Branching Out into AV?

[Chris Gardner]

Any of you guys ever thought about branching out into the dark art of AV?

Reason I ask is that I'm from an Electrical background with a rather large Electrical contractor (Whom shall remain nameless) and some 16 years ago I got into AV by pure accident installing light fittings in theatres and studios.

Since then I've pretty much been solid with AV work since.

Reason I ask is that I work in the Higher Education sector and when Universities break armies descend to upgrade all the AV.

Problem is that there just isn't enough skilled labour around to complete the work.

So my question is as Sparks would any off you see doing AV work as an option or a distraction?

 

[Midwest]

I've gonna do out my garage as a cinema room eventually; too late in life to branch out now. But some a lot of people prepared to pay for the service.

 

[Squid]

I would see it as "added value" to your skill set and to be honest if you have high value customers/clients then its a skill set work having.

You can have a basic AV setup at one or then you can get the high end systems, cinema room, layered floor, multiple speakers 4K projector etc etc etc as well as a multi room audio system also through in powered curtains/blinds and a home climate system.

A lot of these systems end up have a networked backbone, all interesting stuff to be honest.

 

[Phil Thompson]

I find with a lot of the newer technology items in our area of expertise, that you need to be doing them fairly regularly, to at least stay somewhat switched on and remain reasonably fast at installing, otherwise it’s not worthwhile.

 

[DefyG]

Ive dabbled but found that if not up to date, keeping abreast of the latest technology you easily get left behind!
Certainly worth knowing about and we work 'hand in hand' with an AV company whereby we do the install first fix, the AV cabling and also the power and lighting cabling (as there normally is some) second fix and they do the hardware/programming etc. Works well.