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MEDIA
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Training Customers
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by Ken Freed

Digital manufacturers find that training their customers is good for business, and helps the industry, too!

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As digital video technology expands into virtually every aspect of teleproduction, industry demands grows for professional training in the operation and maintenance the increasingly sophisticated equipment. Industry manufacturers are responding to this need with a broad spectrum of training options that include both traditional and innovative approaches. Training customers builds their satisfaction with the products, which invites repeat business.

Extensive research by TV Technology reveals that equipment vendors are using an array of training methods that includes: centralized training; cross-country training tours; independent, third-party training facilities; on-site training; training delivery by U.S. mail and satellites; online (Internet) training, and tutorials that are actually built into the equipment itself. Overall, the trend is toward ever-increasing levels of interactivity as a means of training video professionals.

The general industry attitude toward training is best summed up by David Frasco, director of marketing for Chyron Corp., which has sold 3000 iNFiNiT!, Max! and Maxine! graphics systems worldwide. "You can build any product with a technological advantage, but the lifeblood of Chyron is our operators, the growing group of users who make our products sing."

In other words, what's the point of producing a great product if no one knows how to use it? And the demand for knowledgeable users continues to outpace the supply.

According to the 1995 Ron Carelli Report, 12,000 to 25,000 skilled digital animators will be needed annually in the television and motion picture industry as well as such fields as multimedia CD-ROMs and DVDs, industrial design, and even motion-simulator rides for amusement parks.

"The biggest battle ahead is finding qualified animators," agrees Paul Babb, product marketing manager for Pasadena, Calif.-based Electric Image Inc., which produces the Electric Image 3D animation and rendering package used for the vortex effect in Sliders, the opening graphics of Dateline NBC, and many TV station IDs. "Top animators are being recruited like sports figures, with signing bonuses and other perks. Look at the aggressive recruiting by DreamWorks at SIGGRAPH in New Orleans this year. And with equal or similar demands expected for nonlinear editors and digital compositors, it's no wonder everybody is getting into the training businesses."

"Training is absolutely part of the total product solution that we produce," says Brad Harris, U.S. regional business development manager for Tektronix Corp. "If we are not addressing the training aspect, we are not providing the solution."

Here's a look at the most common training methods now available within the industry.

 

Centralized Training

The traditional approach of bringing people to one central location for training remains the most common technique.

Panasonic Broadcast & Television Systems Company has established regional training centers in Cypress, Calif., Suwanee, Ga., Elgin, Ill., and at its U.S. headquarters in Secaucus, N.J. National training manager Harry Foulds says that equipment is shipped and installed in each training room as products are launched. Another training center in San Diego focuses only on M-II machines. According to Foulds, these training centers teach about 500 customers a year.

Direct competitor Sony packages centralized customer training as part of their multi-tiered Uptime service program, created to minimize equipment and staff downtime. A subscription to the Sony Support Net entitles Uptime members to publications, CD-ROMs, and reduced pricing on remedial repairs as well as training on operations and maintenance at Sony training centers or at customers' sites. The 17 Sony staff trainers currently offer 45 different courses in the seven fully-equipped training rooms divided among the three training facilities at Sony headquarters in San Jose, CA, and at Sony sales offices in Teaneck, NJ, and Boca Raton, FL.

Another company with dedicated training sites is Chyron, which has two training rooms at company headquarters in Melville, New York, in addition to training centers in Atlanta and Los Angeles. Like other companies, says Frasco, Chyron uses freelance trainers to supplement its core group of full-time, staff trainers. These freelancers are usually working professionals with expertise in the systems or techniques being taught.

A variation on the centralized training site has been undertaken by Discreet Logic Inc., producers of the Flint, Flame, Inferno, and related nonlinear, on-line, digital video and audio systems for creating, editing and compositing digital imagery and motion picture special effects. Beyond the busy training center at corporate headquarters in Montreal, reports professional services manager Richard Martin, Discreet Logic offers five-day courses through authorized training centers at Silicon Graphic's "Silicon Studio" facilities in Santa Monica and London. New York University in lower Manhattan is another authorized training center.

 

Third-Party Training

A growing trend among television equipment manufacturers is to place responsibility for their training in the hands of a third-party facility.

A leading independent training center is Future Media Concepts (FMC) in New York City, founded in 1993 by Jeff Rothberg and Ben Kozuch. Future Media Concepts is authorized to offer beginning to advanced training courses for the full line of Avid Technology, Microsoft/Softimage, Quantel, and Adobe Systems products. Their small classes of up to six people each permit extensive hands-on experience.

"We set up the company to address a need in the marketplace by both users and vendors for an impartial training arm," says Kozuch, who serves as FMC president. "When people go to get trained by a vendor or reseller, they expect a lot of subtle or blatant sales pressure. A third party trainer like ourselves knows the product at least as well as the manufacturer, but we're not in sales at all, so we're non-threatening. Also, we never compare competing products or promote one over the other. We teach the equipment as is."

Electric Image has chosen to go exclusively with third-party trainers, concentrating on schools like UCLA, which offers a two-year animation program." We're placing ElectricImage in as many schools as we can, sometimes for free," says Babb, "because with thousand of customers, it's impossible to train all of them. We can't keep up with that kind of demand. There's now 50 schools teaching Electric Image, and we plan to build that up as quickly as possible."

One of Electric Image's instructors is Zax Dow, developer of the EPS Invigorator, a plug-in for modeling encapsulated PostScript images. He teaches 3D animation through the Advanced Technology Program of the American Film Institute (AFI), in Los Angeles.

"AFI specializes in training people in the industry who are already using digital technology but who can't take a night every week for six month or five nights a week over four months," says Dow. "That's why the AFI catalog is filled with workshop-oriented classes."

The 60 advanced technology programs offered in the AFI catalog cover digital imaging, digital video, animation, multimedia, networked media, and computer fundamentals. Beyond ElectricImage, instruction is offered for Adobe Premier, After Effects and Photoshop, as well as Macromedia Director and Studio. Other courses cover every aspect of website design, including the use of VRML and Shockwave authoring languages.

 

Training Tours

Bringing students to the teachers is a one method of providing training, but taking teachers to the students, who might not be able to get the training otherwise, is the next best thing in training. The most common method has been to present training workshops in local hotels.

A company with a vibrant road show is Tektronix, based in Beaverton, OR, which is a leading producer of video signal monitoring and test equipment. The training tour now in progress is called the "Convergence Symposium Series," says Harris, and is traveling to 22 cities in the USA and Canada.

Tektronix instructors present technology overviews and discuss measurement techniques for MPEG, serial digital video, SONET transmission, mobile communications, time division and co-division multiple access, cable TV digital transmission, and physical layer testing from an engineering design perspective.

The free two-day seminars are conducted in local hotels and attract an average of 100 customers each. "As you might expect," notes Harris, "the MPEG program is standing-room only."

 

On-Site Training

For those professionals that are so busy they can't get to a dedicated training facility and can't find the time to catch one of the traveling workshops, some companies will bring an authorized instructor right to your facility to provide on-site training.

One vendor who exclusively offers on-site training is Hitachi

Denshi America, Ltd., the video imaging arm of Hitachi Denshi of Japan. "We offer full on-site training as a routine part of every sale," says Tony Delp, product manager for Hitachi cameras. The five day class covers all aspects of maintenance and operation.

"It may seem a little extreme doing this for every customer," Delp explains," but if we don't properly train those who buy our cameras, if their lack of training causes operational errors, our cameras would a get a bad reputation they don't deserve."

He offers another compelling reason for on-site training. "With centralized training, if a customer from the midwest only sends one or two operators, those people alone know how to use the equipment properly. But if the training is done on site, all of the likely operators and maintenance people are trained, which helps eliminate future problems."

Sony also visits customers' sites along with presenting classes at their Sony retail locations. "We'll go directly to customers if it best meets their needs," says Ray Unser, national training manager in charge of operations, maintenance and repair training. "We've given classes to as few as three people in a professional studio and as many as sixty people in such major operations as Turner and NBC. We can customize the training and provide anything from a one-day seminar to a full two-week class. And to keep their staff downtime for the class to a minimum, we send them advance materials to study and pre-class exercises to practice, so we can provide more hands-on learning during the actual class."

 

Training by U.S. Mail

Another means of taking the training to the student, often referred to as customer support, is by sending educational materials (both printed and on VHS cassette) through the U.S. mail.

Numerous manufacturers have found that distributing an instructional videotape is a cost-effective way of getting a message out. For example, Hitachi is now distributing an instructional videotape for its new Z-2000A three-chip digital camera. Produced by MTA Video Productions in New York City, the 42-minute video covers all the key elements of the camera's operation and maintenance.

"You can do so much with digital processing on the Z-2000A," says Delp, "that operators were getting confused. The videotape is intended to reduce the number of service calls by clearly explaining such features as how to set-up and adjust for flesh-tone detail. The tape shows when and how to use each feature and what effect the various adjustments will have during actual hands-on operations."

On more conventional lines, many companies mail out printed instructional materials. Discreet Logic sends to all clients a quarterly technical bulletin, Discreet Technical News, along with a tri-ennial magazine, Logik, that features product overviews plus tips and tricks. Combining the best of both worlds, Tektronix makes available to customers both printed technical primers and an array of how-to videotapes.

 

Satellite-Delivered Training

Moving past videotape, an expanding list of companies now offer video training to their dealer network via satellite.

Illustrating this trend, Panasonic contracted with the Teletraining Institute on the campus of Oklahoma State University, in Stillwater, Okla., to create and host the Panasonic Academy of Learning, now in its third year. This DSS-based operation provides live and pre-recorded training programs exclusively to Panasonic's flagship dealers and service centers across the country.

Says Teletraining Institute president Lauren Parker, "Our ultimate goal is that when the student walks away from the training, they are able to dissemble, reassemble, test, troubleshoot, and repair any Panasonic unit we train them on. For the PostBox A/V nonlinear editing system, for example, each student goes through a written test and then a hands-on editing test to produce a videotape. We've made this into a contest, and the producer of the best tape wins a prize."

 

Online Training

The next evolutionary step is to offer training online, and toward this end, numerous companies offer technical and educational materials at their websites. Chyron (www.chyron.com) has a training

directory at their site, which Frasco says attracts about the same number of hits as the "products" section.

"Sony is starting to employ online distance learning services as voice and video conferencing becomes more commonplace on the Web," says Unser. "By the end of year, we expect to provide training through our website (www.sony.com) where you already can read about the courses we have available. You'll soon logon at the website to take courses live, but until the bandwidth of web expands and you can download bulky software directly from our website, the CD-ROM is probably the best method for delivering multimedia training, and DVD will be viable once it gets into the marketplace. The key is offering options that bridge the gap, so customers can choose what work best for them."

The Panasonic site (www.panasonic.com) also offers educational and technical materials, says Foulds, and the next step will be to add multimedia training section. "We're already seeing videoconferencing on the Web, and in 1997 we'll start online transmissions from the Teletraining Institute. We're now looking at using either Shockwave or Java for the video although streaming technology seems to evolve daily."

Tektronix's site (www.tek.com) also contains extensive product literature and an E-mail customer-support mechanism, says Harris, "and now we're moving toward actual live demos you can download, which soon will be a routine part of our business."

Tektronix is also inserting "help buttons" and tutorials into the equipment itself. "The instrument themselves are getting smart," Harris says, explaining that the newest metal TDR (time domain reflectometer, a cable tester) has a built-in help button with a menu of embedded tutorials. "You now can call up a tutorial that walks you through how to make a measurement." He adds that all of the newest Tektronix scopes, such as the VM700-T video measurement set, are being upgraded with a help button.

 

Increasing Interactivity

What's next? Discreet Logic's Martin looks for video training to become increasingly important online, especially with the deployment of cable modems. "As soon as we see higher speed limits on the Internet," he says, "our Website will include video tutorials you can download, and this increased flexibility will mean our documentation materials will be updated faster, too."

"This decade is all about merging computers and video," says Frasco at Chyron, "so operators are taking on a new role of creating live digital content. This means interoperability is crucial for both the equipment and the operators. Since all the products are becoming capable of talking to each other on one network, system operators need to know how to put it all together."

"More and more companies will outsource their training," predicts Kozuch at Future Media Concepts. "And as cross-platform editing, compositing and audio finishing becomes one profession, the people who used to do just the story-telling now also have to be able to sit down and build a five-layer opening for a documentary. Some will find this exciting, and some will find it intimidating, but now is the time to get the training you'll need in the years ahead." end

 

 

   
TV Technology

First Published 1996 in TV Technology
(c) 1996-2002 by Judah Ken Freed

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According to the report, 12,000 to 25,000 skilled digital animators will be needed annually in the television and motion picture industry,

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Bringing students to the teachers is a one method of providing training, but taking teachers to the students, who might not be able to get the training otherwise, is the next best thing in training.

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"Since all the products are becoming capable of talking to each other on one network, system operators need to know how to put it all together."

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