The economy may be shaky and unemployment may be up but a new course in Birmingham suggests the need for luxury home electronic items is on the increase.

Birmingham City University has been chosen to provide a three-day programme for professionals who install items such as multi-room audio and home cinema systems.

Following a successful pilot the Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association (CEDIA) has teamed up with Birmingham City University again to offer the training programme on a recurring basis.

The course is aimed at anyone who professionally plans, displays, supplies and/or installs automated electronic systems in homes. This could include audio-visual systems, multi-room audio and home cinema systems to complete home networks and sub-systems which intelligently control lighting, security, and Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning (HVAC).

Peter Aylett, Director of Professional Development at CEDIA said: "This three-day programme of 'Networking Theory and Practice' courses taught at Birmingham City University in their extensive CISCO labs, by CISCO Certified trainers are the best available in the UK.

"They deliver golden nuggets of information for system designers and installers and are in CEDIA's view invaluable in helping our industry provide professional services to homeowners."

Professionals taking the course will be brought up-to-date with IP and will gain a knowledge of the both the design and implementation of it is essential for technicians.

The course will run from 10-12 May 2011 and future (dates to be confirmed) at Birmingham City University's Faculty of Technology, Engineering and the Environment, which is home to Europe's leading CISCO network academy programme, will give attendees exposure to, and practice with, a range of CISCO enterprise grade hardware.

Duncan Maidens, who is a senior lecturer at the University's School of Computing, Telecommunications & Networks said: "Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/IP has become the dominant communications and media transmission protocol for the industry. Basically this is the process by which the IP address gets data to the correct device (a PC) and a 'port' which is part of the TCP delivers it to the correct application (mail, web browser, database access etc).

"It is essential that everyone who works in the technical side of our industry understands both the theory and practice of IP.

"In addition, with wireless infrastructures being asked to handle ever more demanding applications, it is also critical that these are designed and implemented in a robust and reliable fashion."

By the end of the course, attendees should be able to implement TCP/IP connected hardware in 95% of the situations encountered in home installations.

The University's School of Computing, Telecommunications and Networks is one of the leading UK academies for Apple and Microsoft, having been awarded membership of Microsoft's prestigious Developer Network Academic Alliance. For over a decade the School has been working with CISCO and is the leading training centre for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. In 2010 six of CISCO's coveted graduate posts were given to graduates from the School. Other graduates have proceeded to work for companies such as IBM, Hewlett Packard, Capgemini and Siemens. The School has a number of specialist laboratories such as a Games lab, CISCO Networking labs, Electronics lab, Embedded lab and a forensics lab which boasts fingerprint readers and facial recognition software.