(AND FEATURES ON THIS WEEK’S DIY SOS: THE BIG BUILD)
Huddersfield-based engineer, Andy Pullen, founder and owner of waterproof TV manufacturer, TechVision has come up with a brand new product that will feature on the first episode of the new series of DIY SOS: The Big Build on BBC 1 on Thursday.
Andy said, “The soundbathe is a nifty little gadget that turns your bath into a giant speaker and plays music from any Bluetooth-enabled device.
“We met a researcher from the BBC at a trade show in London last year and she was really excited and thought that it would be a great sensory product for disabled kids as you can feel the vibrations in the water as well as hear the music. She already had it in mind for this particular family – two dads who have adopted 4 children, 3 with disabilities and complex medical needs and when they started planning the filming they got back in touch.”
The show, which will be broadcast on Thursday at 8.55pm, features one of the biggest and most ambitious projects that the Big Build team have ever done. The family of seven were crammed into a 3-bedroom bungalow with one child sleeping in the living room and one in a boot room and medical supplies crammed in everywhere, and so the team decided to knock everything down and build a brand new, bespoke 5-bedroom home in just 9 days. And central to this new design were unique bathrooms that suited the needs of this unique family:
“One of the key parts of the design was a hi-tech adjustable height bath with hoists and our soundbathe was the icing on the cake to make bath time a more calming, fun and sensory experience for all the family”, said Andy.
“We went down to Kent and fitted it ourselves and we couldn’t have got a better response! Once it’s fitted you can’t see it and don’t know that it’s there, so we wanted to show it to the DIY SOS team before we left. Chris Frediani, the plasterer on the show came to have a look and we just got his phone, connected it and played some of his music. The whole bathroom was a disco! He got really excited and shouted for the cameraman to come and get it on film. And he and the sound guy have since bought them for themselves.
“We’ve also had a lovely letter from the family saying how it has revolutionised their bath times. Their teenager loves baths and music and is now in the bath for hours singing his heart out, and their younger son loves feeling the vibrations. And it’s the same in our house too – we’ve got 2 teenage boys who we struggled to get in the bath once a week, but now we can’t get them out of there! We’ve all got our own bathtime playlists and the boys spend hours creating theirs.”
The soundbathe can be fitted to any bath and Andy is now looking into using them in birthing pools, spas and swimming pools, and even on garden decking. He and his distributors are currently talking to holiday parks about fitting them to hot tubs and even caravans.
Until the end of the month, the soundbathe is available from TechVision with a £100 discount (25%) for £299 (normal RRP is £399) via the website www.soundbathe.co.uk (using discount code: DIYSOS0617).
Please get in touch if you’re interested in becoming a trade stockist, www.techvision.co.uk/contact-2/.