All I know is that whenever I overhear a conversation, usually on the phone, between one of our clients and one of their friends/family/acquaintances, if I am referred to in the conversation, I am known as "the sound guy", "the home theater guy", "the TV guy"....sometimes after an awkward moment when they are trying to figure out what to call me. I have heard...."the guy" a lot as well, followed by .."who is here putting up our TVs or installing our music" or whatever the scope of work might be at that moment. :) Another one I hear is "The Sight and Sound guys are here doing X)....then when they are asked WTF is Sight and Sound....they get all fumbled as well....and it ends up being...the guys who set up our music or TVs or internets...or something. It never rolls off the tongue too easily it seems.

That's the biggest issue when you do too many things.

Clients may have a Pool guy, flooring guy, painter, plumber, electrician. Heck even someone in their home fixing the fridge or dishwasher will be a "guy" of some sort.

It would be very interesting to see the results of this simple poll.

Ask 10 or more of your good clients the following question.

If you did not know me or my company (or other companies in your area) and you wanted to find someone that does all the things I have done in your house, what would you search for on line?
No need to ask them to actually do it, just find out what their first thought would be.

I think you will have a number of different answers, and most of the searches would be related to the key thing they understand that you installed. Lighting system, Home Theatre, security or other.

Without some form of understandable defined "name" for what we do we will always have a difficult time reaching any sort of professional status.

All this may be true. Yet I am glad I have to know or have to learn these peripheral things, to keep the job interesting.

If all I did was interconnect components and program remotes, I'd be bored out of my skull.


Thus assigning us a name is fruitless. We have no trade association to make it mainstream. It would be internal, for our use amongst ourselves only. Sticking to CI for now.

I definitely identify with - and focus my business and learning on - being a "home technologist".

When people ask what I do, I say, "Home technology." If I get a blank look, I add , "You know, like smart homes and things like WiFi, A/V, lighting control..." That seems to do the trick, but I admit no one is searching Google for "Home technologist" when they are looking for someone who does these things.

And that is an issue.
In this day and age where people look up everything on line, and can easily find other trades, how do they find us without some sort of understood name for what we do.
Unless you specialize in something, I doubt there is anyone here that calls themselves CI or whatever and doesn't have to explain what they are to a client.

Workmans compensation up here groups us with electrical contractors because they don't have a category for us.
I don't recall what my Insurance agent said, but I am sure there wasn't a specific category there either.
I have gone onto sites where they ask what you do and there is a huge drop down list of trades and professions, of course we are not there.

It also is something that probably is next to impossible to create as we are not all doing the same things.
If you are a plumber, you can get grouped together because you will likely have the experience or know how to do whatever any other plumber may be doing.
We have too many things on our plates, and not everyone does all of them.

but isn't that the point? we are not a trade that does a single thing but a service.
So in the end it does not matter if there is one name or not.

If Joe needs to add an electrical socket he can google "electrician" call any of the ones that pop up and there will be difference in the quality of work done but they should all be able to do the job.

On the other hand if Joe needs someone to reprogram his controller googling "technologist" or "integrator" or "installer" or what ever other term some one thinks of won't necessarily get Joe anywhere. If my firm does not deal with controller X we won't have the SW to reprogram it for him. He will be much better off googling "x" or "x programmer" then falling on us because he googled "integrator" or what ever that will just waste our and Joe's time.

Now I gave the example of a controller, but it is much wider then that some of us deal with alarm systems, networks, HVAC..... while others don't, some of us are full service while others are not.

To me this would be like someone googling "store" to fins where they can buy X.
If X is tomatoes then adding "grocery" would make more sense if X is a bed then "furniture" or "bed" would make more sense.

What will happen is what has happened to automation system vendors. One day, Google will decide its wants to get into the custom install business, and it'll call its installers "Googlepoots". A week later you will be a Googlepoot whether you like it or not, because that will be the only name that all of the unwashed masses know. So you'll either call yourself a Googlepoot or get ignored.

It's like how, all of a sudden, every automation system in the world became a 'hub', despite the fact that it's not a meaningful description of many to most of them. Newbies to the automation world just consider everything a hub now because that's the term that ended up getting used by the companies that finally made a broad swath of the population aware of automation products.

Calling CQC a 'hub' is like calling an Aegis destroyer a boat, but if you are talking to a newbie you can either spend an hour trying to describe it or just say, it's like a hub, even though it's really not. Oh, OK, I get it, it's a hub.

I think they would look for lighting installer or audio installer or, if they know anything about home automation, "smart home installer"

What I find interesting about the term is that we/I've been using it in my company for about a year now as a descripter for a career path.

In our case, our apprentice installer is more techy then grunt laborer and is someone who is passionate about all kinds of technology (in our field and outside of it). At a certain point he will transition out of mostly install based tasks and into Programming/IT related duties at which point he should be knowledgable enough to be an 'expert' when discussing a variety of aspects of the technology we use with clients...and capable of configuration/programming of said systems...a bit of a cross between an 'installer' and a full time 'programmer'.

For those of us with a lot of experience, knowledge and tech skill sets the term is a very good one, but as far as outward term for our industry channel; people are going to search for an Installer or Electrician since its what they know. The other challenge with the term for the industry as a whole IMHO is that most installers lack the knowledge base, skills and experience to be labeled as a 'Technologist'

CEDIA should stop being stupid about coming up with new names and spend the money advertising what an Integrator does.
Just like Real Estate industry did with made up title of Realtor.

+1

The AOR figured out how to brand a title. It wasn't really that hard. But Cedia cand figure out how to copy and paste what they did.

I gonna stick with "stereo guy".

I still argue for holding out for "Love Doctor". That'll obviously get more hits than Home Technologist or A/V Specialist. Indicate that you specialize in Tantric Integration, bring some aroma candles and incense, and it's basically a lock.

Agreed. Pick a name. Make it stick. No one knew what a Realtor was when a bunch of real estate agents made up the term.

I have done a lot of work in my 15 years or so for people who got taken to the cleaners by everyone from electricians, security installers, landscapers, IT guys, satellite/cable installers, and just about every other trade out there. And they got taken because they had no clue what we are called, or how to find us, so they just asked whomever was nearby at the time if they knew anyone who could put in some speakers or mount some TVs, etc.

And you have heard all the answers that could come from that question being asked to any of the above mentioned people. "I do that kind of stuff on the side". "I know a guy." And it is all downhill from there.