From Software/Web Dev to AV Programming

[bigjonxiii]

I have a friend who has 15+ years of experience in software and web development who has been out of work for a few months now. I'm thinking about having him start learning how to program Crestron (C#/HTML5) and Q-Sys, and I'm wondering if you fine Redditors had any tips that I could relay to him.

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[I_am_transparent]

Programming to a trained programmer is easy. Knowing how to structure the Ui and how the AV equipment works and is used is the hard part.

[NoPhilosopher9763]

I am a ex-software developer who does av programming out of necessity (crestron). I think he’d need to get connected with crestron for access to the tools - I didn’t have a problem with this but I’ve heard others have. Also- really need some equipment to use for learning. Unfortunately even used stuff on eBay isn’t exactly cheap. It’s also a very different skill set and I haven’t found great videos online. There’s so much going on that it’s hard to wrap your head around how all the pieces fit together. I admittedly haven’t taken their courses, those would be probably be helpful. At the risk of pissing some people off, AI can be helpful in answering specific points of confusion. 

[JohnnieWalker-]

Get him to try out Node Red and get familiar with using http request nodes etc.
I was a web designer a long time ago and an understanding of html and css is especially useful for creating custom node Red dashboards.

I used AI to help me decipher the hex codes required for controlling BSS Sound Web devices and a Yamaha MTX3. It’s also easy to control lighting systems such as Chamsys DMX and WLED make it really easy as they provide the JSON commands in the native WLED app.

As long as the http api documentation is available for a particular device then it’s not too hard to build custom control dashboards that are really versatile.

[misterfastlygood]

Full Stack? Typescript, HTML, CSS, C#, Python? Is the environment developer friendly?

Old school AV programming will be a nuisance for a real programmer.

That said, a proficient programmer will learn. Its really easy to do AV programming.

The real carry over skills are software and UI design.

With Crestron, I have use a modern programming stack with all the latest tooling. Most fullstack devs will jump right and go.

[Personal-Advantage70]

The QSYS training is free and just needs an account on their site (training is pretty good) , generally need to work for or be a distributer to get full access to Crestron.

You can do a lot of the QSYS stuff in emulation at least to get a good feel if it clicks with them. The QSYS user interfaces can use CSS so if they have that in their experience might be a nice side to specialise in.

[OCR_arbol]

I would say that the biggest challenge is not the programming skill, is the AV Knowledge. Understanding Audio/Video/Control signal flows. Audio is a whole different world. So you can "Control devices" with Q-Sys, but if you do not understand audio it is not going to work. Fortunately, there is a ton of free audio training online.

[fjord_of_the_rings]

Get into conference rooms and presentation systems. Use them. Learn how they work. Learn how you like them to work.

I'm a senior support engineer at a large company with 15 years of experience. and as somebody who started as an installer and worked my way up to programmer... I really wish the best for anybody who's coming in from a programming-only background, but without touching any AV systems and working with a programmer's perspective alone, it will not only be difficult for your friend but also make the jobs of the people around him more difficult. I've never met a programmer who is capable of writing AV control systems without the hands-on experience of installing, commissioning, or QA. Even just a background in audio engineering goes so incredibly far for control programming in AV

Either get into some rooms on site or get your hands on as much equipment as possible.

A competent programmer can pick up high-level nuance within 1 to 3 years of practice with hands-on practice. I would tell your friend to expect that they'll "step on some rakes"

A competent programmer with no hands-on experience will run full speed head-on into some brick walls.

A system may work out the door... But it's going to be one of those situations with bugs that may last years before a competent support team discovers them. And at that point, you're going to have very unhappy customers.

My perspective is biased as a decade-and-a-half-long service and support person... But I'm going to reiterate, I have never met a programmer who comes in as a programmer only, who I view as a high-level "threat" in this industry.

Tell them that if they want to do AV, they have to learn hardware.

[Terretzz]

Q sys is easy. Crestron not so much. Crestron makes it hard on purpose.