A Professional Approach to a Long Lasting Relationship
The installation process of a Makin organ is a very carefully crafted and well planned series of events designed to ensure a top quality organ and associated speakers are installed with the customer in a reasonable time. This ensures that no corners are cut, staff work well within health and safety legislation and with the minimum of disturbance for the customer and their use of the building. Whilst this may all sound obvious, a successful installation requires a great deal of planning and experience. Makin is lucky to have the service of Steve Lanyon who has worked for the company for thirty years. With a lifetimes experience with installations there is not much that will surprise Steve, but this is something that we do not take for granted and as the old adage says we ‘plan for the best, but are prepared for the worst’.
Detailed conversations with the customer concerning the installation often start before the final commitment to purchase. Whilst this may sound strange, we do appreciate that customers do not want to have any hidden costs at the time of purchase, so we like to get as much detail covered as possible including items such as speaker location, enclosure design, cable runs, multiple console positions etc. From the outset, we keep photographic as well as written records so that if we have additional questions at a later date the photographs will act as a memory jogger. Weeks before the installation takes place, a visit is made to site to examine the installation in detail. Our initial observations are always around access and amenities, for example if the church has steps, which set of ramps will we require.
Moving inside, we trace the path that the console will follow through church to ensure that we have a suitable route for access by moving the minimum of pews and the like. The location of the console and speakers and the wire run between them is critical and much time is spent getting this right. In general we have most concerns with the placement of speakers, particularly if they are in a new enclosure, since mounting the same on a wall must be done safely and carefully. For example, it is illegal to ‘swing off ladders’ as in days of old. Workers must operate from the safety of approved scaffolding towers or, if these cannot be fitted, from a professional scaffold structure.
Having planned well the day of the installation usually goes very smoothly, but we are always ready to solve any problems that may arise so that we can get the organ up and running with the minimum of fuss but the maximum of efficiency. Once we have thoroughly tested the instrument on site, we hand it over to the customer and to our Professional Voicer to go to the next step. Our installation team then can move on to another customer. With an average of between two and three installation per week they are always kept busy.