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The BLC Connection Podcast is a fun and informative show from Ben Lomand Connect that answers your questions about the internet, Wi-Fi, home security and more, and brings you information on the stories and events in “Ben Lomand Country.” Bryan, Karen and Micah take you behind the scenes of Ben Lomand Connect, where the cooperative connects Middle Tennessee with the latest in communications technology and with businesses that are making a difference in our service territory. The BLC Connection Podcast also offers tips for business marketing and residential/workplace technology.
Bryan Kell:
Welcome to the BLC Connection Podcast.
I'm Bryan Kell.
Karen Wilson:
I'm Karen Wilson.
Micah Lawrence:
And I'm Michael Lawrence.
All Hosts:
Let's get connected!
Bryan Kell:
We're back. Everybody decided to come back now that it's the
second episode, so we didn't lose anybody.
Karen, Micah.
Karen Wilson:
Yeah, I hope we gained a few people.
Micah Lawrence:
I'm still here.
Karen Wilson:
We came back.
I hope the audience came back as well.
Bryan Kell:
Yes, yes.
Well, hey, listen, we have got a lot in this second episode of
the BLC Connection Podcast.
We welcome you, the listener, no matter how you're listening to
us, and we're going to talk about all the different ways that
folks can catch it later in this podcast.
But in this episode, we have so many things.
We've got Karen, some information about the GigaSpire BLAST
router.
Karen Wilson:
Yeah, that's going to be very informational.
It sounds very high tech, and it is.
But it's something that we need in our homes, and we're going to
dive into what that is and how it helps us.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah. Micah, we've also got information on what's going on in so
many different things as well, right?
Micah Lawrence:
Yeah. We're going to take a look at some what's coming up in the
March/April Connect Magazine and then what's going on at Channel
6. Maybe some area events.
It's going to be great.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, and also up next, we've got the big guy himself, the
seventh general manager and CEO of Ben Lomand Connect, Greg
Smartt. All that and so much more on the BLC Connection Podcast.
Welcome back. Karen Wilson has slid out, and we have put in her
place the seventh GM/CEO
of Ben Lomand Connect, Greg Smartt.
Greg, welcome in to the BLC Connection Podcast.
Greg Smartt:
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Bryan Kell:
Glad to have you here.
Greg Smartt:
I'm glad to be here.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, yeah, so.
Well, first of all, before we start getting to this, it was
weird how you were thinking, Karen and I were thinking, that
podcasting is something that that Ben Lomand should get into.
And so I guess we thank you for allowing us to be able to do
this.
Greg Smartt:
Oh, absolutely. It seemed like everybody was getting into it.
And I thought, what a way to reach some of the customer base
that we may be missing out on.
So I love this setup. It's really nice.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, well cool. Thanks to you for allowing us to be able to do
this.
Greg Smartt:
Oh absolutely.
Bryan Kell:
Well, by the time this podcast gets out, it will be one year of
you at the reins of Ben Lomand Connect.
It's been a busy year, but tell us about one year.
Greg Smartt:
Well, we've accomplished so much in the year, in the last year
here and...
Bryan Kell:
Quite a lot of milestones.
Greg Smartt:
Bryan, I can't cover them all in one hour, but there were several
things that we
accomplished that I was really proud of.
One of the biggest ones was email conversions, and the team got
around that and
really worked through that.
Bryan Kell:
Kind of with the old BLomand to Ben Lomand, conversion right?
Greg Smartt:
Absolutely, yes, we went through about 20,000 of those email
accounts.
Micah Lawrence:
That's a lot.
Greg Smartt:
That's a lot and went through them in a short period of time.
Because we had several things going on at the same time.
We are focused on trying to get out the the fastest speed
at the cheapest price.
And so in the time that we were doing all of this, I came up
with this brilliant idea
that we would serve all of our members with fiber optic with a
gig up / gig down.
Bryan Kell:
For?
Greg Smartt:
$57.95. And that's business and residential.
So this way it helps the customer service reps and the tech guys
that are out there on the road.
We got one price, one speed.
But we met once a week.
We come up with a game plan and until the projects were done, we
met once a week to make sure that we stayed on track.
And I just can't talk about how the employees pulled together to
make that happen.
Bryan Kell:
Oh, and if you're listening to this podcast, it's fair to say
that, especially if you're listening to it before our annual
meeting and Greg's going to talk more about that, this may be
the first time that you've heard us mention that in some kind of
a public forum kind of situation.
So if you're on fiber, if you didn't know it or you haven't
checked or anything like that, if you're a fiber customer of ours
and you are maybe not on — there's some old speeds that are
still sitting out there.
But if you've been with Ben Lomand, it's safe to say over the
last five to seven years and you're on fiber, it is safe to say,
Greg, they are sitting on a gig right now.
Greg Smartt:
They are sitting on a gig down and a gig up.
That's the key part of this.
The upload speed.
The upload speeds plays such a big importance in the day's
technology and how everything is being
driven as far as home and things like that, the things that we
do at home.
So yes, the gig download speed, you may hear some of that in the
future
coming up, but the upload speed is unbelievable.
You just don't hear of that.
And so we've got some more things coming down the pipe for new
technology, and I know we'll get to that.
But I am very proud of this group of Ben Lomand people to come
up
with the idea, and this was this was come up by the group of
managers to come up with a gig up / gig down for
$57.95.
Bryan Kell:
And we've done some digging around.
This is, like you said, it's been happening for for quite a
while.
We've done some digging around on pricing and speed comparisons
across the nation.
We hadn't found anybody that's offering that.
Greg Smartt:
We'll always be the leader in technology.
When we talk about broadband, we're hitting the milestone of
27,000 customers on broadband.
Now that is copper and fiber, but 75% of that is on fiber optic
now.
We've made huge strides on getting fiber built out in 2021.
And so we've got that 75% now.
That's something to hang your hat on.
We've got a game plan to build out.
Everything's coming together.
We rolled out a new product called Ben Lomand Home that ties
back into the fiber optic.
We can use it on the copper side, too, but it works really good
with the fiber and the technology that you're using it for.
We put those in with the GigaSpire that helps you get the speed
that you need.
We can put up mash units inside your house.
If you've got a house out there, that's three stories or it's a
pretty good size house, and you're having problems with
your routers touching from one end to the other.
We can have our team come in and and put the mesh units in and
make sure that we're covering all, all the area in your
home. You know, one of the things we don't really, we don't
really talk about a lot and that is home security.
We've made some big strides this year and last year to get a
bigger
look, take a bigger look out on our security side.
Chris and Centracchio and his team, Micah, are going to be
heading that up and try to get a brand new security
system out there for our members, our customers.
And also we're going to be digging deeply into business,
surveillance, and fire and things like that.
So we're going to come out 2022 to trying to hit some home runs
here with our security.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, I've heard some little rumors.
I dare say that it's going to be some podcast topics, Micah,
over the months to come.
Micah Lawrence:
Absolutely.
Greg Smartt:
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
And of course, Micah, you know, Micah and Chris's team there,
they're doing the Managed IT.
That's something that had been put in place, I guess what?
2020 was when we started that?
2019?
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, 19.
Micah Lawrence:
Yeah, I think it was about 19.
Greg Smartt:
So we're getting close to 1,000 desktop managed, 17 at managed IT
customers.
That's growing. I would and we are looking to do managed IT in
the
residential platform.
Bryan Kell:
Watch out. Uh-oh, is that some breaking news here?
Greg Smartt:
That's some breaking news. And there's a lot of people that buys
their own stuff off of
Amazon or other places like that.
And once they get it at the house, they think they know how to
put it in.
But when they get it put in there, it doesn't work at 100%.
So we're going to try to have a team put together to try to work
on some of that.
Bryan Kell:
I think I've got something here.
We've had two bits of breaking news.
I think I've got a breaking news sounder right there.
When you hear that, it's some breaking news coming on the BLC
Connection Podcast here.
So we're breaking all kinds of stuff here.
Greg Smartt:
Absolutely.
Bryan Kell:
Busy year. A new Manchester office opened up.
That's one of the first things that you — I mean, just so many
things.
Greg Smartt:
Yeah, that's been a blessing to the Coffee County residents out
in that area with a new with a
new office. So they can walk in, they can experience the things
that we do here at the
McMinnville office, Grundy County, White County, Cumberland
County offices.
We don't have the staff that we would love to have down there,
but that's growing.
It's coming. It's coming along real well.
You can make payments down there.
We only take credit cards or debit cards at this time.
We do not take cash at that office, but you can make your
payments there, or you can get online and make them too.
Bryan Kell:
As far as – this is a sore subject I know with you.
But for, you know, folks just got through hearing you talk about
the one speed, one price.
It's fair to say that we were looking to announce that some
months ago, but something called a global supply chain came along
that kind of pushed some things back.
Greg, I know that you've been dealing with this for months with
our team members and stuff, but is there, what
has been the global supply chain issue with Ben Lomand Connect,
and is there a light at the end of the tunnel there?
Greg Smartt:
There is. There's still a lot of things, uncertain things, out
there.
We just come back from Dallas at a national show and some of the
topics
that were out there was the supply chain.
Most of our products that we use are petroleum products.
And everybody knows that petroleum prices have went out the
roof.
They continue to climb.
There's some uncertain things in the world that's happening
today that will affect that.
And so we're uncertain of how long that this is going to last.
Remote controls [are] petroleum product.
Pedestals [are] petroleum product.
Splice cases [are] petroleum product.
Fiber optics, copper don't matter what you're using is a
petroleum product.
So we're going to see those challenges going on for the next two
or three years.
And so, yeah, we've not got to do the gangbuster like we wanted
to, but we're slowly rolling it out.
That's helped us to learn from things.
And so I think it's been a good thing.
But yeah, I would much rather head it out in a mass party,
blowout.
Bryan Kell:
November or December or whatever that was.
But yeah, I guess by us being able to talk about it now, there
is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Greg Smartt:
There is.
We're getting product in now, and we're talking to suppliers.
We are looking to open up a warehouse with a group out of a
Kansas City to talk about
bringing in products and start warehousing products in some
buildings here.
And that will...
Bryan Kell:
Breaking news right there.
I did not know that.
Greg Smartt:
That will go out to our members.
Our co-op members, surrounding co-op members will be all getting
out of that stockpile.
So that is still in the works.
It's is not in stone yet, but we are talking to people about
bringing in warehouse.
Bryan Kell:
You talked about, by the way we're talking again with with Ben
Lomand Connect's general manager and CEO Greg Smartt.
Two "t"s. And Greg, I know you mentioned just coming back from
from Dallas at NTCA event, one of our,
I guess not companies, but one of the associations that we're a
part of.
And I'm sure that lots of folks are talking about different
types of technologies.
I know before you even went over there, you're pretty excited
about some new technologies.
Multi-gig? Really?
Greg Smartt:
Yeah, we're kicking the can down the road as they say.
We're looking at 10 gig, possibly 100 gig services looking down
the road.
Technology is growing faster than almost you can keep up with
it.
Things like that to Ben Lomand has happened since since time.
And that's just nothing new to us.
It's just like when we rolled out the dial up service, it was
like we went from dial-up to broadband in a matter
of seconds. It just, you know, and we see that happening now.
As far as the tech technology, smart homes are going to take a
new role
in how broadband is used in the residential area.
As far as businesses, a lot of businesses in the pandemic did
not go back as planned.
A lot of people are still working from home, and I see that to
continue.
I just don't see that a lot of these companies will buy new
building and just open it up and have
two or three people working in it.
Most of those will will be staying at home.
Micah Lawrence:
So Greg, you know, you've seen all these new technologies and
things of that nature.
You know, with these new technologies, where do you see Ben
Lomand coming up in, let's say, five years or so?
Where do you see us sitting at?
Greg Smartt:
Well, to get back to the 10 gig services, I see that.
I see that growing. I see us at everybody having fiber optic.
Bryan Kell:
Not just 75%.
Greg Smartt:
Not just 75% [but] 100%.
And I see Ben Lomand growing in leaps and bounds, getting out of
our service area and growing in new
areas. But the technology is going to take us there.
Bryan Kell:
Can you talk — I know that this has been something that you've
been excited to talk about internally.
But, and we kind of teased a little bit in the last episode
about some of the some of the builds that we've got going on in
some of the things that are happening, but can you talk more
about just kind of what's sitting out there?
And then also your plans, I think you've called it like kind of
filling in the holes.
And talk a little bit about, I think it fits into that five year
or two to three, five year kind of plan.
Talk more specifically about fiber builds, I guess.
Greg Smartt:
As long as we can get our shipments in on time in a timely
manner, we are
dedicated to make sure that every co-op member has fiber optics
in the next
24 months.
We're trying to take care of our co-op members.
In the meantime with all that going on, we are also working out
in our C-LEC areas, which
will be Coffee County, Franklin County, Cumberland County.
Those places are not fortunate as us in having fiber optic or
having any kind of communications companies like Ben
Lomand. So that has been that has been one of our goals is to
reach out
to those customers and build those communications in those areas
for those people.
They're really — they need it.
When you get the phone calls of, "Hey, I've got to have fiber
optic, or I've got to have some kind of some kind of
communications. I'm having to take my kids down the road 25
miles to get their homework." And it's just like, it's
unbelievable to know that there's areas out there in the United
States that doesn't have an adequate
broadband service.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, absolutely.
Greg Smartt:
It's crazy.
Micah Lawrence:
So, Greg, we've got a big event coming up.
Saturday, March the 19th, we've got our big annual meeting
coming up.
What can our customers expect out of this?
Greg Smartt:
Well, we're going to stick to the same process that we did last
year.
We're going to have a drive-through voting.
We'll have a tent outside to have our annual meeting.
The customers that want to stay for the meeting can park in the
parking lot, don't even have to get out of the car.
They can listen to the meeting.
We're going to have that on an FM station.
We're going to have our biz box set up.
We've received that now, and it's all lettered up and looks
great.
Bryan Kell:
Breaking news right there.
Biz Box is here.
Greg Smartt:
Yeah. And so we're going to display our biz box.
So come out and look at it.
We're going to do podcast.
You can, you can actually...
Bryan Kell:
Breaking news right there.
Greg Smartt:
You can actually look at us doing a podcast and see what we do
behind the scenes.
Bryan Kell:
Just look at Karen, you know, not not us, but yeah.
Greg Smartt:
Yeah, it's one thing to put me on camera, but it's another thing
getting me behind a microphone.
Somebody said the other day said, "Do you ever run out of things
to talk about?" And I said, "Well, when it comes to Ben Lomand,
no." After 38 years, you know what to talk about because you
grew
up in it. You lived it.
You helped it along.
And so I can talk for hours and hours and hours about technology
and the company in and of itself.
Bryan Kell:
God bless Tina, or God bless her.
Greg Smartt:
She said, "Does he ever showed up?"
Bryan Kell:
So, so circle the calendars.
March 19th. I think 9:00 a.m.
is when folks can start coming out there if they want to.
And 11:00, I guess is when the business meeting will start.
Greg Smartt:
That's correct. Yeah, please come out.
And if you don't want to vote, just come on out and hang out
with us.
If you're feel like that, you're ready to get out of the house,
come on.
We've got some special prizes that we want to give away, and we
got some prizes that we'll give away if you come through and
vote. So just come on out, hang out with us.
Bryan Kell:
Warren County High School parking lot.
Again 9:00 a.m. if you want to.
11 a.m. [is the] business meeting.
It'll be, like you said outdoors, PA system, FM frequency.
We'll also have more information on that that day and all that
good stuff.
Greg Smartt:
God willing, we'll get back to normalcy hopefully next year.
We wanted to go there this year, but it's just a little bit too
soon now.
And hopefully, hopefully this time next year, we'll be looking
back in the rearview mirror going, what's next?
Bryan Kell:
68 years, and 68th annual meeting for for Ben Lomand Connect.
And you've been a part of 38 of those 68.
Greg Smartt:
38. I've never missed an annual meeting.
Bryan Kell:
One thing doesn't change, and that's the fact that it gives all
of us a chance to be able to shake a hand, hug and neck, and be
able to tell folks how thankful we are to be able to serve them,
whether it's indoors or outdoors.
Greg, it's a special time.
Greg Smartt:
Absolutely. We don't get to spend a lot of time with our board
members, especially the ones that are working behind the scenes,
day in and day out.
I guess I spend more time with them than anybody, and this just
gives us all a chance to be with our board members, talk to our
board members and just hang out.
Good group of guys.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, absolutely. Ok, Greg Smartt, the seventh general manager
and CEO of Ben Lomand Connect.
Thanks for not only letting us do this podcast, but coming on
the podcast.
Greg Smartt:
Oh, absolutely. It's a joy.
Karen Wilson:
This is the BLC Connection Podcast, and it's time for our
Connected Home segment.
I'm Karen Wilson, and Micah and Bryan are back to educate us on
something called GigaSpire, which, from my research sounds
something like most of us need if we like to utilize Wi-Fi in
our home.
So, Micah, let's start with you.
Please give us kind of a just a good description of what the
GigaSpire product is.
Micah Lawrence:
Sure. So it is our solution for — it's got an all in one, you
know, modem, router Wi-Fi, all
built into to one box.
It's a good solution for our customers that are looking for
something that they can put in their home that just it serves all
the needs that they need to have.
Karen Wilson:
Ok, so why would I purchase the GigaSpire from Ben Lomand versus
going to a big box
store and getting my own router-modem combo?
Micah Lawrence:
Absolutely. So when it comes to Wi-Fi, you're you're generally
looking for three different things.
First thing you will want to look at is the range of the Wi-Fi.
You know how far inside my house is it going to reach?
Then the next thing you need to look at is the capacity.
Now this is one big thing that a lot of businesses, and I've
seen churches, overlook this, is capacity.
This idea of how many devices can this router actually talk to?
And as we talked about in the last episode of, you know, people
not realizing how many devices they've actually got connected in
their home. This is a very important deal because this router
has to keep up with it.
And then, of course, last is the speed.
You know, how fast can it provide internet, whether it's wired
or wireless to my device.
So when we talk about why would you want a GigaSpire at my home,
well, we've taken into consideration all
three of these ideas, and we want to be able to put it in your
home to be able to give you the fastest speed possible because
you're paying for a gig/gig.
We want to provide you with a gig/gig.
We know you've got multiple devices in your home.
Of course, Karen says she's got a stove that's got Wi-Fi now,
and I know I've got a refrigerator.
So it's, you know, all these devices will be connected.
So we want to make sure it capacity wise that it's good.
And then of course, we also want to make sure that we can get as
much range as possible out of this.
You know, we look at, you know, on a good, clean day, you know,
these can go up to like 1,500 square feet.
You know, we've got to take into consideration, you know, what's
the walls made out of?
Is there, you know, duct work in the way?
Is it a log cabin, right Bryan.
Bryan Kell:
Been there.
Micah Lawrence:
And so, you know, we've got to take into consideration some of
the stuff.
But what's great about the GigaSpire is we do have other options
when the homes are bigger or we, you know, we got certain
material in the way.
We can overcome some of that.
Bryan Kell:
I'll also as a marketing guy, I will say this as well, too.
You can't beat the price.
$3 a month, no contracts involved whatsoever.
And if you're already paying the wireless fee, if you're a Ben
Lomand customer and you're already paying the $3 wireless fee,
there's no change in your price whatsoever.
You're already paying for it, so you immediately go from
wireless fee to Ben Lomand home fee.
No change in price.
Karen Wilson:
Ok, that is something that I wondered.
Do you purchase this from us, or is it kind of something that's
a monthly charge, but that's a very reasonable
price to get all of that taken care of,.
Not to mention the tech support that goes with that.
Bryan Kell:
I was going to say that's only 1/3 of the, you know this great
router is basically 1/3 of Ben Lomand Home.
We've already talked about the customer service side last
episode with Donette Freeman from network support.
And we're going to talk, you know, talk more about other things
that come with Ben Lomand Home.
So yeah, if you want to break it up into thirds as far as what
Ben Lomand Home is, you're paying a buck a month for a great,
great router.
Karen Wilson:
Well, and two, if you think about, OK, I've purchased my router
from a box store and I'm having some issues with it
losing its connection.
I don't know who to call.
But yet when you've got this, you know, one thing is you're
probably not going to have any issues with it because of
the quality of the router.
But then too, I can pick up the phone and call Ben Lomand and
get a live body on the phone who's going to
assist me with whatever issue I could be having.
Micah Lawrence:
Well, absolutely. And our guys are going to be the ones that can
come out and install this for you.
So they're going to make sure that it's in the appropriate
location in your house.
You know, that's another thing that people don't realize is
they're like, Oh, well, I'll hook it up in my closet and, you
know, ends up laying in the floor in their closet and realize
that the antennas get covered by stuff.
And, you know, things of that nature.
And you know, you want to make sure that it's it's positioned in
the right place.
Make sure that the antennas, you know, if any of these routers
have antennas, that they're pointing in the right direction,
things of that nature. Nobody's paying attention to that.
So they just hook it up, tt works.
And they're like, "OK, good, let's rock and roll."
Karen Wilson:
Well, I will say, after looking at it, this is quite a sexy
router.
Because you don't have all the antennas sticking up everywhere.
It's very clean.
It's minimalistic.
It almost looks like a speaker or something of that nature.
So if you want a sexy router, this would be the one to get.
Bryan Kell:
This podcast just went to PG-13, with the word sexy.
All Hosts:
(All laughs)
Karen Wilson:
Whoopsie. So let's go into setting it up, because that part can
be quite intimidating.
What is the setup process for this?
Bryan Kell:
Ok, so I will say this.
I did set mine up myself, and if I can set up a router at my
home, anybody can.
Micah has been around me enough to probably say amen to that.
Micah Lawrence:
No comment.
Bryan Kell:
Ok. But how this experience works is that if somebody comes in,
and they're wanting to get service
from us and they take Ben Lomand Home, the customer service rep
at either Manchester, McMinnville — see if I can get them all
right — Tracy City, Sparta and Crossville, will encourage you to
go ahead and download the app right then.
And you can set up your account with the app that doesn't have —
when I say set up your your name and your email and your
password, that is not the same email and password that you're
going to use for your account.
So this is strictly for the app itself.
So go ahead and set that up, and then you'll hold on to that
app.
Once your installation date is set and a trained technician
comes out to your home, then they will take
basically your app and pair it with the GigaSpire router.
And so that brings everything in together right there, and you
immediately can start being able to control
your devices and many other things that I'm sure we're going to
talk about.
But that's the process.
In other words, it starts with the actual customer coming in and
downloading the app.
And then the culmination of that when you get your service
installed.
However, quite a lot of folks either don't want to do it while
they're in the office or even when the
technician is there.
But then they maybe hear more and more about what it can do and
all the different functionality and features that come with that.
If you're one of those people and you're listening to this right
now, never fear the NSC is here, I guess is the best way to put
that. And that is call, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and any
of the trained folks down at network support can help walk you
through that and even start the process of helping you tie those
together.
We have some very informative videos and information that are on
the Ben Lomand Home page on the website.
Just go to our website. Type in Ben Lomand Home and click on the
link to the page.
And there's probably 6-8 videos.
You were the one that put them on there.
So I mean, yeah, quite a few that walk you through that process.
So lots of information with that.
But you can do it yourself.
You can let us help you do it, any time.
Karen Wilson:
And you know, for someone who most of our customers have had
internet service with us for years, but this is something that
you can call the office and say, "Hey, I want to convert my
service or convert my router, change it over.
I have a Zyxel," or something like that, but change to the
GigaSpire.
Is that right?
Micah Lawrence:
Yes, absolutely.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah. And I was going to say to Greg mentioned, yes, you can use
it with a copper connection.
It's night and day difference.
If not, I hate to even say apples and oranges, it's a big light
years worth of difference when we're talking about a copper
customer versus a fiber customer.
But like we said, 75% and moving towards 100% on the fiber side
that will give them a much better experience with this.
Karen Wilson:
Micah, you also talked about range, which is something that is so
important to most of us.
We want to go out on the deck in the summertime, or just outside
and walk around and utilize the Wi-Fi.
Let's talk about Wi-Fi 6 and mesh and how that relates to range
and that type thing.
Micah Lawrence:
Sure. So at one point in time, the different Wi-Fi, I guess,
standards that used to be
lettering. It was the A, B, G, N, AC.
So they decided, all right, let's standardize this.
We'll start calling it by a number.
So obviously, we're at Wi-Fi 6.
Wi-fi 6E is coming in the future.
And all that basically means is as technology progresses, so
does the Wi-Fi and its capabilities.
Some of the things that they put into Wi-Fi 6, they're under the
hood things.
Things that make your experience better, but doesn't really
affect you.
But one of the big things that helps a lot of people out is as
Wi-Fi 6 and other ones grow,
they get faster.
You know, having to to support that demand that we want it to.
You know, because at one point in time, you know, to try to get,
you know, line rate speed, you know, as opposed to being wired or
wireless, you just couldn't get the same speeds.
If you wanted super fast speeds, you had to go wired.
There was no option. So now with Wi-Fi 6, we have lots better
options, you know, being able to get you to those faster speeds.
Also, they've got some abilities to kind of expand the range of
how much farther it can go.
And there's the complexity with wireless — I could bore you to
death with it — but there's lots of different options with Wi-Fi.
And that's kind of where we come in and we kind of help, you
know, businesses and residential, you know, get the wireless that
they need. And that's where it comes in when we talk about
range.
Sometimes you know, one router for, you know, a 3,000 square
foot house, that's just not going to get it.
And anybody thinks that they can go to, you know, these big box
places and buy them just one router to cover their whole house.
That's not correct.
It's not going to do it.
So what the new technology is and what the GigaSpire helps us
out with is they call them mesh units.
In our case, we call them GigaMesh extenders.
And what they do is these can be wired or wireless devices that
work in conjunction with the GigaSpire that help extend it
throughout the home. Because, you know, sometimes the only place
that you can put the main router is, you know, let's say, on the
left side of your home, but you need to be able to extend it to
where you can at least get it on the right side of your home.
So you know, that's where these extenders help kind of get the
coverage of your house the best way possible.
Because, you know, could be physical limitations.
Could be in between floors.
You've got concrete or, you know, anything of that nature that
could you know, affect it.
So that's where these meshes come into play.
Bryan Kell:
And I was going to say, as a marketing person, those GigaMesh
extenders are only $3 per extender.
And so, you know, if you need one, $3.
If you need two $6.
No contracts. If something over the years goes bad with one of
those, we replace it.
You know, so just another reason to hopefully for folks to be
able to see that we're trying our best to be able to put our
best foot forward and allow them to have something that gives
you full coverage of your home.
Karen Wilson:
So I will throw this in there.
How do I know as a customer if I'm going to need the mesh
extender?
Is that something that's evaluated ahead of time?
Or is the installation technician going to say "Your home has
got some things that may not
make the GigaSpire reach as far as you're asking for."
Micah Lawrence:
Most of the time our technicians, when they're out there, they'll
be like, you know, "Hey, this is going to be all the way over
here. You know, keep in mind, you might not get great signal
over here." If they say, "Well, hey, this is where I work from
home. I need it to be fantastic over here." We'll be like, "OK,
time out.
Let's put one of these meshes in and help improve that
coverage." So most of the time they'll evaluate, you know,
whether it needs one or not.
And sometimes you know, we'll install it, and you find out a
few, you know, months or days later and you're like, "Hey, you
know, I really would like it to reach a little bit farther back
here." You know, we can always do that after the fact.
Bryan Kell:
It's weird that you bring this up, and I just thought about this.
But this is something that we kind of look at the numbers on a
weekly basis around here.
About if you take — and I know that some people have multiple
extenders at a home — but just so folks realize that more and
more homes are needing that kind of push, maybe into different
places, I think I saw today when I ran some numbers, probably
about 7-8% of folks that have jumped on board with Ben Lomand
Home are getting an extender to go along with that.
So houses are getting bigger, multiple floors, all those kind of
situations and you want to push it.
And so more and more people are pushing that out.
Karen Wilson:
Yeah, more kids on it and family members and bigger houses, so we
can all spread out.
It's just a trend, you know, even though the open concept house
is big, you still got man caves and basements and pools and
things like that, and people are wanting to utilize the Wi-Fi
everywhere.
This would not be me per se, but could I manage the router
myself, or does
its tech support needed as far as that goes?
Bryan Kell:
So, you can do it either way.
You know, and that sounds like a really, you know, trite answer.
But with the Ben Lomand Home situation and with the GigaSpire
router, we put
a lot of power in your hands.
By being able to reset the password to your to your network.
To be able to run a speed test off of the router itself.
You know, so there's a lot of stuff there that you can manage
devices on.
We'll talk about that, I'm sure, on a later podcast.
But if you just want a router and you don't want to have to mess
with a lot of stuff, then guess what?
Part of that Ben Lomand Home package is Network Support Center,
and we talked a little bit about that in the last episode with
Donette Freeman. So they are there to assist and to help you
manage your GigaSpire router and your network and your home
devices. But then again, we also place a lot of power in your
hands through the Ben Lomand Home app to allow you to do things
on your own without having to pick up the phone or jump on web
chat or anything like that with us and just do it.
Karen Wilson:
So well, guys. My brain is full now, and I thank you both for
teaching me and our audience about GigaSpire.
Micah Lawrence:
And we're back to Connect with BLC.
And we will talk more about this time about what's going to be
in the Connection Magazine for March and April, and then
also some things on Channel 6.
Karen, what can we expect?
Karen Wilson:
Well, we've got some great content for March and April in the
Connection Magazine.
We all know the pandemic has changed the landscape of medical
care, and that's been true for counseling.
Creative Insight Counseling in McMinnville is doing online
therapy, which is very popular right now.
So we've got a great article on her business there.
And then if someone's looking for something to do, we have a
great article on the Van Buren County Historical and Heritage
Museum. Great place to take the kids and learn more about the
area up there.
And Channel 6, we've got some Table Talks that we have filmed
and Soul of Warren County, but our big focus right now are
the elections coming up in May.
A lot of preparation is going on for that.
Those will be the primary races, and we're working hard to make
that the best election coverage ever.
Micah Lawrence:
Awesome. Awesome. Looking forward to.
Bryan, what kind of events around our service area can we
expect?
Bryan Kell:
Well, it's still kind of cool outside, and it's still kind of
temperatures dipping down and dipping back up.
But so a lot of indoor stuff happening still right now.
But as we kind of take a look around and just some of the things
that are going on in the month of March, Warren Arts has got one
of their one of their plays that's coming out "Oliver Junior"
from March 4th through the 13th at the Cumberland County
Playhouse in Crossville.
Special place to my heart.
"Peter Pan Jr." there's a theme with juniors going on now,
that's going on now through March 27th, and that's again at the
Cumberland County Playhouse.
The Park Theater in McMinnville has got one of Karen's fave
troupes, and I guess that's what you'd say.
The Dream Reality Group presents "Matilda: The Musical" for
March 11th through the 13th.
Karen Wilson:
Hey, they do a top notch job there.
They work really hard.
Bryan Kell:
Also, the Caverns in Pelham, I have yet to go to that.
Have you all been to a concert yet over there?
Indoor, outdoor?
Karen Wilson:
No, but it looks so cool.
Bryan Kell:
It does. It does so.
My favorite band that have all of these that are there [is]
Jimmy Eat World.
Karen Wilson:
I've heard of them, I think.
Bryan Kell:
Five top 20 albums, 13 Top 40 hits on the US alternative chart.
Karen Wilson:
I was going to say, I mean, I know I've heard of them.
I can't. I'm thinking 90s.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, and Dashboard Confessional is there.
They are there March 11th and 12th.
And then also at the Palace Theater in Crossville, Lee
Greenwood.
27 Top 40 country hits, 7 hitting number one.
And did you know that "God Bless the USA" did not hit number one
on the country charts?
I was surprised at that. It hit number seven and '83 and then
after 9/11, it hit number 16.
Those are just some of the many things that are going on around
in our area, and you can check out each one of those places for
even more concerts and events that are going on.
Micah Lawrence:
Awesome. Thank you, Bryan. So Bryan.
Bryan Kell:
Oh, wait. We're doing this again?
Micah Lawrence:
It's time for Ye Olde Dictionary.
Karen Wilson:
Oh gosh, here we go. I love it.
Micah Lawrence:
So I got two new words for you, Bryan.
Bryan Kell:
Why is it just to me?
Karen Wilson:
I want to play too, so.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, Karen's got to play too.
Micah Lawrence:
Ok, I'll give her the second word.
Bryan Kell:
Ok, so I get the first one.
Micah Lawrence:
Ok, so Bryan, we know you play a little bit of gaming.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, a little bit.
Micah Lawrence:
I hear this word in gaming quite a bit.
They say something is "OP."
Bryan Kell:
That's I don't have a...
OP?
Micah Lawrence:
So what does "OP" mean?
Bryan Kell:
And I'll try to keep this quick.
"OP" means...
I don't know. There was a song back in the 90s that I'm not
going to even.
Karen Wilson:
[sings] "O.P.P. Yeah, you know me."
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, no, I don't know.
What is it?
Micah Lawrence:
It means that it is overpowered, as in it's overpowered.
As in like, let's say it's a gun or a weapon or something like
that, that it's almost breaks the game because it's more powerful
than everything else because everybody is using it.
They call it it's "OP."
Karen Wilson:
Yeah, it's kind of like pulling out the flamethrower.
Bryan Kell:
Yeah, or oh, especially a certain game I used to play.
Oh, with The BFG 3,000.
I think that was...
Micah Lawrence:
Doom.
Bryan Kell:
Doom, that would be a very powerful, an OP weapon.
All Hosts:
That was definitely an OP weapon.
Bryan Kell:
Okay, I learned something new.
Micah Lawrence:
So, Karen, I'm going to give you the second word.
This is going to be good. What does it mean if something is
"goated"?
G-O-A-T-E-D.
Karen Wilson:
That it's like full of cheese flavor?
Micah Lawrence:
No.
Bryan Kell:
Hold on, can I guess?
Micah Lawrence:
Yeah.
Bryan Kell:
It's the greatest of all time.
Micah Lawrence:
It is the greatest of all time.
Karen Wilson:
Oh, so it's an acronym.
Micah Lawrence:
It is. GOAT.
Bryan Kell:
A lot of people say that Tom Brady is the GOAT quarterback.
Yes, all those seven Super Bowls.
So actually, no one?
Micah Lawrence:
That's awesome.
Karen Wilson:
I'm going to have to brush up on this to play this game.
You got me.
Bryan Kell:
But it's hard because he can pull from so many different things.
So yeah. All right.
We went, combined, we went one for two.
Micah Lawrence:
There you go.
Awesome.
Bryan Kell:
Episode 2 of the BLC Connection Podcast is in the books, and so
as we put the finishing touches on this, Micah Lawrence, take us
home with your info.
Micah Lawrence:
So if anybody wants to submit any questions that we need to talk
about here on the podcast, they can message us at the BLC
Facebook page or Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts, or
you can just plan old email us at theBLCpodcast@benlomand.net.
And you can also tell all of your friends and your neighbors and
your family.
Bryan Kell:
Enemies
Micah Lawrence:
about the podcast, and your enemies.
I'm OK with that, too. You can tell them you can find our
podcast Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google and many, many more out
there. Just look for us, and you'll find us.
Bryan Kell:
That's right. Give us a review, too, if you can.
We appreciate that. A good one, hopefully.
Karen, you've already had one mini episode with Caney Fork that
is already out there for folks to enjoy, but another mini episode
is on the way.
Karen Wilson:
It is. We are going to speak with Vicki Benedict is going to be
my guest with Linen and Grace, a great little shop in downtown
McMinnville. We are going to talk to her about pivoting your
business plan when the market changes, so I'm excited to pick her
brain about changes she has made as her market changed.
So that'll be coming up next month in our mini episode.
Bryan Kell:
Also, grab a marketing minute idea or two from those as well, so
be sure to listen to the mini episodes that Karen does a great
job with. Next month, the next episode, we are live, at least
live to tape, from the BLC Annual Meeting, so join us
there. We'll have a potpourri of guests from there that we know
who they are, but we'll keep it under wraps, and we'll talk more
with them and and maybe even with you at the BLC meeting.
And so join us out there, March 19th.
On that Saturday, and hopefully we can catch you out there.
So for Karen, for Micah and for me, Bryan Kell, we say, Stay
connected.
Be safe out there. And we'll catch you next time on the BLC
Connection Podcast.
Thanks for listening!