I am thinking about a career in either audio or video (broadcast) engineering. They can both be distinct, and I am currently leaning toward audio (solid state/portable -- forget those tubes!).
Anyone have an idea if that would be a fruitful endeavor? Decent salary, growing industry? I would imagine that the industry has green pastures for years to come. HDTV, portable audio is everywhere...iPods, PSP, etc.
Thoughts?

 

I must say that is a hard call to make.

The great thing about either one of these career paths is that the technology in each of them is evolving at a terrific pace. Digital video and digital audio are become pretty much the trend for the future.

Brush up on you DSP knowledge in either case.

Whichever path you choose, I wish you success.

hgmjr

 

Here's everything I know about your chosen career field: A guy on a ham radio forum once made a remark about spending 14 years in broadcast hell.

For what it's worth:
http://www.eta-i.org/CertsGroups.html
http://www.sbe.org/cert_index.php

http://phoenix.gov/JOBSPECS/62050.html

http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=audio+engineer&l1=Silver+Spring,+MD
http://www.indeed.com/salary?q1=video+engineer&l1=Silver+Spring,+MD
http://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes_nat.htm#b51-0000

May I suggest another career path: Telemetry.

For various reasons, things happen Here, but the recording system has to be There. 3 examples:

Military Intelligence. The Bad Guys plan to do offensive things, and discuss these plans over the radio. We listen. There's more to it than that, but there's that whole need-to-know thing.

The space program: Satellites do their thing in outer space, sends the results down to earth stations.

High explosives testing: Put 20,000 pounds of ANFO in a Ryder truck and turn it into postage stamps. Measure the temperature, pressure and acceleration from a long way off. You get to walk around in the mess afterwards. Big fun.

You don't have to deal with the public, or entertainers.