The AV integration industry is in dire need of some training and professional development, especially following the pandemic. Matt Murray looks at what AV Pro Edge and the ISF is doing in this space.

One cannot often play off the title of a satirical Coen brothers movie to spotlight an issue plaguing an industry, but I am about to give it a go.

As a manufacturer attending the American-based integration dealer buying group conferences to gauge the industry’s pulse first-hand, one of the central themes to emerge throughout 2023 was exasperation in finding qualified hiring candidates for elevated technical field service positions. As a representative for a multi-brand company, more significant to me was the runner-up complaint, learning that a sizeable segment of the industry’s manufacturing side is failing to provide adequate training for their products.

As the genesis for this article, it gave me pause, as late last year, we initiated an in-depth analysis for retooling training for one of our brands, which has officially entered into a more focused alignment with a technology-specific partner.

That train(ing) has left the station

Anguished cries about the shortage of skilled installation technicians by integration companies have been, and continue to be, distinctly loud. Though similarly applicable, I don’t mean general training for wire pulling, architectural speaker installation or television mounting, as most integration companies prefer those tasks be taught in-house, usually through a series of assistive ride-alongs. I am referring to the availability of technicians who possess advanced skillsets proficient with system commissioning facets such as setting sources correctly for the bandwidth available, signal path multi-device configuration for EDID and HDCP to avoid HDMI issues, intricate aspects of projection video installations, including video processor setup and at a minimum, familiarity with meaningful display parameter adjustments.

Often overlooked but revealing themselves to be more regularly reported issues by AVPro Tech Support are automation system programming errors. Errant confirmation bias leads callers to cite equipment failures when a chokepoint occurs in a system, only to discover that less-than-precise programming is the culprit, not the unjustly accused serial port.

Conspiracy or confluence of events?

There are clear indications of how this dilemma came to manifest, and while widely recognised, no corrective remedy seems close at hand.

COVID-19 served to indirectly reduce highly skilled labour in the workforce via significant attrition. When the virus struck, a large proportion of the commercial and residential industry was forced into an essential services-only operating mode. During this standstill, many longtime industry veterans near retirement age chose to do so.

Stepping away as a health-related risk aversion plus retirement benefits coupled with supplemental government financial assistance, proved the trifecta lure for the most coveted senior-level employees in companies of all sizes to bow out of the industry. The savviest lead technician, along with the wisest project manager, was followed out the door by that older, hard-to-describe, uniquely quirky employee who was somehow endowed with every various essential skill an integration firm prizes, leaving in their wakes a training and quality control void that continues to plague the industry today.

As mentioned, integration firms conduct internal company training; however, as many of these skilled industry veterans exited, decades of original manufacturers’ training knowledge, which was honed into practical experience in the field, followed them out the door, with no contemporary replacement training in place for journeymen or new employees.

Lacking updates, fine details in passed-down knowledge suffer translation loss without these former peers in place for clarification. Many aspects of advanced system deployment devolve into reliance upon popularly held misconceptions, as onsite miscues are handed down to new employees, unchecked, to regrettably become a company’s new modus operandi.

All aboard the epiphany express

For me, the training shortage recently became oddly augmented, if not fully exposed. As I alluded to above, in mid-January (a few days before writing this article), the AVPro brand, Murideo, entered into an agreement with the Imaging Science Foundation (ISF) to more closely align both entities, aiming to reshape how the ISF, as a standards organisation, can become more effective with assisting integrators in aspects of advanced system designs, deployment and maintenance.

Evolving from these discussions, a measured, tiered approach was decided upon for how the ISF, along with long-time industry hyper-specialists from the Murideo team, could broaden its curriculum beyond display calibration into providing a range of best-practice, system-enhancing, performance-assuring skills that manufacturers’ reps, dealers and techs have stated are unequivocally absent and in dire need of being rekindled.

To provide a more precise context, for the past decade, AVPro, through Murideo, has been a principal supporter of the ISF, sponsoring its seminars worldwide. Through combined efforts, the ISF conducted instructional three-day seminars centred around video calibration. During these trainings, Murideo provided our calibration test instruments and instructional assistance by key team personnel. From its inception, the ISF was designed to assume stewardship of the content creator’s intentions from a source device, through the residential signal chain and on to the viewer.

A previous Connected article illustrated why integrators shouldn’t overlook video calibration as an assurance for delivering the capable fidelity of televisions or projectors that video engineers meticulously design in, only to have their efforts compromised by marketing departments who impart undue influence on the out-of-the-box product. The best video equipment compiled into a delivery system requires calibration to match the display to the incoming signal. With projection, this is critical, as the screen and projector interactively comprise the imaging system.

Is the ISF recalibrating the industry in 2024?

2024 will be the year the ISF dynamically pivots from exclusively teaching calibration skills, expanding alongside long-time industry hyper-specialists from the Murideo team into a broader role that seeks to bring accurate imaging and content creators’ intent to all viewers.

Conversations with leading figures across a broad spectrum in the industry, ranging from key manufacturers and their reps to dealer principals, garnered a wide array of feedback, all contributing to what we believe is a unique congregation of participation. While all details have not been finalised as of this writing, a tiered approach has rapidly taken shape and has been greeted with tremendous enthusiasm.

Delivering what is promised

Tier 1 is an internal project, conceived as providing dealers of any size, from big box market leaders to a two-man operation, a means to quickly confirm that once a television or entry-level two-piece system has been installed, an efficient, nominal 15-20-minute process will verify proper source setup and signal delivery to the display through the system. Optimising the display utilising menu-driven ‘front panel’ controls follows. Coincidentally, the process closely parallels upcoming CEDIA guidelines, also tiered, on performance levels end users may expect from systems of various price points.

Based upon using an affordable signal generator corresponding to in-person or online instruction, personnel of any skill level can perform the detailed, outlined processes efficiently. The result is that end users receive signals they anticipate, such as Dolby Vision from Netflix with Atmos sound, viewable on their new display and heard through a new soundbar, with image fidelity representing approximately 80-85% of that delivered from a precisely calibrated display.

In the recent past, this has happened more by chance than by practice. Alarmingly, having occurred so infrequently, LG and Dolby announced that for 2024, new LG sets will have a Filmmaker Dolby Vision preset to ensure Dolby Vision will be displayed.

The service is envisioned to be priced by dealers at US$99 for the technician’s time to make the required adjustments.

The intention is for 97% of the market not opting for a comprehensive calibration to view the high-quality images modern displays are capable of, but are hampered by government-required default energy regulations, brand-related marketing decisions and out-of-the-box, purpose-driven settings manufacturers make for reasons of caution, real or imagined.

Though designed as a revenue-producing service for the dealer that simultaneously benefits customers and with an ROI rapidly in the black after the initial investment, another financial component involves reducing or eliminating return visit truck rolls through the checks and balances the process provides, ensuring the system works properly and short of comprehensive calibration, looks as good as possible. Short of a display failure, sound or picture-related revisits should plummet precipitously.

The service should prove easy to sell when offered simply by pointing out there are more than 350 menu adjustments in modern TVs or projectors, which already factor into its selling price, put in place to provide fine-tuning for the best performance. The trained installer takes the guesswork out and uses a reference instrument, similar to those used by the manufacturer to design the TV, to adjust the image accurately.

The ISF, now in its third decade, should come to mind as making this streamlined service a possibility. It’s responsible in myriad ways for the picture quality major display manufacturers now produce and how combinations of judicious menu settings can provide highly accurate images.

Tier 1, while only reflecting one manufacturer keying in on training, sets the stage for what follows below and is fundamental in developing additional interest.

A sign of synergies to come?

Tier 2 is a first-of-its-kind training opportunity in a flexible, modular platform. Our training room at our Tech Support facility in St. Petersburg, Florida, doubles as a video lab. We are acquiring products from primary projector, screen, video processor and flat panel manufacturers. This enables integration technicians to visit a single location and receive training on system combinations that resemble what is customarily sold and installed where they work.

A particular projector brand can be paired with one of the top video processors, connected by an HDMI extension kit and front-ended by a matrix video switcher supplying other displays and an input of an AVR. The source may be a streaming device or movie server linked by HDMI interconnects. Screen materials may be selected from various types supplied by leading companies.

Aside from being an HDCP and EDID nightmare, such a system is a good exercise for technicians who are expected to navigate and overcome connectivity obstacles in the field. However, the critical aspect is receiving training on the brands their employers represent in one location and in a compressed timeframe. While some may offer that it takes techs out of the field for several days, the same occurs when individual trainings are scattered over weeks or months, with those types of delays creating a troubling disconnect in training rhythm. Having all key components in one place, the complexities of particular equipment pairings can be demonstrated and investigated hands-on.

It figuratively is a connectivity Petri dish where any possible problem is likely to surface, with any probable solution available.

With many dealers supporting multiple manufacturers and all major companies supported, technicians can become comprehensively trained in a matter of a few days.

We are still working on many details with manufacturers on allowing members of the Murideo team to provide the training and to what degree they may offer rebates to those who attend to help offset attendance costs. Some have already declared they will sanction the training as representative of their own, with trainees becoming manufacturer-certified upon completion. Additionally, CEDIA and AVIXA credits are available and apply. In time, it is anticipated that ISF-Murideo will provide a cross-section of desperately needed manufacturer training through this Tier. One thing to note is that while calibration examples will be demonstrated, this Tier does not provide calibration training. Calibration gear will be on hand, and the lab will have a Sony BVM-HX3110 broadcast monitor as its anchored reference for empirical demonstration of the necessity to calibrate. Comparison of uncalibrated systems to the monitor should sufficiently punctuate why no dealer can genuinely claim to deliver the best system performance to clients if calibration is not performed.

Tier 2 is primarily designed to put brand-specific manufacturers’ training into motion that today is non-existent. There are countless possibilities for all involved, and these will evolve once training commences.

Let’s not forget the ISF’s roots

Tier 3 will remain as the traditional ISF seminar. However, the course curriculum will be updated and streamlined from three days into two, with a pronounced emphasis devoted to hands-on training. It’s hoped that those attending Tier 2 will recognise the necessity for calibration and how it is instrumental to delivering the fidelity designed into projectors (and flat panels).

A reflection on the importance of calibration for system maintenance is proven by most projector manufacturers having turned to lasers as a light source, with data from Hollywood beginning to show that laser-based platforms can drift over time, like lamps were notorious for. Calibration is not a one-time treatment in top-flight systems. Flat panels drift as well, though not in as rapid of time.

Master of your domain

Tier 4 is solely devoted to calibration, and aspiring attendees must have already attended Tier 3, as it is designated as an ISF Master Class. Tier 4 is designed as a deep dive into calibrating capable display models to Hollywood studio-level standards. With the BVM-HX3110 as the reference standard, calibration practices specific for dialling in suitable displays, such as some LG OLEDs and Sony Master Series flat panels to the level where they attain studio client monitor status, will be taught.

The train has to keep on rolling

AVPro provides training for products we manufacture, holding events around the United States to provide integrators with the best chance of personally interfacing with us and ensuring they ultimately deliver the best possible experiences to their customers. I hoped to have described in this article the attempts we are making to reach outside of “our” box to offer comprehensive training on other manufacturers’ products to reintroduce some of the skills that have exited the integration labour force and by making them accessible to everyone equally. It will not alleviate the demand to any significant degree in the near term. Still, perhaps it will serve as a template for others to emulate and provide a springboard for ISF-Murideo to expand upon initial offerings and become a central, primary training entity, greatly benefiting the industry.