My Certs

EAVA

This one is the Extron AV (Audio Visual) Associate certification. This was $99 from Extron and was quite a bit of exam work. It covered everything from low-voltage serial connections (RS-232) to the different types of fiber (multi-mode vs. single-mode). I’d recommend this to anyone working in an environment that has Extron gear – it was even good for the general AV knowledge if you don’t use Extron.

It covers:

• Who is Extron?
• AV Technologies
• Video Fundamentals
• Audio Fundamentals
• Control and Networking Fundamentals
• Extron products and tools

CAVP-CSTF

This one is the Brainbox Foundation’s Certified AV Professional – Control System Troubleshooting Fundamentals certification. It’s a free mico-exam that is free to take and $10 for the transcript (which I didn’t purchase). The exam focuses on general troubleshooting methods, and basic knowledge that all individuals should posses to work as a control systems programmer or system commissioner.

It covers:

• Analog Video
• A/V Basics
• A/V Troubleshooting
• Basic Logic
• Control Systems
• Network Basics
• Numeric
• Serial Communication

CAVP-VF

This one is the Brainbox Foundation’s Certified AV Professional – Video Fundamentals certification. It’s a free mico-exam that is free to take and $10 for the transcript (which I didn’t purchase). The exam focuses on general, basic knowledge that all individuals should posses to work proficiently in the ProAV market.

It covers:

• Analog Video
• Cables, Connectors
• Digital Video
• HD Video
• Video Measurements and Standards
• Video Products
• Video Projection

CAVP-PF

This one is the Brainbox Foundation’s Certified AV Professional – Programming Fundamentals certification. It’s a free mico-exam that is free to take and $10 for the transcript (which I didn’t purchase).  The exam focuses on general, basic knowledge that all control systems programmers should posses to work proficiently in the Pro AV market.

It covers:

CAVP-WFF

This one is the Brainbox Foundation’s Certified AV Professional – Wi-Fi Fundamentals certification. It’s a free mico-exam that is free to take and $10 for the transcript (which I didn’t purchase). The exam focuses on basic knowledge that all individuals should poses when working in a capacity to design, setup, or maintain wireless networks associated with AV installations.
 
 
 
 

My Wishlist

Now that you’ve seen the certs I have, I’ll list the one’s I’m planning on getting in the future.

ECA

This one is the Extron Control Associate certification. Once one has the EAVA and has taken the Extron Configurable Control System Course (which I took at InfoComm in 2011), this is the next step.

It covers:

• Simple control system design
• TouchLink™ template modification using GUI Configurator software
• TouchLink™ System configuration with Global Configurator software

ECS

This one is the Extron Control Specialist certification. Once one has the ECA, this is the next step.
It covers:

• Development of control interfaces from scratch using Extron GUI Configurator software
• Advanced configuration using Extron Global Configurator
• AV resource management using Extron GlobalViewer® Enterprise
• Networked systems design and troubleshooting
• Control system design
• GUI design best practices

CTS

This one is the Certified Technical Specialist certification. This is the AV industry’s standard certification. Here’s the handbook.
It covers:

• Creating AV Solutions
• Operating AV Solutions
• Conducting AV Management Activities
• Servicing AV Solutions

CTS-I

This one is the Certified Technical Specialist – Installation certification. This is one route to go after getting a CTS. Here’s the handbook.
It covers:

• Conducting Pre-Installation Activities
• Conducting Site Rough-In/First-Fix
• Perform Systems Close Out
• Conducting Ongoing Project Responsibilities

CTS-D

This one is the Certified Technical Specialist – Design certification. This is the other route to go after getting a CTS. Here’s the handbook.
It covers:

• Conducting a Needs Assessment
• Collaborating With Other Professionals
• Developing AV Designs
• Conducting Project Implementation Activities

The newest version of Final Cut is X, or 10. But people who used any previous version won’t recognize the new version. Since I don’t plan on wasting my money on this program, here’s a list compiled on premiumbeat.com:

• Chapter Markers: Apple seems to have done away with DVD Studio Pro, but you can now burn DVDs from directly within Final Cut Pro. In earlier versions of FCP you could add markers and include them as chapter markers upon export. This feature has inconveniently been left out of FCPX, making the ability to architect a commercial DVD fairly infeasible.
• Limited Export Settings: You are limited in the formats and sizes you can export from FCPX. Whereas before you could export a variety of codecs and formats out of FCP, you now must complete more specific encoding in Compressor.
• No Export for Hi-Res JPGs: If you want high resolution screenshots you must save them as TIFF or PNG files. JPG stills can be saved out of FCPX but they will be low resolution files.
• No Support for EDL
• No XML Import: Word on the street is this will be accomplished with a future third party plugin (for an additional fee, certainly).
• No OMF export: Again, this should be able to be completed with a third party plugin sometime in the future
• No Native Support for Red Raw files: With the wide range of codecs and file formats that FCPX natively supports, it may be a bit of a surprise that they don’t natively support this now popular video format.
• No Multicam: The initial release will not have support for multicam, but sources close to Apple say that it will be included in future updates. If you use Multicam often, the lack of this feature could be a deal-breaker.
• Inability to Open Projects Saved From Previous FCP Versions: The initial release will not allow you to open up projects saved from previous Final Cut Pro versions. There may be some ability to import legacy projects in future updates, but for this reason alone it makes sense to keep both FCPX and an older version of FCP on your machine.
• No Capture from Tape or Output to Tape: Tape is slowly being phased out in most forms of production, in favor of solid state and file based systems. It’s no surprise that this one wasn’t included, but it may be a deterrent for those that are still working in a tape based environment. UPDATE: You can capture from camera, but does not appear to have batch capture function.
• Limited Options for Arranging Your Workspace: Say goodbye to editing on 2 screens and sending the video signal out to a third monitor. The workspace is primarily “locked” and windows cannot be rearranged.
• No Native Support for Third Party Plugins: We can anticipate this being a feature in immediate updates to FCPX. For now however, you are relegated to Final Cut Pro X’s built in plugins and filters until the SDK for developers is released. Your FCP 7 and earlier compatible plug-ins WILL NOT work in FCPX. UPDATE: Noise Industries reports an update to it’s FX Factory bundle with over 140 effects, transitions and generators for FCPX.
• Support for External Monitoring?: Early reports state no support for external monitoring on a calibrated video display. UPDATE: There is external monitoring with an AJA card and new drivers.

The biggest ones that get me are Chapter Markers (long DVD creation is out, then), Multicam (back to the old days of FCP 5 where you chop manually – two major version ago!), inability of open old FCP files (Seriously!? I can’t open old projects!?), no tape interface (I think you can capture from, but no giving videos to old production houses – like most big production companies, TV stations, etc.), limited arranging of the workspace (the default never works for me), no third-party plugin support (Dropping support for the 1,000s of current ones. That’s nice…), and external monitoring (Hope they straighten this out). Hmm, my list is almost everything on the list I copied in. That’s neat. Also, there is no physical media with FCP X. You purchase it in the new Mac App Store and download it (all 1.33 GB of it). Hope you never have to reinstall on the road!

P.S. They also dropped DVD Studio Pro (and added in DVD burning into FCP X), Color (added into FCP X), and Soundtrack (as far as I can tell). Motion and Compressor are separate apps. FCP X is $299.99 and Motion and Compressor are $49.99 each (totaling cheaper than the previous $1,299-ish price tag).

And so we have the day the music (or video editing) died. Bye Final Cut Pro. Now we have iMovie Pro.

Panasonic B AV-HS400

Panasonic AV-HS400 A

Panasonic AV-HS400 A - Rear Panel

This is my favorite choice. If we go HD-SDI, it’s a must. Making it work on all analog component would be more pricey, though, since we’d need more expansion cards. We’d already have to get one for computer input (or get an card for our computer to output in the right format). It does some awesome stuff, though. Our cameras to HD-SDI output at 1080i, so that would work.

Edirol V-440HD

Edirol V-440HD

Edirol V-440HD - Rear Panel

This is our other option. It has a SD side on the left, which is then mixed down and up-converted to HD on the right. It takes component, composite, and VGA and can output component. Another workable option. Our cameras can also output component.

Why do your graphic supers have funny jagged edges in Photoshop, but they look fine on (television) screen?  For that matter, how can anamorphic formats cram so much width into a regular NTSC-type signal?  The answer, simply put, is that pixels come in all shapes and sizes.

Recall that pixels are the individual points of color that make up a picture on your screen.  While computer screens and similar displays usually use pixels that are square, televisions, historically, have not.  In fact, the concept of a “pixel” didn’t figure into analog television signals at all — the NTSC specification called for 480 “lines,” but the signal within those lines did not specify discrete units of width.

When the notion of digital video became a reality, the standards bodies that be decided that — for both NTSC and PAL — there would be exactly 720 pixels per line.  Thus, the 480i resolutions we know and love: 720×480 NTSC, and 720×576 PAL.

Now, in order for video rendered in the new 720x___ proportions to look the same as it always had on analog screens, it didn’t make sense to think of the 720 dots on each row as square.  NTSC video, for example, was customarily rendered at a ratio of 4 units wide by 3 units tall.  That translates to 640 pixels wide for every 480 pixels tall — not 720.The solution, then, was to render pixels as non-square: about 0.9 units wide for every unit tall, in the case of NTSC video (and about 1.09:1 for PAL).  When encoding widescreen video as anamorphic DV, the ratio became skewed to “fat” pixels — 1.21:1. 

Fortunately for all of us, modern standards like HD have evolved in an age where digital editing and dissemination are the norm.  HD standards were drawn up with square pixels in mind, so pixel aspect ratios are unimportant when considering fully native HD workflows.  But unfortunately, HDV at 1080i — with a native resolution of 1440×1080 to represent HD’s 1920×1080 — assumes fat pixels just as its predecessor DV formats did, this time at a ratio of 1.33:1.

Of course, modern imaging tools like Photoshop and After Effects ship with a wide array of presets fully appropriate to each type of native footage.  As long as you realize that these presets involve more than just codecs and pixel resolution, you should avoid nasty surprises involving “squished” graphics.

Generosity from Smooth Via on Vimeo.

I’ll start with filming. We use a Canon XL-H1 to record our video of the Saturday evening service at Northeast Campus (Tech specs: we use HDV 1080i60 – 60 frames per second interlaced). (Side note: HDV is different from HD because, as far as I can tell, it records 1440×1080 pixels instead of 1920×1080. To make it a wide-screen size, however, it stretches the pixels – instead of square they are anamorphic.) The XL-H1 is equipped with a Focus Enhancements Firestore FS-C DTE Recorder (Tech specs: 60 GB Firewire 400 with an awesome battery!), which records our video straight to hard drive. We record in Sync mode, which allows us to record a backup to DV tape as well. (Tech specs: we set manual focus and white balance every week, our gain is 0, our shutter speed is 1/100, and our iris is whatever brings the light meter to the center). 

Next, post-production. We plug our Firestore drive into our Mac Pro (Tech specs: 2×2.8 Ghz Quad-core Intel Xeon with 8 GB running Leopard) and copy over the captured files. We then add them to Final Cut Studio 2, add in lower thirds, add a flicker filter for our backlit scrim, normalize our audio, add in videos we used that service (intro video, etc.), and export the raw video. We then copy that and the ProPresenter schedule for the weekend over to the iMac from the Northwest Campus and leave that for the Campus Pastor (Paul Crouthamel) to pick up the next morning. As a backup, we also export a DVD (through VisualHub) of the service and leave it with the iMac.

Finally, we post to the web a Quicktime export of the raw file (Tech specs: we export in H.264 1280×720, 3000 kbps multi-pass with 128 kbps audio) and upload to Vimeo. We link to that from our sermons page.

Hope this post makes you feel more knowledgeable. This whole setup has been a major learning curve for me and everyone else involved, but I think we’re starting to get the hang of it. If this sounds like something you’d like to do (and you go to Journey), drop me an email and let me know. Feel free to ask questions or offer suggestions here or through email. I’m always game for talking about this stuff!

Edit: We’re using Vimeo for our video solution. Works great, and even support HD!

Edit: I’ve been informed by Alex that “We actually have 6 RGB Moving-Head LED’s and 5 Stationary RGB LED’s in addition to the other lights you mentioned. They are hiding behind of the scrim and on the floor.” Just so you know.