Designing and installing residential home control and audio/video systems is a multidisciplinary task that requires a variety of different skill sets and experiences.

Alan O’Rouke, division manager for new construction business for EMC Security LLC, Lawrenceville, Ga., maintains finding low-voltage technicians for residential home control jobs is one of the hardest things he does.

“It’s fairly easy to find a security technician, but a lot harder to find someone who can program consumer electronics or install a projector in a media room,” O’Rouke admits. He concedes the pay of these technicians has risen as their value to the company has increased.

A residential technical program established by the Electronics Technicians Association International Inc. (ETA), Greencastle, Ind., is designed to provide a way of certifying the knowledge of such employees, providing a source of them for employers and justifying increased pay for technicians.

The RESI program created by ETA has three certification levels: Basic RESI, Journeyman RESI, and Master RESI, and five specialties: audio-video, computer networking, closed circuit TV, security-surveillance, and environmental controls.

Those passing the basic RESI exam and one or more of the specialties can become Journeymen RESIs. Master RESIs have passed all the specialties and can converge all information from a residential gateway into one IP bit stream.

The RESI program was established in 2006 and combines several programs ETA already had developed with new ones. Certification exams can be passed with or without classroom instruction, which is available hands-on to students and those already in the industry. Textbooks are available for the classes.

More information is available atwww.eta-i.org/ResCable.html.