Cable TV & Internet Service
Introduction
Cable TV service is provided by Sentrics (a nationally-known provider of various services to senior facilities) and distributed throughout our campus
on channels 2-88. The cost of this service is included in your monthly bill. Cable TV service is generally adequate although during periods of snow or
heavy rain it is prone to temporary disruption. This is due to the signal, which is sensitive to line-of-sight issues, being distributed to the roof of the Grand
Lodge by satellite. There's not much that can be done until the weather conditions improve. Fortunately, this problem doesn't happen very often.
The available channels are as follows:
Channel 2 = Touchmark daily schedule, recent photos, flyers, etc
Channel 3 = Touchmark 90-minute program schedule
Channel 4 = Touchmark unused
Channels 5-88 = Sentrics-supplied TV channels
Channel 89 = Touchmark unused
Channel 90 = Touchmark unused
"Local TV" in Prescott is considered to be from the Phoenix metro area. All of that city's major broadcast channels are available here at Touchmark although their channel numbers here are different from their "local" designations.
Viewing TV
Channel 3 lists only what is coming up in the next 90 minutes. That menu is not responsive and gives you no information as to the actual content of
the programming. In addition, there are certain inaccuracies in the channel designations which are usually confined to the higher channel numbers. The
Webkeeper has interacted with some of the services involved with the program listings but has not been able to resolve all of those issues.
Subject to the inaccuracies mentioned above, a channel lineup as shown on Channel 3 is available here.
In order to obtain a more suitable program listing which provides a description of the content you should consider obtaining your information from an
online schedule provider. Only one provider is currently available for this purpose -- GraceNote (formerly known as Zap2It). It provides a free service
which will give you the necessary program guide.
How to Set Up a Schedule at GraceNote (Zap2It)
Go to
https://tvlistings.gracenote.com/grid-affiliates.html
Click "Change Provider"
At ZIP -- enter 86301
Under the "Cable" tab -- select "Senior TV Touchmark at the Ranch - Digital (86301)"
At this point you should obtain a free User Account at GraceNote and then set up your Personal Program Guide. That's the only way for you to edit the listings to show just the channels that you will actually watch. Otherwise you will have to scroll through a long list of available but unwanted channel listings.
How to Set Up a User Account at GraceNote
Using the screenshot shown at Guide Setup look for and click the outline of a person (right-hand arrow). At the bottom of the screen which appears, click "Don't have an account? Sign up" and fill out the necessary information.
How to Set Up a GraceNote Personal Program Guide
Using the screenshot shown at Guide Setup look for the indicated empty outline of a star in the first column (top left-hand arrow). If you want this channel to appear on your favorites listing click it and the star will fill in with a solid color (bottom left-hand arrow). After selecting all of your Favorites, click on the "All channels" tab, select "Starred" and only your favorite channels will display. Congratulations -- you have just created your own Personal Program Guide!
Internet Service
The Grand Lodge and The Finn are both served by free Wi-Fi but the throttled speed will probably not be suitable for streaming services or high
usage. You will need to sign in to the Touchmark Wi-Fi service just once - the password is available at the Front Desk.
Full internet service is provided by Touchmark at the cost of $60.00 a month. There is no data cap, service interruptions are rare and the speed is quite
good (usually 300-400 Mbps down and 40 Mbps up). This speed is more than sufficient to allow for the use of streaming services. If you wish to obtain
any of those streaming services the costs will also be your responsibility.