankle strain - spinal paralysis - death (and everything in between) - @ TV Magic we take the attitude/culture side of working @ heights more seriously than most. Another part of our culture is that we achknowledge a 'near miss' for what it really is... What is a near miss really? What caused the near miss? "What if that near miss that you didn't particularly take too much notice off, had a few different elements - the result could have been that catastrophic event that ends you up in a wheelchair".

We identify 'near misses' to include such things as - slight ladder slip outs - ladders blowing over - trips, slips, loss of traction on roof but not falling from one level to another - rung slippages, slight foot slippages & more. Our mission is to maintain a zero 'serious incident' report and achieve a zero 'near miss' incident report. 

TV Magic is now a member of the Franchise Council of Australia

TV Magic has not been a member of the FCA until now. Whilst we have been franchising for 4 years, we have been focussing on our customers and keeping our overheads low. We pass these savings onto our independent business owners and the customers. During the past 4 years we have experienced steady growth, however in the past 12 months we have put on 7 extra vans alone. As Ceo, I decided it was time to join the Franchise Council of Australia, especially after our recent invitation to merge with a larger brand. This invitation has been the 2nd invitation and it obvious TV Magic is becoming more and more noticed. Exciting times! Thanks to the entire team, the technicians, the executive support staff and to all our customers!    Stay tuned and check in here regurlarly for the latest news! - Shane Seymour

TV Magic is trusted by the likes of all of the below!

We are now proud to announce that we can add F45 Training Gyms to the long list of house hold brands that choose and prefer TV Magic!(You can see just a couple of our clients below). With several F45 Gyms feeding us repeat work. We couldn't be any more thankful! By the way, if you want a great GYM - check out the F45 Training Gyms! They have a unique and amazing program! Check out their website! And watch the video! 

 F45 is has an excellent gym, culture and fit outs. Part of this fit out is complimented with beautifully mounted TV screens installed by TV Magic. - Nick, H

IS IT TIME FOR FOXTEL TO MOVE ON??

You should thanks us Foxtel for streaming Foxtel into other people's rooms of the house!!! (What the uninformed, straight out of text-book school pay TV technicians think is illegal - simply isn't). Any customer could run a long Hdmi / AV cable from the foxtel box down the hallway, out the door and plug it into their bedroom TV or the TV out on the deck to quote "distribute their foxtel to another TV" - (All we are doing is doing the exact same thing but in a much more professional and tidy manner , running cables through the roof and without the plugging/unplugging). We have been doing this for years!! Helping people to get the most from their pay TV subscription that is! as per the testimony below .... pasted on our website .. 

"I just love how I can watch pay TV in my GYM now. I was never going to pay for another box, in fact I was thinking of getting rid of the Foxtel. But now I can watch it whilst working out Thanks to TV Magic I'm now using Foxtel more than ever before. I love the MTV channels. Thanks TV Magic." - Robert. W