Behind the Scenes at the BICSI Learning Academy

Ever wondered how industry standards and certifications come to life? Join me for a special, behind-the-scenes journey to BICSI, where you'll get exclusive access to the BICSI Learning Academy, insights into the development of codes, standards, and best practices, and a captivating interview with industry expert Chris Hobbs on training programs. Participate in our engaging acronym challenge and share your thoughts in the comments as I navigate my way to the upcoming BICSI fall conference in Las Vegas, peppering the episode with personal anecdotes and updates.

Discover the transformative power of BICSI certifications, such as RCDD and BICSI Technician Installer, and how these credentials can significantly elevate your career. I'll share my own experiences and the benefits of continuous education, highlighting the success of recent RCDD study groups and the urgent need for more instructors. Take a virtual tour of the newly updated BICSI classrooms, where state-of-the-art AV systems and hands-on learning stations are setting new standards in telecommunications education.

Curious about the advanced technology behind BICSI Learning Academy? I'll walk you through the dual screens, cameras, and document cameras that make detailed fiber splicing training a breeze. See how color-coded network extensions, backbones, and blocks enhance learning retention, and explore the data center's intelligent building design, featuring a distributed antenna system, high-density fiber setup, security systems, and PoE-powered lighting. Stay tuned for our potential after-hours live Q&A sessions, where shared questions can build collective knowledge. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a rating to help others discover the thrilling world of telecommunications!

Chapters

• 0:00 Special Bixie Behind-the-Scenes Episodes
• 5:33 Bixie Learning Academy Behind-the-Scenes
• 16:16 Bixie Learning Academy AV Systems
• 24:15 After Hours Live Q&A Feedback

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Wednesday night, 6 pm, eastern standard time. That can only mean one thing live after hours with your favorite rcdd, and you know that's me, chuck bowser. So tonight we have a special episode. Wait till you see what we're doing. Obviously, I'm not in my studio, I'm heading down to Bixie. I'm not in my studio, I'm heading down to Bixie. 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.

Speaker 1: 1:15

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.

Speaker 1: 2:01

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.

Speaker 1: 3:09

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.

Speaker 1: 4:03

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.

Speaker 1: 5:33

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.

Speaker 1: 6:18

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.

Speaker 1: 6:55

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.

Speaker 1: 7:20

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.

Speaker 1: 8:29

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.

Speaker 1: 10:39

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.

Speaker 1: 11:19

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.

Speaker 2: 11:47

Yeah, chuck, welcome to Bixie Learning Academy.

Speaker 1: 11:51

Well, thank you for inviting me, chris, it's good to be back again.

Speaker 2: 11:55

Glad that you're here. Why don't we take a tour of the facility so that we can show all the people that watch your podcast what we do here at Bixie Learning Academy?

Speaker 1: 12:01

Let's do it.

Speaker 2: 12:02

All right, so this is the entrance of our Bixie Learning Academy. Let's do it. All right. So this is the entrance of our Bixie Learning Academy. We have actually four classrooms that are here. We'll take a look at classroom A. 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.

Speaker 1: 12:42

How long do they get for lunch?

Speaker 2: 12:44

Well, that depends, so we usually leave it up to the students, but they at least get 30 minutes and sometimes longer than that. I always did an hour on the first day and then everybody would come back in and say okay, was that too long? Was that too short? What do we need to adjust? 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.

Speaker 1: 13:05

Yeah, but they're also checking their emails.

Speaker 2: 13:13

Well, work is always important, right. Work never stops. Even if you're at the wonderful Bixie Learning Academy, work never ceases. We always have to get done with the projects that we're working on.

Speaker 1: 13:18

So you said you had the classroom open. Let's go check it out.

Speaker 2: 13:20

Yeah, let's go walk in here, let's go talk to, let's take a walk around classroom A. This is classroom A, chuck. So this is the first classroom as you walk in on the right that you come into the classrooms. These are all the stations that we have set up on the wall. So we have actually 16 workstations set up on the wall here. Each of these 16 workstations is set up identical.

Speaker 2: 13:40

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.

Speaker 2: 14:20

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.

Speaker 1: 14:57

I got a question how many people call that a consolidation point?

Speaker 2: 15:01

So if it was being used for data outlets, it would be a consolidation point. So if it was being used for data outlets, it would be a consolidation point. However, because we are specifically using that for our poe lighting. There's no telecommunication outlets like what we have on the wall over here. 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.

Speaker 1: 15:47

This is an instructor question. What's your instructor to student ratio and how many students can you teach at once?

Speaker 2: 15:56

So our instructor to student ratio varies. It really depends on how many people we sign up for a class. Typically, we cap our classes at 12. We do flex up sometimes. It really just depends on the course we sign up for a class. Typically, we cap our classes at 12. We do flex up sometimes. 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.

Speaker 2: 16:16

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.

Speaker 1: 17:04

That's detail.

Speaker 2: 17:06

That's detail. Well, in design or installation, details matter and that's what's important that we show. So that was the first half of the room. As we move around, we have a simulated entrance facility. That's over here, where we've got simulated copper cables that are coming in, that are going to, of course, our infamous orange demarcation. 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.

Speaker 2: 17:41

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.

Speaker 1: 18:12

That's right. The more sense you incorporate in that learning process, the better chance you have of retention.

Speaker 2: 18:16

That's exactly right. Back here in the back of the classroom, we have fiber stations set up. So this is all set up for our technician course or our Installer 2 fiber class.

Speaker 2: 18:27

We are teaching our applied fiber splicing class. It will actually be in Classroom B. Unfortunately there's students over there so we can't go walk and do a tour in there. 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?

Speaker 1: 19:17

Yes.

Speaker 2: 19:18

Let's go take a look at our data center. So this is Bixie's data center. This is kind of the operations of Bixie itself, especially for the Learning Academy. But the other thing is it actually holds our distributed antenna system, which is located over here on rack one. We also have a simulated high-density fiber setup. 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.

Speaker 2: 20:14

If you think back to the classroom, what color was the cable that was in the horizontal connection points?

Speaker 1: 20:23

I didn't look up there, I just shot the camera at it. I don't have my glasses on, I couldn't see that far, so it's purple.

Speaker 2: 20:25

It was purple cable, so that is the cable for all of our switches that power the lighting for the entire side of this building. Oh nice, and then, of course, those are the patch panels. So if you look at the blue cable up there, you can see that we are not utilizing a whole lot of data ports over here. We are primarily using the ports on the switches for PoE lighting. Want to take a look inside?

Speaker 3: 20:48

Yes.

Speaker 2: 20:49

All right, let's go inside.

Speaker 1: 20:51

That was a dumb question.

Speaker 2: 20:54

Wow, you might have said no.

Speaker 1: 20:57

Yeah, chances are slim lift down.

Speaker 2: 21:00

So, before I step in, the lights are coming on. As I said, everything in the bixi learning academy and the rest of the bixi offices is poe powered and part of that is energy savings. Huge thing for intelligent building design. We actually have in the ceilings in the middle of this room. Here you can see, is an actual sensor. That sensor allows us we walk into the room to turn all the lights on for us.

Speaker 2: 21:23

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.

Speaker 2: 21:36

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.

Speaker 2: 22:51

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.

Speaker 1: 23:16

Before we go, one question who did the cabling? Did you do the?

Speaker 2: 23:21

cabling Contractor.

Speaker 1: 23:22

Contractor yeah, local yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:29

Nice, all right. So let's go over to classroom D, which is a smaller classroom that we typically use for our design courses. So this is classroom D. We typically use this for our design classes. It's a little bit smaller, fewer students than we have in here. 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?

Speaker 1: 24:07

Let's do it. Say it with me now Knowledge is power. No, no, no, no. You mean it Knowledge is power. There you go. 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.

Speaker 3: 25:02

That's it for this episode of today's podcast. We hope you were able to learn something. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future content. Also, leave a rating so we can help even more people learn about telecommunications. Until next time, be safe.