The team at CEDIA, the industry association for smart home professionals, explain more about the opportunities that will exist, now and in the future, for those who are pondering whether to make a start with ‘smart’.
From CEDIA’s perspective, a smart home is defined by professionally designed and installed technology that is easy and seamless to use, and also reliable and secure. Our role at CEDIA is to connect, empower, and champion smart home professionals and businesses to deliver these systems that can enhance the experiences and lifestyles of homeowners and their families.
Ours is a sector that is seeing significant growth and represents a major business opportunity for electricians. Just take a look at the results from two recent surveys.
In the 2023 Professional Smart Home Market Analysis UK, produced by CEDIA and released in December 2023, the UK market is estimated to be worth £2.9 billion and is supported by favourable industry growth projections for the next 12 months.
In other key findings, this analysis revealed that approximately 3,700 integrators are currently serving the UK market with firms completing an average of 14 projects per year, employing a median of four employees, and earning an average business revenue of £300,000 per annum.
Half of all participants expect to add technical personnel in the next 12 months with the categories anticipated to grow the most in the next year being media rooms, home cinema, outdoor audio-visual (AV) systems, and automated lighting and shading installations. Clearly, this is an industry not just exhibiting a confident mood and very good health, but growing, too.
Strong consumer demand
The Smart Home Report, a white paper produced by the Beacon Agency in November 2023 on consumer attitudes towards the smart home, supported this view with evidence drawn from a survey of 984 participants. 93.59% of respondents said they use some form of smart tech in their home, compared to 55% of respondents in an equivalent survey carried out in 2020.
Additionally, this report pointed to the smart home market opportunity available to electricians. 32.30% of respondents said they preferred to conduct their own research to learn about smart technology, while 20.43% would seek advice from an electrician.
When the consumer’s vision requires multiple devices that are going to work well together in the home, the opportunity is huge for the electrician to be the expert in the right place at the right time – not just to advise on technology choices, but to offer design, installation, and aftercare services.
Last year’s Professional Electrician & Installer Reader Survey highlighted that 44% of readers were interested in upskilling in home automation and CEDIA is well-placed to help electrical contractors successfully develop their careers in this smart home space.
How can CEDIA help your journey?
We provide not just the in-person and online education and resources to support such a move, but we also answer questions from contractors, provide guidance, and support through a great community of industry professionals and suppliers.
The three CEDIA education packages that are fundamental to any contractor who is looking to start their journey in the smart home industry are Smart Home Technician Essential Skills, Smart Home Technician Further Skills, and Networking Specialist School.
This education pathway provides a strong foundation for technicians interested in advancing their professional knowledge through a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of networking.
1. Smart Home Technician Essential Skills
This five-day pathway offers a solid foundation for newcomers.
The course covers essential topics, such as audio, video and RF fundamentals, best practice to safely install, terminate, and verify cabling in both new construction and retrofit environments, smart home sub-systems, as well as training on the design and installation of AV racks, equipment placement, wiring and ventilation.
Skills taught include cable termination, cable lacing, testing and troubleshooting, rack building, equipment installation, Ohm’s law calculations in addition to triangles, percentage, and ratios calculations. The last day of the programme also covers UK’s regulations of electrical safety.
2. Smart Home Technician Further Skills
This five-day package is designed to enhance the knowledge and skills of individuals who already have some experience in the field or who have completed the Smart Home Technician Essential Skills package.
During this course, electricians can learn the best practices for home cinema and media room installation and gain the knowledge and skills to implement lighting control protocols into a system design. It also covers how to configure a typical router and correctly set up a secure Wi-Fi network, as well as the best practices for control system commissioning.
Additionally, learners will explore some of the project and business processes that involve technicians, as well as the terminology and phases that are typically encountered on an on-site project.
3. Networking Specialist School
This provides an understanding of both the theory and practice of IP in order to design and install reliable and robust smart home systems.
In addition, with wireless infrastructures being asked to handle ever more demanding applications, it’s also critical that these are designed and implemented in the right way.
The Networking Specialist School includes a whole suite of IP networking courses to improve the understanding and skill set of technicians in these areas.
Get a taste of the smart home opportunity with CEDIA summits
Those who want to find out more and see if this is an industry for them can attend one of the two remaining CEDIA Tech Summits taking place in the UK in 2024 – Leeds on 24th May and Edinburgh on 7th June.
Attending this event will help newcomers connect, discover, and learn, with opportunities for education, networking, and the discovery of new technologies. It’s also a platform to meet with other smart home professionals, including those that are also new to the industry as well as more established integrators.
The CEDIA Tech Summit is free to visit and allows contractors to make the most of their valuable time within a compact one-day timeframe.
For further details and to register as an attendee for any of the Tech Summits visit: www.cedia.org/techsummits
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