If you’ve got a great new Smart TV and you want to use the apps to stream things like Netflix or Now TV then it should be fairly simple. Just plug it in, set it up on your WiFi and away you go! But what happens if you’re trying to watch your favourite movie and it keeps pixellating or buffering? Why is it happening and what can you do to stop it?
Most properties are generally fine for WiFi for day to day stuff but if it’s a bit poorer in the room, or you’re not getting great speeds coming in, then this can happen. There are a few things that you can do to help but you may find that hardwiring the TV makes a big difference.
Move your router
If the router is quite far from the TV, is it possible to bring it closer or put it in the same room? Be aware it may cause issues in other rooms that you’ve not had a problem with before though but if you can, this is often a simple way to improve the WiFi signal to your TV.
Hardwire your TV
We do this by running a data cable or CAT6 cable from the router to the TV. This is fairly easily done but the technique is to do it so it looks good too! We will use a variety of methods to get the cable to the TV and obviously it depends on the distance as to how we will do it. We may go under floors, use loft and wall space, go behind skirtings or raggle and fill walls to hide the cable. Sometimes it can be done just following the skirting. Either way we’ll make sure it works well and looks good.
We can also hardwire your gaming console if you like to do some gaming.
It’s important to use good quality cable to do this or you’ll have problems in the long run so we use only good suppliers with certified cable.
WiFi Access Points
If you want to improve the WiFi over the whole house, then WiFi access point installation could be a better option. This will create a mesh of WiFi right across the property and improve the WiFi on all your devices, no matter how many are sitting on your network. This is a great option for properties with stone walls, a couple of floors or rooms which the router is quite far away.
It also works great in commercial properties such as hotels and cafes with lots of users along with anywhere else where there are a lot of users on the WiFi.
We use a variety of suppliers such as Ubiquiti, Cambium Networks and TP Link (depending on the property) and will get the right product for you.