Before you walk in
Prepare
Each class assumes the one before it, and Class 3 assumes arithmetic you will not pick up on the day. Every block below tells you what you must already be able to do, three things to actually go and do, and what to bring. The readiness check is five questions that point at the specific thing to fix.
The one that matters. Class 3 needs its
preparation spread over several days, because subnetting does not absorb in one sitting.
Everything else is lighter. If you only prepare for one class, prepare for that one.
Why This Class Exists
This is the first class, so there is almost nothing to prepare. Come with the right expectation rather than the right knowledge.
What you must already be able to do#
Nothing. No computing background is assumed anywhere in this module.
Do these three things#
- Read the one sentence below and decide whether you believe it. You will be asked. Every signal in a modern show is, at some point, a number in a computer's memory, travelling over a shared network, with a deadline.
- Think of one time a show you worked on, or watched, had a technical failure. What broke? Did anyone know why? Bring it, we will use real examples.
- Skim the glossary. Do not learn it. Just see how much of it you already half know from being around a stage.
Bring#
- Something to write with. This class is not a laptop class.
- The glossary, printed or on a phone.
The Machine
This class has a lab, and a student whose machine is not ready spends it watching someone else.
What you must already be able to do#
| Skill | Where to get it |
|---|---|
| Convert bits to bytes, and know which is which | Foundations |
| Powers of two up to 2^16, and why 256 and 512 keep appearing | Foundations |
| Multiply out a data rate without a calculator | Foundations |
If the Foundations page is new to you, do it first. It is forty minutes and it is assumed by everything below.
Do these three things#
- Install the software, from the list sent to you. A disk benchmark and an audio latency tester at minimum. This is the blocking one.
- Find your own machine's numbers before you arrive: how much RAM, what storage, what graphics. Five minutes in system information. You will measure the rest in the lab.
- Look at one media file you already own and try to find out what codec is inside it, not just its file extension. You will probably fail, and that failure is the point of Block E. If you want to arrive ahead: open the same file in a hex viewer and write down the first eight bytes. We will read them together.
Bring#
- Your laptop, charged, with the software installed.
- Headphones, for the buffer demonstration.
- The reference card, Block 1 learned.
The Network
This is the heaviest preparation in the module, and the one that most changes how much you get out of the class. Subnetting does not absorb in one sitting.
What you must already be able to do#
| Skill | Where to get it |
|---|---|
| The nine mask values: 0, 128, 192, 224, 240, 248, 252, 254, 255 | Foundations |
| Read a binary octet and give its decimal value | Foundations |
| Recognise hexadecimal, and know a MAC address when you see one | Foundations |
| Calculate a data rate and convert it to bytes | Class 2 |
Do these four things#
- Learn the nine numbers. Nine values, and every subnet question in this module and the exam depends on them. Twenty minutes.
- Watch the two OSI videos linked at the end of this class. Forty minutes, and the class will move much faster for you.
- Run the subnetting trainer until you get five in a row. You are not expected to be good yet. You are expected to have met the questions before, so that the method in Block B lands on something rather than on nothing.
- Find your own laptop's IP address, subnet mask and gateway and write them on paper. Do not change anything. Bring the numbers.
Bring#
- Your laptop, and Wireshark installed.
- The three numbers from step 4.
- The reference card, Block 3 learned.
Control
Lighter than Class 3, but the lab is a build, so arrive able to set an IP address without looking it up.
What you must already be able to do#
| Skill | Where to get it |
|---|---|
| Set a static IP and subnet mask on your own machine, in under a minute | Class 3 |
| Say whether two addresses can talk, given a mask | Class 3 |
| Divide a channel count by 512 and round up | Foundations |
Do these three things#
- Practise setting a static IP on your own laptop, then put it back. Time yourself. Under a minute, without a search engine, is the target.
- Install a cue application and a software lighting console. Both free versions are fine. The lab builds a chain between them and installation time is lab time lost.
- Count the channels on any fixture you have worked with. Find its manual, find the channel count, and work out how many of them fit in one universe. Ten minutes, and it makes Blocks B and C concrete rather than theoretical.
Bring#
- Your laptop with both applications installed and opened once.
- Your fault log from Class 3.
- The reference card, Block 4 learned.
Media Over IP and Systems
The final content class pulls on all four before it, so the preparation is mostly revision rather than new material.
What you must already be able to do#
| Skill | Where to get it |
|---|---|
| Calculate an uncompressed video data rate | Class 2 |
| Explain multicast, IGMP snooping and QoS | Class 3 |
| Distinguish state based from event based control | Class 4 |
Do these three things#
- Start Dante Certification Level 1, linked at the end of this class. It is free, it takes about two hours, and the first hour covers exactly what Block A does. If you do one piece of preparation in this whole module, make it this one.
- Work out the data rate of the largest screen you have ever seen on a show. Guess its resolution, assume 60 fps and 10 bit 4:2:2, and do the arithmetic. Bring the number.
- Re-read your Class 3 fault log. Block D asks you to audit a system for single points of failure, and your own diagnostic notes are the best starting material you have.
Bring#
- Your team's trigger chain documentation from Class 4.
- The number from step 2.
- The reference card, Block 5 learned. All of it is examinable.