How to become an Audio Visual Installer

I grew up with a love an passion for computers and audio visual equipment. I used to install car stereo systems for friends more or less as a hobby. My brother and I both had an understanding of how to connect different pieces of equipment together. Now i know most of you are thinking to yourselves well i know how to connect a VCR or DVD player to my television. You are absolutely correct, it really is not that difficult. Well growing up my brother and myself use to say " how great would it be when we grow up having a company that went around and connected up VCR, DVD, CD players to peoples televisions and stereos" . Well life went on and my brother went into the military and i went on to work multiple jobs. When my brother came home from the military he was looking for work and past by this audio video retail store that said they were looking for a general laborer. He stopped in and filled out and application. He got hired as a general labor which entailed going out to peoples homes and pulling wire and connecting up surround sound systems, through home audio etc... After he found out what exactly the company did he came to me and said you know how we always wanted to connect peoples equipment up and i said yes. He said to me well this is now what i am doing but at much higher level than i ever could have imagined. This of course sparked my interest so i went looking for other companies that did this same thing. Well i ended up finding myself a job with another local audio visual retailer.

I started out as a basic laborer just like my brother. I was learning the ropes. It was above and beyond anything that i have ever imagined. I was working in both brand new homes and current homes. I was learning what all of the different types of cable were, how to pull wire in a newly constructed house just like an electrician. We would pre-wire for speakers and volume controls through out the entire house along with phone, cable, ethernet, and infrared controls. This was all a dream come true.

I had worked my way through learning all of these new things. I understood things that i never thought were possible. I had found my passion. As i grew with in my job, i started to find out that there were alot of different companies doing the same thing across the world. I attended trade shows that i got to see the latest and greatest in new home gadgets and toys, take classes that educated me on how to do even more than i did. I came to realize that this industry was still young and in its early days. It was only going to continue to grow from here. The industry was getting bigger, the technology was getting better and more advanced.  We started to see the audio visual industry merge with the IT industry. We were seeing remote controls that needed to be programmed with computers. You must realize that at this time the people that had been doing this were not as savy with computers as us younger guys. I found myself learning programming so i could program these remote controls and things blossomed from there.

Now came a period when Home theaters were huge. Everyone wanted a Home Theater, but the average Joe did not want to learn how to use all of this high tech. equipment. He wanted to come home and push a couple of buttons and walla. At this point touchscreen remotes were becoming the hottest trend which then emerged into Home Automation. Home Automation is still at a very early stage but it is still growing stronger and stronger each year.

My point to this story is that this is still a very young industry and career path that is pretty well unknown to the general public. You can not go to college and take courses to become a audio visual installer or programmer. You can not go to college to become an audio visual systems engineer. Sure you can go to school for electrical engineering or computer programming, but 90% of this industry is made up of people with a passion that are self taught or have learned from others in the industry.

The industry as a whole today in 2007 is still finding it hard to find enough qualified talent that we need in the industry. Companies are growing, more and more people are wanting to add these features and items to their homes. The industry needs more people. I wanted to write this article to let people know about our industry and to share with them some of the places where they can go if you want to become apart of this industry. Places to educate yourself.

I am going to list below a list of resources to help you enter this wonderful business if you are a techy and gadget head like myself. If you have any questions please feel free to email me and i will be more than glad to help where i can. Thanks for reading this and i hope i helped inspire you to go after your dreams. 

My Experience 

I have been in the industry now for 12 years. I have moved from starting out as an installer in residential to becoming an engineer in both commercial and residential a/v and now i am working as both and engineer and control system programmer.