Be a Home Theater Installer
By Eric Hammer
If you love television and electronics, you may well be able
to earn a living as a home theater installer. These kinds of
jobs are becoming increasingly common as the costs of setting
up a home theater drop significantly, becoming easily within
the reach of the middle class rather than the previous situation
where only the super wealthy were able to afford to own a home
theater. Here's what you need to know:
So just what is a home theater installer anyway? Well basically,
in today's world of high definition television sets, many people
have decided to upgrade their view experience to include high
definition speaker systems, digital video recorders (ala TiVo)
and more and they need someone who can hook up all the wires
behind the scenes, make it all work correctly and then train
them how to use the remote.
That's what a home theater installer does - he or she does
the grunt work behind the scenes so that the person paying for
it can show off to his or her friends all the cool features that
they were able to get added to their living room.
How Much Can You Make?
Most home theater installers make in the range of about $15-$25
per hour. You can make more money depending on how much work
is actually involved in setting up the home theater though.
Ways to Make More | Related Opportunities
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You don't need to be particularly technically knowledgeable
to become a home theater installer, though it does help a lot
if you are. This will help you to understand where the technical
glitches come from when setting up systems in people's homes
and explain to them what different components actually do.
It's also useful to know how to program a computer, at least
from a basic standpoint as the most involved home theater installations
will involve putting in a home theater PC which actually connects
over to all the various peripherals in order to store television
shows and serve them up from the Internet.
Remember that you will often be a commission salesperson as
well, meaning that you'll want to be knowledgeable about other
components people may wish to add to their home theater setup
and which you can earn a commission on. It's also useful to keep
in mind that you are in a service business and that tips are
not uncommon here, so the more knowledgeable you are the more
helpful you are, the larger your potential tips may be.
Qualifications / Requirements
While you don't technically need any formal training in order
to become a home theater installer, it does help quite a bit
if you have at least an associate degree in electronics engineering
so that you understand the basics of building a home theater.
You don't need to know every detail, but you should have a basic
familiarity.
First Steps
Contact electronics stores such as Best Buy and PC Richard
to find out what they require for new home theater installers
and follow their recommendations. Alternatively, you could try
striking out on your own and offering your services on a third
party basis, though few people go that route, at least at first.
Resources
Check out these helpful resources to learn more about how
to become a home theater installer:
THX: Home Theater Install - This is an excellent
guide from THX, the company which creates sophisticated sound
systems to becoming a home theater installer, including several
courses you may wish to take.
WikiHow: How to Become a Home Theater Installer
- This is another good basic guide to becoming a home theater
installer, though not quite as detailed as the courses mentioned
above.
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