Alright, so it’s official. I finally lifted my 12 year boycott on getting my CTS, bit the bullet, and took the test. Then I waited in nervous anticipation for my score, and by some glitch in the system software, I passed!

Given that it’s been 12 years, I felt an explanation as to why I lifted my boycott may be in order.

First of all, I am actually very impressed with the introduction of InfoComm’s new APEx program. I railed against the relevance of CTS and the old CAVSP program for some time asking for client feedback to be a requirement for continued preferred status, and this year, InfoComm finally did it. I’ve written about the reasons I think APEx is a move in the right direction before so if you’d like a recap click here.

Secondly, I spent some time talking to some of my fellow AV peeps who are intricately involved with InfoComm and CTS either on the exam committee or on the teaching circuit. I heard some positive things about the approach InfoComm is starting to take to make things as relevant and up to date as possible.

So now that I’m in, you know me, I want to be in all the way. Next up will be the CTS-D exam, one that is markedly more difficult and one that I will actually make sure to study for (I took this one cold, registration to certification in under 90 minutes).

Here is the most interesting thing though. Did you know that there are only 175 people WORLDWIDE that have both a CTS-D and a CTS-I?

Now that sounds like an elite group. So of course my goal is to be in that group by this time next year. That means a ton of courses and installation training for Mark here, as my career has been heavy on design and light on actual installation. I may have terminated a dozen RJ45s once about 12 years ago.

In my best Jerry Maguire impression “Who’s comin’ with me?” I think we can add a paltry 100 people across the US into this elite unit. That’s only 2 people per state, so who’s in? If you already have a CTS-D or a CTS-I you’re already halfway there.

So let me reiterate. My challenge to the AV Industry is to reach 275 people with both CTS-I and CTS-D by next year.

My challenge to InfoComm is to make “AV Moving Forward” more than a cute slogan and make sure these two sets of letters mean something to our clients as a reward for our efforts.