ABTT Covid-19 Resources: FREE Training during lockdown (updated daily)

21 April 2020

We know that a lot of freelancers are using this unexpected free time to acquire some new skills and training. For those wanting to do something similar, we would recommend visiting Production Futures who have put together a brilliant list of free tutorials, webinars and videos. There is also NCRQ who are offering their Safety for Managers online qualifications free of charge. More recommendations below:

Free Training:

Meet the Apprentice: Creative Alliance invites you to 4 online Q&A sessions

Do you really know what you are going to do in your future career?

Creative Alliance invites you to an online experience to Meet the Apprentices: #Lockdown Marketing Edition.

Meet the Apprentices is a series of online Q&A sessions with our apprentices. #Lockdown Marketing Edition is an opportunity to hear from our digital marketing apprentices.

Get a chance to hear their story and ask your questions.

Multiverse Wireless DMX Webinar Series – May through June 2020

Discover more about Multiverse technology and future of wireless DMX in the lighting world in our Multiverse Wireless DMX Webinar Series, starting May 7, 2020. The series includes six weekly 30-minute webinars on consecutive Thursdays starting at 11AM EDT, and is ideal for lighting professionals looking to hone their skills for their next wireless DMX/RDM project, and ask questions about wireless DMX directly to the wireless experts at City Theatrical.

Health & Safety Software and Virtual Learning

Blue Lemon are offering the accident reporting module of their full management system free of charge to members, this include the ability to report accidents live and track any trends which may be present in your venue with the ability to eventually benchmark yourself against the whole industry. Contact richard.beale@blhealthandsafety.co.uk for more information. In addition RB Health & Safety courses are now being run virtually, meaning you can ensure staff are up to date on critical training before the venues are back in operation. There is a range of courses which can be run in this format, contact charlotte.collyer@rbhealthandsafety.co.uk or go to www.rbhealthandsafety.co.uk for more information.

Creative Alliance recommend online training resources.

Check out Creative Alliances recent recommendations for online business, creative or technical courses that may be of interest! Find out more here!

Riedel Academy – training program launched

Rather than being cramped up in a webinar “room” full of distractions and poor connectivity, why not get an in-depth training that involves you personally, allows for immediate questions to our experts and challenges you with exercises.

During these times of crisis, our virtual personal training sessions are free of charge until further notice.
Join Riedel Academy online and book a session with our experienced trainers to excel in your production environment.

www.riedel.net/academy

ETC introduces On Headset learning

ETC has introduced On Headset, a new audio series that allows listeners to programme a major theatrical production in realtime whilst listening to the audio cues of a lighting designer.
“Our goal with this project is to fill the gap between the traditional classroom or ‘e-training’ methods of console learning and actually sitting behind an Eos desk in a theatre,” explains ETC senior field service engineer Victor Seastone, “This is a console flight simulator to help with both.”

TAIT is now offering free online training courses for iQ Powered by Navigator to the live event community. By providing these courses, everyone interested in participating is given an opportunity to learn, engage and prepare for future automation experiences, says the company.
Whether a first-time learner or an experienced show operator, the iQ Training Video Series is tailored to all levels of entertainment automation. After watching the series, viewers will know how to operate machines using a variety of methods, add windows to workspaces, create time saving pre-sets, program a show using various cue lines and organizational helpers, as well as stop and restart cues.

Meyer Sound training programme goes daily

Owing to overwhelming response to an initial daily offering of online training content the past few weeks, the Meyer Sound education team has launched an ongoing comprehensive webinar programme. The content blocks will offer a natural progression of subject matter, providing attendees both practical knowledge for honing skills as well case studies for reference. The instructors will review specialty tools that cover a diverse set of solutions across all industry verticals. The education team also welcomes attendees to choose from an à la carte menu to create every other Friday “On Demand” programming via a weekly poll through the Meyer Sound Users Community Facebook group.

For easy access to these popular course offerings, simply click on the Zoom link to join the English sessions at the scheduled times: https://zoom.us/j/598994117Sessions run approximately one hour, are free and no registration required. Upcoming training sessions are listed in the Meyer Sound events calendar at https://www.facebook.com/meyersoundlabs
The webinars are recorded and archived on YouTube at www.youtube.com/thinkingsound.

Zero 88 ramps up Zoom online opportunities

Lighting control manufacturer Zero 88 has seriously ramped up its available online consultations and training opportunities.
A busy and dynamic schedule includes 42 x Zoom training sessions each month which will run for as long as the crisis lasts.
Zero 88 product manager Jon Hole commented, “With the whole live music, events and performance industry shut down, we want to be as positive, forward-thinking and helpful as we can to anyone who is already using or keen to know more about some of the core Zero 88 products.”
The Zero 88 Home Page https://zero88.com/ has full details of what’s available and interested parties can sign up on the spot.

FREE ABTT AutoCAD 3D Tutorial…

Do you have some time available during the current situation? Then you could improve your CAD skills with our FREE 3D Tutorial covering the basics in moving from 2D to 3D drafting in AutoCAD.

Covering extruding existing drawings, creating basic shapes through to creating a rendered image and simple fly-through, you can sign up today and develop your skills.
Like the AutoCAD for Theatre Technicians Course, full support is available from the tutor, David Ripley.

You can access the FREE 3D Tutorial using the details and link below:

ID: ABTT-CV19
Password: Proscenium

URL: www.cad4theatre.org.uk/courses/2019/Part 7

For information about the AutoCAD online Training for Theatre Technicians please click here.

Learn from the multi-award winning LED specialists, Chroma-Q

Chroma-Q®, a multi-award winning manufacturer of LED solutions have announced they will be offering free weekly training webinars on a number of lighting topics, enabling you to develop and expand your knowledge from the comfort of your own home.

Upcoming webinars in the series:

  • White LED in practice – Friday 24th April
  • Colour references and LED – CRI/TM-30 and more – Friday 1st May
  • Camera sensors and LED lighting – Friday 8th May
  • LED fixture for installs, what to consider – Friday 15th May

Keep an eye out on the Chroma-Q website and social channels for the latest information.

Sherman Theatre Offer various Workshops

Following the demand for Joe Murphy’s Structure Workshop, other members of the Sherman team will offer their expertise to help artists and freelancers to develop new or acquire existing skills through a series of free workshops.

Marketing Workshop 23 April 2.30pm

Ed Newsome, Sherman Theatre’s Head of Marketing and Communications and experienced trainer who has taught for many years on the UK Theatre Essentials of Marketing course, will lead a two hour-long workshop to provide artists, freelancers and fringe theatre companies with an essential toolkit for marketing their work. To register for the workshop please email ed.newsome@shermantheatre.co.uk

Creative Engagement Workshop – Why it isn’t just ‘kids stuff’? 7 May 2.00pm

This workshop is aimed at those wishing to begin to develop their skills, understanding and appreciation for Creative Engagement. Often misunderstood as simply providing a schools workshop or post show talk, Creative Engagement encompasses a broad spectrum of points of contact for all audiences. Sherman Theatre’s Creative Engagement Manager, Timothy Howe, will take participants through the ways in which Sherman embeds this work across its programme, and how it continues to seek out new ways of working within an ever evolving sector. This workshop will include practical exercises for the participants as well as open discussion and Q and A opportunities. To register please contact timothy.howe@shermantheatre.co.uk.

The workshops will take place via Zoom and numbers are limited.

Rope Handling: Knots, Hitches and Coils – Free Webinar – March 25th

This 60 minute rope handling webinar will solely focus on tying knots and coiling ropes. This is a beginner level class and will teach attendees a variety of useful knots and coils that can be used in an entertainment, industrial or recreational setting.

​​​​​​​Bio:
Trevor Whipkey has been working-at-height for a decade and has logged over 9,000 hours on rope and nearly 2,500 hours training others to do the same. Trevor began as an intern with Cirque du Soleil and spent 6 years with the company before moving into freelance work. In 2018, Rope Technologies was formed to take on specialty rigging projects, training and equipment supply.

Free Vectorworks Training -from 23rd March 

ABTT Member Fridthjofur Thorsteinsson is offering online Vectorworks training – free of charge. He states that ‘this might be an excellent use of the downtime and instead of wasting it, please join me in building and furthering skills from the comfort (and public health safety) of your own home! With enough participation, this might also not only further your own skills, but also industry working methods so we will come out of this stronger and better. Digital herd-immunity of sorts…’

ETC – Free online training courses

ABTT Platinum ISG Member ETC are offering free training courses online to those that require them. Details on the courses offered cam be found here: https://courses.etcconnect.com/all-courses.html

Rope Handling: Knots, Hitches and Coils – Free Webinar by Theatre Art Life

This 60 minute rope handling webinar will solely focus on tying knots/ and coiling ropes. This is a beginner level class and will teach attendees a variety of useful knots and coils that can be used in an entertainment, industrial or recreational setting.

Artistic Licence – DMX – Workshop upgraded

DMX-Workshop, the free software application for lighting network management, analysis, configuration and diagnostics, is available in a new version for download. It offers functionality across many protocols, including Art-Net, sACN, DMX512, RDM, VLC and DALI.

Grand MA2 Network course – £10+vat to charity

ABTT Silver ISG Member Ambersphere are offering MA Training. The platform offers an interactive, guided and user-centered online learning environment for /MA Products. Combining a tutorial videos, multiple choice and quiz questions, the system lets you delve deeper in to the world of MA Products.

Free Webinars from green hippo

Green Hippo is offering free online webinars over the next few weeks to cover several different topics catered for new and existing Hippo users.

Free training for freelancers

Theatre-training.co.uk

A list of online and Remote training activities during the COVID-19 pandemic

 

 

Free Demos and Temporary/Educational Licenses:

Reaper – Free temporary licence

REAPER is a complete digital audio production application for computers, offering a full multitrack audio and MIDI recording, editing, processing, mixing and mastering toolset.
REAPER supports a vast range of hardware, digital formats and plugins, and can be comprehensively extended, scripted and modified.

Audacity: Free, open source, cross-platform audio software

Audacity is an easy-to-use, multi-track audio editor and recorder for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and other operating systems.
Developed by a group of volunteers as open source.

Qlab – Free Qlab 4 pro bundle until June 1st (Educational email required)

QLab is sound, video and lighting control for macOS. It’s used by everyone from Ars Nova to War Horse on Broadway.

Cinema4D – Free Educational Licence

Cinema 4D Release 20 is now available as an Educational License for students, apprentices and teachers.

The new Cinema 4D Release 20 extends the creative possibilities of up and coming 3D artists with new features such as volume-based modeling, Fields, multi-instances and a node-based material system.

Sketchup Free

Your free 3D modeling software. Make anything you can imagine, without downloading a thing.

Mad Mapper – Free demo version

MadMapper is an advanced tool for video and light mapping. Fast and Easy to use it is now on MAC & WINDOWS.

Modul8 – Free demo

Modul8 is a software for live visual performance developed by GarageCube.

Adobe creative cloud – 7 day free trial – educational discount to £16.24/month

Blender – free modelling

Blender is the free and open source 3D creation suite. It supports the entirety of the 3D pipeline—modeling, rigging, animation, simulation, rendering, compositing and motion tracking, video editing and 2D animation pipeline.

 

Free Tech Support:

Free tech support and training from zero88
As venues close and events are cancelled across the world, we want to help in whatever small way we can. We’d like to offer you a 20-minute free session, 1-on-1, with one of our technical support team. We’ll phone you at a time and on a number that’s convenient to you. We can help in any way you wish, but here are a few ideas:
1) Set you up with a free visualiser, allowing you to perfect your programming skills
2) Teach you how to create fixture personalities to use in the future
3) Guiding you through updating the software on your Zero 88 equipment
4) Discussing what products might be most suitable for you in the future