Behind the Scenes at the BICSI Learning Academy

The beautiful thing is , bixie has granted me special access for behind the scenes . So over the next few weeks , watch out for three very special episodes . One , we'll dive in deep what is the Bixie Learning Academy ? Another episode , we dive into how the codes and standards and best practices are made .

And finally , another one with that we sit down , talk to Chris Hobbs about the uh , the , the training programs . Three episodes that will be coming in over the next probably four to six weeks . I got to edit everything and put it in really , really excited , but you know we got to start this off with what are you drinking ? What are you drinking ?

Obviously I'm not drinking because I'm driving , so put in the comments below what are you drinking ? Normally this time I would be drinking my Zevia soda , but I didn't . But you know , I take that back . I do have a drink with me .

I have my Bixi cup with my let's Talk Heavenly sticker on it , kind of like joint cooperation , kind of signified these three episodes . I do have a drink . I totally forgot I brought this Water . Yep , it's water , I absolutely love this . So , oh , you know what else we forgot to do ? We forgot to do the acronym challenge .

So here I'm going to put up the acronym right now . Hold on , watch , watch this . Okay , there's the acronym , today's acronym in recognition of these three episodes and tonight's special episode what is bixie ? What is bixie ? Put your answer in the comments below . Oh , this is gonna be so cool .

My wife had the air conditioning set on high last time she drove this thing . Come on , people put in the comments what does bixie mean ? Extra credits . First person answer this correctly and then DM me . Hold on , I forgot to buckle up . That's not fun . Yeah , forgot to buckle up . Drive safe , wear your PPE , don't be like Chuck .

There we go , there we go , yes . So the first person answered correctly and then DM me . I'll send you a set of stickers , yes , a set of let's Talk Cabling stickers . Lots of exciting things going on with the podcast .

Like I said , this is kind of an unusual one because of the behind the scenes with Bixie stuff , but I'm also working on some other cool stuff behind the scenes too . Oh , by the way , if you like this content , make sure you look us up on Patreon and subscribe .

If you , uh , if you're a corporate member and you're looking to sponsor this program , remember it's got to be agnostic and your mission is to educate , encourage and enrich . Absolutely . Get in touch with me , and I'm also doing advertisements on the podcast now , in case you haven't caught that .

So if your company would like to do a short you know , 30-second advertisement on the podcast , ah , get in touch with me , man , get in touch with me and let's talk about it , talk about your ideas and we'll get you on the show and you know pretty , pretty cool stuff .

I do also want to mention since we're in Bixie mode on this episode the Las Vegas conference . It's coming up real shortly . Let me know if you're going . Let me know if you're going to the fall conference in Bixie . I'm trying to go . I've got the vacation time , I can do it .

The problem is , while the podcast does make some money , it doesn't make a whole bunch of money for me to go flying off to Vegas and staying at a hotel for the entire week . So you know , I'm still trying to figure out how to make that work out .

But I have been invited to speak at a private event , um , and I'm trying to make sure that there's no conflict with my current schedule to do that . That's another layer of complexity with doing everything . So I might be out there doing that .

And then also I've been trying to schedule to do an interview with the Joint Apprenticeship Training Program in Las Vegas . They've already agreed to do it . We just got to figure out how to get out there in the time to do it . So , um , matt Appfeld's a great guy . I met him doing some POE consortium stuff . I can't recommend I recommend him high enough .

He's a really , really great guy , um , so it's his facility and , uh , maybe we'll get to do that , hopefully before the end of the year . But again , that all costs , costs money , and that's why I'm always looking for patreon support and corporate sponsorship and stuff like that , because that's just going to really help us do those exciting kinds of programs

. Right now , obviously , I , if I , if you , haven't figured out already , tonight's show is not really live . Okay , let's be honest here . It's not live . All right , it's uh , it's recorded , it's recorded . And uh , because I'm not gonna be , you know I can't do this while I'm .

You know , I do a live thing and drive all the way down to it because I live over an hour away from bixie , so , but , this is obviously recorded , but still still none the same .

And , and I want to say this , thank you to Bixie for opening up your doors , literally opening up your doors , and granting me the access to do tonight's show and also those future episodes which , like I said , coming up soon . I'm really super stoked about that . Oh hey , by the way , I'm also looking for ideas for content , for ideas for content .

So , if you are , if you got an idea for a subject that you want me to cover , make sure that you put me , hit me up with that , hit me with that . If you know somebody exciting , somebody you think has a good message that my audience might benefit from , shoot me a message as well too . Introduce us , or's you email me ?

Tell me what you want to talk about . Let's , let's have a conversation . I'm always looking for content to keep my audience engaged .

And also , while we're talking about bixie , tell me , tell me in the comments below do you have one of the bixie credentials , the , the RCDD , the Bixie technician installer , copper installer , fiber outside plant or any one of those other credentials ? Tell me below . And if you don't have one of those , also tell me in the comment below . Is it on your radar ?

Is this something that you want to get ? Because I'm going to tell you right now . Let's talk about certification , real quick , or credentials . They do cost money . They are expensive . Knowledge usually is . But I will tell you this the money that I spent on credentialing and CECs and renewals I've reaped back easily double , triple , quadruple .

I haven't tracked it , but I have made a lot more money because of my credentials . Now , having a credential doesn't mean that you're automatically smarter than somebody else . It just documents your knowledge .

So that way , so that way in a future employer , a future customer , when they see those letters behind your name , that they know that you take your career seriously and you are maintaining it . That's the difference . People with credentials have to maintain their knowledge level . For people who don't , they don't have to .

But that doesn't necessarily make a credential person better than a non-credential person . I always tell people that I've met some non-credential people that can run circles around credentialed people , but I've also met a lot of credentialed people that can run circles around non-credentialed people , so there you go .

So , yeah , tell us below if that's on your goal plan , maybe within the next year or so , to get your credential , and hopefully it is . You know , I'm still surprised every once in a blue moon , every time I teach classes for my day job , because I always ask that same questions .

I , every time I teach classes for my day job , because I always ask that same questions . I'm still surprised that sometimes I get people who say who's Bixie , who what's an RCDD ? I'm still surprised . I get that .

That's one of the reasons why we're doing this behind the scenes up to maybe raise awareness for people , so that way we can , you know , get people educated . My goal is , before I retire , is to educate as many people as I can to , uh , to get them done . Oh , rcd study groups Um , had some pretty good successes here lately .

I had a couple of people who've gone through my RCD study group recently just achieved their , their RCDD , and I'm going to put their names right here because I can't remember them right at the moment Because I'm driving and I'm talking to a camera at the same time . That's multitasking for Chuck . Yeah , we do it once a year .

I am thinking about doing another because I've gotten several requests to do another RCD study group . So if you're interested in doing this study group with us , dm me , message me , do something , let me know . Also , I'm looking for because I'm running out of bandwidth . I'm looking for people to help me teach that class .

Now you're going to be done on , you know , like a 1099 , so you have to have all that paperwork in line and all that stuff . So if you are a good instructor and you want to teach that class and be part of that success of helping people achieve their RCDD , hit me up , let me know . I already got you know .

Phil Klingsmith and I just we just closed out one recently and uh , really , really love doing that kind of stuff and I love making that impact . So yeah , if you're interested in doing that , hit me up and we'll talk about uh .

First I gotta find out who you are and what your credentials are and and what your stories and how you see how you your teaching style is , and then we'll have a conversation from there . I'm always looking for people to help me with the man .

Rush hour traffic in the country here , two cars yep , that's why I'm driving and doing the same time , because I live in the country . I told cars Yep , that's the reason why I'm driving and doing it at the same time , because I live in the country . I told you it's going to take me over an hour to get to Bixie .

So one of the cool things is and I know I've talked about this before , but Bixie just redid their classrooms a couple years back and it's not the same classroom that I did when I sat in , when I took my classes at Bixby , and they're really , really cool . And I've got to admit this , I am super jealous of that desk camera that they have .

You'll see it in the video . Yeah , you'll see it in the video , because they can zoom all the way down . I want one . I want one , but oh , wait , a minute , hold on one . I want one , but oh wait , hold on . The podcast has to make money . Yeah , that's right .

So , without any further ado , let's queue up the video and , uh , let's watch this behind the scenes tour through the big c learning academy in classroom one with nobody , with nobody else but christopher hobbs . Christopher Hobbs , smell . That . That's not good .

We do have a class going on in classroom B at the moment , but as we walk around the corner here , this is our Bixie Learning Academy cafe that we have , where we bring lunches in for the students so during their lunch break , after they've spent a hard day gaining knowledge in the ICT industry , they take their lunch break here or any of their other breaks

throughout the day . With our break here that we've got , we give a refrigerator and microwave for people who'd like to bring something for themselves , if they have certain restrictions , and then we have a coffee station and water and everything else set up over here .

And typically most of the students like to do a 30-minute lunch because they're all excited to get back into the classroom and learn .

Each of these 16 workstations is set up identical . We have a single fiber panel up here at the top . We have a 66 block , we have an LSA chrome style block , we have a standard Bix block , we've got a 110 frame , a 210 frame and then a Gigabix .

That's over here and , depending on what level of class that you're taking is going to depend on what of these blocks that you're actually utilizing . We also have racks that are set up in the classroom over here as well . If you go look , we've got our have racks that are set up in the classroom over here as well .

If you go look , we've got our patch panels that are set up whether they're shielded not shielded category 5e , category 6 . We've got fiber panels that are located at the top . We actually have fiber that's running from here , each one of our classrooms , to our data center , which we'll go take a look at here in a few minutes .

The other nice thing that we have here in our classrooms is everything in our classroom is set up to be educational .

So , even if you look into the ceilings , we have things such as horizontal connection points that are located in here , which are used in intelligent building design now quite frequently for , as in the case of the Vixie Learning Academy , intelligent building controls and lighting . So all the lighting that's actually in the Learning Academy is PoE .

So we have high bay lighting in here and then out there in our break area , all the lighting that are in there the two by four troppers are actually PoE powered . We'll show that when we go over to the data center , what we have set up .

It is considered a horizontal connection point because it's building services , so that's kind of the divider line , and one of the things that you'll learn in the applied intelligent building design class is and the installation course is that dividing line .

We have our building services , which is what the horizontal connection point would be servicing , and then we have our data services , which would be your access points , your work areas that you may have , or your printer locations , your IP phone stations , whatever the case may be . Those would be served from a consolidation point .

It really just depends on the course and the demand that people have . If we have an organization that's wanting to teach more , we can , and then we will add more instructors as necessary Nice .

So again , everything in the Bixie Learning Academy is for educational purposes and that includes also the AV systems that we have . So you know , we have dual screens that are in here . We have cameras that are located in here . We actually have for students that are wanting to learn how to do things .

So we have document cameras that are set up here so that we can actually zoom in on things , which is great when we're teaching fiber splicing , because we can actually zoom in on something where a whole lot of detail , as you can see , the fiber safety mat that we have there has got some beams in it .

You can actually see the grain of the mat that have there . It's got some beams in it . You can actually see the grain of the mat .

That is then also going to our network extensions . That's why we have things that are color-coded in here , because not only is it important to learn how to terminate , but again the knowledge of repetition of color codes and things of that nature as far as administration are important . So here's our network extension from over there .

And then , of course , we've got our first layer backbone and we have our second layer backbone . That's right here , that's color-coded for our white and our gray . And then we've got on the blocks . Here , as you notice , we have blue for our horizontal , yellow for miscellaneous red . That's reserved .

So we actually put all the color codes that are located on our blocks as well , so that people can see it . It's repetition over and over and over again . If they see these things , they're more likely to retain the information .

But this is just a sampling of the equipment that we set out for the workstations . Of course we've got our standard cleave and crimp type terminations . We've got different splicers set up .

We teach people how to do mechanical splicing as well Not as common anymore , but it is important if you have to do an emergency and you don't have access to a fusion splicer or whatever other equipment that you may necessarily need .

These things are really quick and easy to do in the field , just to get somebody up and running until you can actually do a proper restoration , More fiber equipment over here and testing . Of course we have OTDRs in here that we use for classes with different fault boxes , and some of the fault boxes actually run back to our data center .

Would you like to see that ?

We have our security and access control as well as some fiber fault boxes located in rack number three . In rack number four we actually have a sound masking system that's located in here so that as we're out here talking we're not disturbing the students that are in the classroom . They can't hear what we're saying .

And then the next two racks are actually set up so that we've got rack number five is where all of our switches are located , and if you notice the purple cabling on here . If you think back to the classroom , what color was the cable that was in the horizontal connection points ?

We are primarily using the ports on the switches for PoE lighting . Want to take a look inside ?

That sensor allows us we walk into the room to turn all the lights on for us . We have a switch on the wall , of course , for we need to actually power the lights on or power them down or dim them . We can do that . So this is an anti-static floor . We get a lot of questions is it anti-static or not ? It is .

We actually have the connection over there , on the wall , at the bottom , as you can see , that goes up to our primary bus bar that's located on this side , and then we have , of course , in the ceiling , all the proper fire stopping pathways for our infrastructure that runs through .

So over here we have all of our cabling that's coming in from our POE lighting systems . The purple cable that's up here that's being brought in , as well as the yellow cable , is our single mode fiber and , of course , the aqua is our om4 fiber that we have running out to our various locations in the learning cabinet , backside of the racks .

Here again our switches , our patch panels , our dash system over here , and then these two cabinets . Right here is all of the av systems for the three main classrooms that we have . So these systems right here are all of the controls , so all of the X-Tron systems that we have located in here for each one of the classrooms that's set up .

And then we have our PCs that are assigned to each one of the classrooms , with all of the educational materials are located in this cabinet right here . So I've got one more classroom I'm going to show you . It's a little bit different than classrooms A , b and C . A , b and C are set up to really do the installation courses .

We do use them for the design classes as well , but if we are running our courses like we do pre-conference , we always run four design courses , three to four design classes . We don't run installation courses that week . We have another classroom that we have back here in the back . That's set up just a little bit different .

We only have a single screen because , again , a much smaller room than the other classrooms , and we run our design courses in here , especially when we have overflow and the other classrooms are being taken up by the installation courses . So , chuck , thank you for coming to the Big C Learning Academy . Why don't we roll in and let's start the podcast ?

So what did you think of this episode tonight ? Is this something that you find interesting ? If so , let me know , and maybe I'll start doing more of these types of after hours lives , and also make sure you send me your questions for future episodes as well , too .

I've got I still got a backlog of questions , but I can always use questions , and if I don't use it for the after hours live , I use them for the show . So remember , by asking those questions , I guarantee you somebody else is asking the same question . They just are too shy to actually ask it . So until next time , remember knowledge is power .