November 30, 2021 Case Study: How Kordz Connects Emerging CEDIA Students to a Professional AV Future

CEDIA is the global trade association for companies that design, manufacture, and integrate residential technology. It empowers members with education, certification and advocacy to deliver technology solutions that allow families to experience their best moments in life in the comfort of their own homes.  

CEDIA requires the most effective and reliable connectivity products to educate emerging AV professionals at their Cabling Infrastructure Technician and Integrated Systems Technician Schools. To help trainees to get a feel for the way a cable should be, CEDIA used Kordz to support their vision of fresh professionals with time tested values providing the best standards and experiences to their clients.  

Highlights

Challenges 

  • Helping emerging AV professionals understand how to judge cable quality and choose trustworthy and reliable products that adhere to standards and certifications 
  • Find cabling products that provide quality, flexibility and ease of installation while also meeting proper installation standards and long term reliability 

Solution 

  • Kordz ONE Series CAT6, CAT6a, 16/2, 14/2 and 16/4 Speaker wire  
  • Kordz PRO HDMI and Data Interconnects 
  • RJ45 site termination ends, stress reliefs and crimping tool

Why the Industry’s Only Certifying Body Uses Kordz

CEDIA, the global industry association and central touchpoint for residential technology, provides members with cutting-edge education, develops standards to ensure the highest levels of professionalism, and is the industry’s only certifying body that fully encompasses these technologies globally. CEDIA furthers collaboration with architects, designers, builders and homeowners to deliver technology solutions that allow families to experience their best moments in life in the comfort of their own homes. 

The AV industry can be a difficult landscape to navigate, especially when finding your footing as a new professional. CEDIA’s education supports AV professionals to develop the vast knowledge and attention to detail to be successful, along with high standards and professional conduct. This core value expressed by instructors and students extends to the quality of products used in their 7,000 sq. ft training centre in Indiana, USA. 

CEDIA certification schools offer professional networking opportunities with other participants, mentors and experts to share documents and experiences, whilst also enhancing learning with others in the industry. This is combined with first-hand experience with high-quality products and the context required to understand the importance of their certification and reliability.  

At CEDIA’s Cabling Infrastructure Technician School (CITS) and the Integrated Systems Technician School (ISTS), students commit to intensive structured online and face-to-face practical training. The CITS forms the foundation for further experience and growth in the industry with increased experience and professionalism as a certified cabling and infrastructure technician and a future lead technician. 

The ISTS Online modules introduce students to the basics of electricity, job site safety, project documentation, tools, cable and cable properties and the work done by a technician during the pre-wire/first fix phases of a project. Additionally, participants are required to complete hands-on practical learning that builds on the online training with cabling, termination, testing, hardware installation, retrofit installation and final system commissioning in a risk-free supportive environment. 

It is in this environment that CEDIA requires reliable, certified cabling solutions to introduce their students to the expectation of quality products in the workplace. 

Challenges

Connecting Students with Best Case Connectivity.

AV professionals enter an AV career from many backgrounds and there is a lot to learn to establish the fundamentals, let alone to keep on top of technological innovation. And so from time to time, errors are made designing a system and products that profess to offer certain features and standards under-deliver.  

So how does an AV professional avoid the stress of a project gone wrong, losing time, money and trust with their client? The answer is CEDIA education. Top seasoned industry professionals globally invest their time and hard-earned know-how to train aspiring AV professionals to avoid such pitfalls and discern good quality products from inferior substitutes.  

CEDIA is the home for quality and performance in residential technology and audiovisual experiences. With 60,000 feet of category cable at CEDIA HQ, the standard of excellence and importance of reliability is evidenced in their own attention to quality connectivity products.  

AV professionals choose to study with CEDIA because they trust that they are receiving the best possible education for their time and investment. When it comes to cables, CEDIA students learn that for AV installation and integration, a reliable, tested cable should and must perform every time. So if connectivity fails and provided the cable is trustworthy, they must look elsewhere in their system design to find the fault.  

Solution

An Introduction to Reliability.

For Ian Bryant, Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships at CEDIA, the importance of high-quality, reliable cables is a necessity. Students utilise Kordz bulk cable in CIT programs to run through a pre-wire scenario and terminate RJ45 ends with the Kordz crimping tool. In the IST training class, data and HDMI patch cords are used. Ian believes these were the cables of choice for CEDIA to educate their students on quality. 

“Having high-quality products like Kordz bulk cable, patch cables and termination tools for our students to use in our hands-on labs is extremely beneficial to their learning experience.” 

Ian believes Kordz products provide a useful standard of quality that benefits the students’ understanding and learning process. As a result, he provides samples to students to familiarise them with the difference in certified reliable cables. 

“We give out samples as well to students in both classes so they can see what high-quality patch cables look and feel like.” 

For new AV professionals fixing, working and application based on jacket resistance and flexibility can really only be felt by hand. This aids the important practice of building muscle memory with experience and time.

Equally important is using compliant, certified and safe materials to protect their hands since these installations take many hours to get every connection right.

Additionally, the devices connected in the classes face repeated connection and disconnection each and every time new students are enrolled and throughout the learning process. With Kordz high quality, factory tested cables, the connection to the device is rarely questioned or requires adjustment. The materials used to make Kordz cables are different to what is normally found as these professional grade products are specifically designed for frequent commercial use. Every cable far exceeds the engineering requirements for power, flexibility, data repeatedly. This exacting demand and requirement from Kordz, results in a longer product life for the training school’s devices.  

Cable diameters and tolerances can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, as well as on the same grade of cable produced by one manufacturer on different machines. This inconsistency can make learning adherence to standards of professionalism and procedure difficult for students. The precise calculations and crimping processes used in installations require reliable products that stand up to the process while providing CEDIA students with a clean and neat installation quality result that do not affect the students’ calculations. 

“CEDIA is grateful for the continued support from Kordz and its commitment to industry advancement.” 

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