Terms & Conditions

Terms and Conditions for Students. Covering Equipment Loan and Using Production and Editing Facilities. Supported by AVR - Film.

1. Declaration and agreement – mandatory for equipment loan and using production and editing facilities

When you book equipment through the SISO service you are deemed to have confirmed the following:

· You have discussed and agreed all aspects of your project with your staff supervisor / moderator, and have drawn particular attention to any situation in which people or equipment, including a facility, may be put at risk.

· You have told all your project’s participants of the above matters, and have taken all reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of those taking part.

· You have all necessary clearances for your project, ensured the Risk Assessment details all locations and that you have discussed any likely problems with your staff supervisor / moderator.

· You have uploaded a ‘Location Scouting Tech checklist’ (Recce Report) – where applicable – to SiSo

· During your project you will work in a professional and responsible manner, following established procedures and following the instructions given during demonstrations and training.

All equipment lent to you and use of production and editing facilities and/or equipment used by you is subject to these Terms and Conditions, with which you agree to comply by booking through the SISO service. In particular, you understand and agree that:

o sanctions – as set out later in this document - may apply for late return, loss of or damage to equipment or facilities, including equipment in facilities;

o you are not to transfer the equipment or use of a facility to anybody else; and

o you are not to use the equipment or a facility for personal, commercial or other purposes not connected to a university of Roehampton module or approved project.

Facilities subject to these Terms and Conditions are School of Arts Studios, including audio studios, edit suites, Print and Scan room, Darkroom, Processor room, and Mac Labs . Sections 3 and 4 of these Terms and Conditions do not apply to use of facilities.

Your agreement is between you and the University of Roehampton (UoR, we, us). It will continue until the equipment is returned or, as the case may be, the facility keys are returned as required, and all your liabilities (if any) are settled. The School of Arts is an operational unit of UoR.

You should consider taking out insurance to cover loss of or damage to any facilities you use and/or equipment you borrow.

The Film and Photography team and Technical Manager are available to help with any questions you may have around the practical aspects of equipment loan and facility use. You can ask them in person, by email or phone them. The email address is fdms@roehampton.ac.uk; and the phone number is 020 8392 3594. Individual email addresses are on SISO and can be found on the universities website.

You must undertake a Risk Assessment for your projects, to comply with legal requirements for health and safety. Please follow the instructions through the booking process, including reviewing any relevant Help Sheets, in relation to this. If you need further help with this, please contact the FDMs Technical Manager, whose contact details are in section 1 above.

There must be a named staff supervisor / moderator for all location projects or projects using UoR production studios or dedicated facilities. The staff supervisor / moderator will assume overall responsibility for the project, and will not approve the loan, the call sheet or the Risk Assessment until satisfied that a suitably controlled and safe system of work has been devised and agreed.

Often the "risk" will be minimal, but you must discuss all aspects of your project with the staff supervisor / moderator. This may include matters such as misuse of equipment, lone working, electrical safety, terrain, and special clothing, and any risk to the general public or arising in public areas.

Please note that use of explosives, fireworks, any other pyrotechnics including smoke machines, firearms, replica firearms, anything that may constitute a weapon, motor vehicles, boats and other watercraft, diving equipment, and any form of aircraft (including drones) must be treated as special cases. Sometimes this is because failure to comply with applicable law may lead to the arrest and prosecution of the persons concerned. In other cases it is simply because of the heightened risk, which needs particular discussion with the staff supervisor / moderator. You must get permission from the staff supervisor / moderator and the Technical Manager for any of these activities, and comply with any conditions attached to permission.

In addition and until further notice all risk assessments must take into account all risks and precautions related to Coronavirus (Covid-19). These must be in line with Government and University guidelines at the time the session will take place. UK Government guidelines can be found here The University guidelines can be found on the student portal.

For further advice, please contact the universities head of Health & Safety who will be pleased to help.

Always make sure you have discussed your location details and Risk Assessment with your staff supervisor / moderator and agree that you are both satisfied that everything has been done to ensure your safety and the safety of others.

When recording on private property you must get the landowner’s written permission and find out from them any safety hazards. You must not sign an indemnity form for the use of the property without your Programme Tutor or the Technical Manager consulting UoR''s Insurance Officer.

If you are recording in public spaces and, in particular, if the Risk Assessment raises concerns about public safety, you will need to check the local authority and police requirements. You must take care, and ensure that others working on your project take care, not to obstruct the highway, not to disturb farm animals or wildlife or to cause a nuisance or danger to any member of the public. Permission will usually be required if you are going to obstruct a highway, film any scenes that might involve disturbance or violence or be described as an ‘event’, or film in a very busy or sensitive location. The relevant local authority can provide further guidance, normally through their events or communications teams.

Your Programme Tutor and the Technical Manager(or a deputy) must jointly approve all location recording outside Great Britain before you travel overseas. Please note that Great Britain does not include the Isle of Man, the Channel Islands or Northern Ireland.

Students wishing to travel overseas on UoR business are required to register on the All Risks travel insurance available from UoR. You must also provide details of the insurance you have taken out for the equipment: you must not take the equipment outside Great Britain without insurance. Further details are available from the FDMs Technical Manager, whose contact details are in section 1 above.

If you intend travelling outside the United Kingdom (Great Britain and Northern Ireland) with equipment, you will be required to produce a Carnet. The Carnet request forms part of our booking arrangements. A Carnet is a document providing equipment details including make, model, serial number, and the approximate value of each item of equipment you will be carrying. You may be required to provide this to HMRC officers on demand.

You are responsible for any import or export duties that may apply when you take the equipment overseas or return to the United Kingdom.

For overseas travel you will normally be issued with our travel equipment, which may, but will not necessarily, incorporate some protection against transit damage.

Unless approved generally in advance by the Technical Manager(or a deputy), for example in relation to equipment in specific flight-suitable cases, or directed by the travel operator, you must take any equipment overseas in the cabin, not as checked baggage, since the equipment is more liable to damage in the hold. The same rule applies to any domestic flight.

A lot of media work requires good organisation, teamwork and keeping to deadlines. During term time our resources are in constant use. Scheduling of equipment and facilities is critical, and the success of the loan system relies on you returning equipment and facilities on time.

Failure to return borrowed equipment or vacate facilities properly when you should may mean other students or staff will not be able to complete their tasks. Please consider the impact of your lateness or untidiness on others. There may also be consequences for you, as explained below.

Equipment booked for collection will only be will only be held for 1 hour. If you know you will be late to pick up equipment, let us know and we can change the pick up time. (However, during the Covid-19 Pandemic you will have to come to collect kit at the time you have been advised. If you can not make that time or may be late. Let us know and we will give you an alternative time. We cannot have people turning up at the kit room without prior arrangement as we need to enforce social distancing)

If, for any reason, you cannot return equipment by the due date, please contact the Film team as soon as possible and let us know. (Contact details are on SISO and in section 1 above.) We may be able to extend your booking, or make alternative arrangements for equipment to be made available to the next user, but it is important that you do make contact so the kit and yourself are not treated as missing.

This is currently on hold but may be introduced in the near future. We will give one terms notice if late return fees are being introduced.

We buy equipment to try to meet academic need. We may need to buy more equipment to deal with unavailability due to late return. To deal with this in a generalised way, subject to consideration of any mitigating circumstances, we will charge you for returning equipment late. (From January 2020) An overdue reminder will be sent by email to your UoR email account, 1 hour after the due return time, followed by a reminder each day for the next 10 days.

If you have not returned the equipment within 10 working days after the date the first overdue reminder email was sent, the matter will be referred to UoR’s Finance department. Ultimately, our Finance department may seek to recover the full cost of replacement equipment from you. Normally this will be from when we order replacement equipment. Where we don’t order new equipment, you will still be liable to us for the market value of the asset (as we may reasonably assess) of which your non-return has deprived us. We reserve our right to treat non-return as theft and refer the matter to the police, as well as taking civil action against you.

Late return fees are either set out below or notified to you when you borrow the equipment. Late return fees run at a daily rate. They start on the date of the first overdue reminder email and end on the return day, including that day. Except for keys, the fee for a particular piece of equipment will be capped at the cost of replacing the equipment, as nearly as may be reasonably practicable, bearing in mind the intended function, with changes in specification.

Following return the Film kit room will issue an invoice for the late return fee. A note of the fee owing will be placed on your user account.

If you do not pay the invoice issued by the Film kit store within 15 working days, you will normally then receive a central UoR invoice recorded against you on UoR’s central finance systems as outstanding. The Technical Manager (or delegated officer) may agree with you to defer issuing this central UoR invoice. If you think you have good reason to justify a deferral please contact the Technical Manager as soon as possible after you receive the Film kit store invoice (contact details are in section 1 above). The deferral decision is at the discretion of the Technical Manager (or delegated officer), who will act reasonably in considering your request. If you are not happy with the deferral decision, you can complain under the Student Complaints Policy and Procedure (see section 8 below).

Fees will cease to run from the time you return the equipment, but return of the equipment will not release you from any fees then due. To minimise your potential liability, you should return equipment even if you may have difficulty paying the fee at the point of equipment return.

You will need to visit the UoR online shop to pay the Film kit room invoice, since payment is not dealt with at the Film kit room for security reasons. Once you have paid that invoice, you will need to return to the kit room with your receipt, so that the note of fee owing can be cleared from your user account.

After issue of the central UoR invoice or other referral to UoR’s Finance department, whether for non-return or non-payment, you will need to deal with the Finance department directly. If you are likely to have any difficulty paying the invoice in a lump sum, you should contact the Finance department as soon as possible to see if payment by instalment will be possible. The decision made about paying, or repayment plans for, any debts is at the discretion of the Director of Finance or a delegated officer. You may complain under the Students Complaint Policy and Procedure if you disagree with any such decision (see section 8 below). If you do not keep up payments under a repayment plan the debt will immediately become payable in full.

If you do not agree with the debt, you should contact the Finance Department as soon as possible, providing full details of why you do not agree. If the dispute is not resolved, you can complain under the Student Complaints Policy and Procedure (see section 8 below).

If our Finance department refers recovery of the fee to UoR’s external solicitors and/or debt collection agents, you may also be liable for extra costs incurred because of any enforcement action taken. These costs could include interest, debt collection agency fees, search fees and legal costs.

Subject to consideration of mitigating circumstances, you will not be able to borrow any further equipment while:

· any fee of more than £50.00 remains unpaid for more than 5 working days; or

5. Equipment loss or damage and failure to leave facilities in orderly condition

You are responsible for the equipment you borrow, the facilities you use and the equipment in those facilities. You must do all that you reasonably can to ensure the safe return, undamaged of loan equipment and that facilities and their equipment are handed back undamaged and in a state fit for the next user.

Equipment in the Film kit store is checked for condition and usability before issue. So, it is highly unusual for there to be any problem with equipment issued to you. Our working assumption is that equipment issued to you is in good condition and fully functional.

You must check the equipment as soon as you practically can after we issue it to you (this includes visually inspecting it when issued). We appreciate that to test certain features you may need to set the equipment up away from the loan desk. There is a kit set up and check area on the left of the kit room and we advise you to use it before taking equipment out of the building.

You must let the Technical Manager know as soon as you notice a problem with the equipment. Contact details are on the roehampton.siso.co website and also in section 1 above. You should be prepared to return the equipment immediately to the Kit Store for repair or replacement.

Always be careful when using UoR equipment. Never leave equipment unattended when in use and always store equipment away safely and securely at other times.

You must take reasonable care to avoid damaging equipment, particularly with food and drink, and for loan equipment extreme weather conditions and difficult environments, for example beaches where both salt and sand risk damaging equipment.

You must not loan, sub-let or otherwise transfer possession of loan equipment or a facility to any other person, even if that person has booked the equipment or facility. Passing equipment or facility keys directly to another student is not a proper handover of responsibility and you will remain fully responsible for proper and timely return of the equipment or keys. Even if equipment or the facility is returned on time in these circumstances, we may take action under the Student Disciplinary Procedure if you have breached this rule. This is because your action will, potentially, have put UoR’s equipment at risk.

Please let the Technical Manager know as soon as possible if you lose (which includes the item being stolen from you) or damage equipment on loan to you or that you use in a facility. You must provide a written report, providing full details of the incident.

You must report any theft of equipment to the police in the area where the theft is thought to have occurred. You should normally report online or use the non-emergency 101 number. If you are given a police report, please provide it as part of your written report to the Technical Manager.

Following equipment return, the Technical team will check it for serviceability and maintenance prior to re-issue. Return does not imply our acceptance that there has been no damage to the equipment issued to you.

You may have to pay for a replacement if you lose an item of equipment (which includes the item being stolen from you). If equipment is no longer available, replacement equipment will be that with a specification as near as may be reasonably practicable, bearing in mind the intended function. You should consider taking out insurance up to the prevailing value of our insurance excess for lost or damaged items, since some of the equipment has considerable value, which you may find difficult to pay. Our current insurance excess is £5,000.

We will consider all the relevant circumstances before deciding whether you need to pay for a replacement item. We may decide that you only need to pay for part of the cost, or none at all in certain exceptional circumstances. Lack of insurance will not, however, be a relevant factor.

The same basic position applies to damaged items. Up to our prevailing insurance excess of £5,000, you may have to pay for repair, or replacement if repair is not practicable, which will include circumstances where:

· we reasonably consider repair is unlikely to be satisfactory to future users, including any increased likelihood of future failure of equipment; and

· parts availability would lead to the equipment being out of service for what we reasonably consider to be an excessive time.

We will consider all the relevant circumstances before deciding whether you need to pay for a repair or replacement item. We may decide that you only need to pay part of the cost, or none at all in certain exceptional circumstances. Lack of insurance will not, however, be a relevant factor.

If the Film team can undertake repair work, we will charge you £25.00 per hour for labour and parts at cost to UoR.

Third-party repair will be charged to you at cost to UoR (including diagnostic costs), plus a £50.00 administration charge. The administration charge is for the initial assessment; identification of third-party repairer; administration in getting item to and from the third party; and paying the third-party invoice. In certain exceptional cases, it may be that a third-party repairer to whom we have sent an item of equipment determines it is not repairable. In those cases, you are still potentially liable for the cost of replacement, up to the cap. If we determine this is to be charged to you, in whole or part, we will not seek to recharge the third-party diagnostic costs or the administration charge.

Again, to avoid putting yourself in a difficult financial position, you should consider taking out appropriate insurance.

As noted in section 4 above, if you don’t vacate facilities properly when you should other students or staff may not be able to complete their tasks. So, please consider the impact of your actions lateness or untidiness on others.

We reserve the right to charge you for the time spent in putting the facility back into the state in which you should have left it according to its standard operating procedures. We will act reasonably in exercising our discretion, accepting that there are occasional failures due to distraction or simple oversight for which we should not take action.

You will, if applicable, be charged the time spent by Film staff in restoring the Facility to its proper state at £25.00 per hour. Alternatively, you may be subject to disciplinary action as explained in section 6 below.

Where you are to be charged for loss or damage or time spent in restoring a facility to the condition it was provided for use

The Technical Manager will email you the sum to be charged. A central UoR invoice from UoR’s Finance department to the last address we have on file for you will follow.

If you are likely to have any difficulty paying the invoice in a lump sum, you should contact the Finance department as soon as possible to see if you will be able to pay by instalment. The decision made about paying, or repayment plans for, any debts is at the discretion of the Director of Finance and /or a delegated officer. You may complain under the Students Complaint Policy and Procedure if you disagree with any such decision (see section 8 below). If you do not keep up payments under a repayment plan the debt will immediately become payable in full.

Otherwise, if you do not pay the invoice sum by the stated date, we may refer the debt for collection. This may result in court action being taken against you to recover the debt. If our Finance department refers recovery to UoR’s external solicitors and/or debt collection agents, you may also be liable for extra costs incurred because of any enforcement action taken. These costs could include interest, debt collection agency fees, search fees and legal costs. If the matter goes to court and judgment is against you, the County Court Judgment recorded against you may harm your credit rating.

In exceptional cases, if you have a track record of damaging, losing or failing to return items we may decline to loan equipment to you. We will consider your needs against the needs of other students, in particular the likelihood that a loan to you may result in equipment becoming unavailable to others. Normally, however, the Student Disciplinary Procedure will deal with repeated abuse of the loan facility - for more information, see the Student Disciplinary Procedure – https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/globalassets/documents/corporate-information/policies/student-disciplinary-regulations-july-2018.pdf

For facilities, any single significant abuse or repeated minor abuse may to lead to restriction on your ability to book the facility. As with equipment loan, we will consider your needs balanced against those of other students, in particular the effect your behaviour may have on their ability to use the facility for their education. Normally, however, we will deal with such cases under the Student Disciplinary Procedure - for more information see the link above.

We will normally warn you in advance if we are considering withdrawal of loan privileges or restriction of ability to book a facility.

7. Using your personal data and communicating with you about your loan, including any fees

Data that you input into the SISO system may be shared with SISO (TechEthika Limited, company number 5994955) to enable provision of this service. We may also share your personal data with any third party to whom we refer debt collection.

It is important you keep your address details up-to-date, via the student portal, so that you receive communications about your loan, including any fees or other charges.

· Electronic communications will normally be sent to your UoR email address. However, we, and any party to whom we refer debt collection, may send electronic communications to any private email address you have supplied to us. We expect you regularly to check your UoR email address for messages.

· When communicating with you about charges, we will normally post letters to your term-time address during standard term times and to your home address at other times. However, we, and any party to whom we refer debt collection, may send letters to either or both addresses where believed appropriate.

For more information on use of your personal data please see the UoR information on data protection, available here

If you have a complaint about the equipment loan, including any charge for late return, loss or damage, please follow the procedure in our Student Complaints Policy and Procedure https://www.roehampton.ac.uk/current-students/complaints/

Most complaints can be resolved by an informal discussion with an appropriate member of staff. You should start by raising the matter with the Technical Manager. You need to provide evidence, which should be as detailed as possible, to enable investigation. If your complaint is not resolved informally, you should complain within one month by email to the Head or Deputy head of The School of Arts. We will not normally consider a complaint you make later than this. We will not apply sanctions or take action to recover a debt while we deal with your complaint.

While the Coronavirus Pandemic is still part of society, we expect you to follow both UK government and UoR guidelines. Extra precautions must be followed when you are using our equipment/facilities or attending a training session. Please check the posters we have in our specialist areas, these will inform you of what we need you to do to use the facilities or to borrow kit.

As a staff member, you are responsible for requesting and booking your own equipment loan using SISO.

Unless expressly agreed in writing in advance with the Technical Manager, for example, where you will unavoidably be without access to UoR IT for a relevant period:

· Staff will not issue equipment where it appears you have not made your own booking.

When you (or exceptionally, your authorised delegate) book equipment through the SISO service, UoR treats you as confirming the following:

· You have considered any situation in which, linked to this booking, people or equipment may be put at risk.

· You have taken all appropriate measures, consistent with UoR’s health and safety policies and procedures, appropriately to manage any such risk, including taking all reasonable precautions to ensure the safety of those taking part.

· You have all necessary clearances for the use to which you are going to put the equipment.

· When using the equipment you will work in a professional and responsible manner consistent with the safe, efficient and effective performance of your duties and responsibilities wherever they are carried out.

· You will also follow established procedures and the equipment instructions. (You will contact the Technical Manager for further advice on how to use the equipment if unsure.)

All equipment UoR lends you is subject to these Rules, with which you agree to comply by booking through the SISO service (or, exceptionally, having your authorised delegate do so). In particular, you understand and agree that:

o sanctions, including disciplinary procedures, may apply for late return, loss of or damage to equipment;

o you are not to use the equipment for personal, commercial or other purposes not connected to your employment with UoR.

The Technical Manager is happy to help with any questions you may have around the practical aspects of equipment loan. You can ask in person, by email or phone them. The email address is FDMS@roehampton.ac.uk and the phone number is 020 8392 3594.

All the above terms and conditions relating to student equipment hire also apply to staff.

smarthub terms and conditions of use
As a user of this system registered or otherwise you agree that if for any reason you are unable to use smarthub for the intended purpose then you will contact your store via telephone, email or in person to resolve the problem. SiSo Software Limited are not responsible or liable in any way for any errors, damages or any other loss caused by your usage of this system. For the avoidance of doubt this includes any loss howsoever suffered including negligence or fraud except where such negligence causes death or personal injury.