As the saying goes – You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

​When two high end homes on the same site came through for quotation from an electrical contractor, in a highly sought after North London residential avenue, we delivered the original specification and an alternative for consideration, turned around within 2 days for both.

With a very short AV section in the accompanying M&E specification, we wanted to ensure we had the requirements spot on before we could offer any value engineering inputs. We always look to rationalise the cabling suggested as well as preserving the overall technology specification.

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That initiative allowed us to get the chance to present the proposal to the main contractor, who we had never met before but liked our style which won us the opportunity.

Both homes had dedicated cinema rooms, multi room audio systems, lighting and blind control as well as a high level of provision for future Wifi broadband, TV and satellite distribution. With extensive security and gate access requirements, we had to ensure that network connections were planned and cabled for third party partner companies of the main contractor.

As the properties were being marketed to sell, the key priority was to terminate all the cabling (including extra cabling requested by the M&E consultant for future use) neatly.

Sometimes it is best to be the nice guy. Budgets had already been finalised with another AV contractor for the cinema fitout, prior to our contract for the overall scheme.

We prepared the rooms for the projector, screen, the speakers and subwoofer, to ensure a finished room could be delivered for the marketing photos and opening promotions. The contractor said they had never seen so much co-operation between the same trades.

The terminations all centred on a core hub area, and with the cabinetry designs, the area was open to access in one property and incorporated into a corner area within a closed cabinet in the other.

With some clever design, the enclosures were adapted and the terminations for all connected in the hubs and tested ready for the new owners to specify exactly what they required.

A last minute challenge for integrated blind control was accepted, with the cables being run to a set design (prepared overnight) and linked back to the lighting control system for future upgrade.