Beyond the Strip: The Technology Training Ground Shaping ICT's Future

We take a special tour of the IBW 357 Southern Nevada Chapter NECA Electrical Training Facility in Las Vegas, exploring their comprehensive apprenticeship programs and state-of-the-art training labs for ICT professionals.

• Tour guide Matthew Apfel, Assistant Training Director, showcases the 25,000 square foot facility with 10 classrooms and 10 attached labs
• The facility houses two separate apprenticeship programs: telecommunications installer technician (6,500 hours) and inside journeyman wireman (8,000 hours)
• Hands-on training includes access control systems, where students interact with live systems and networks
• The PoE and fault managed power lab features multiple racks that simulate live networks and installations
• Students learn fusion splicing using equipment from partners like Fiber Fox, including training on specialized OPGW (Optical Power Ground Wire)
• Training incorporates both legacy systems (66 blocks, Krone blocks) and modern technologies
• Fire life safety system training prepares students for Nevada State Fire Marshal certification
• The instrumentation and cybersecurity lab teaches students about modern building automation, SCADA systems, and secure network-connected devices

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Let's Talk Cabling
• 2:46 Tour of JATC Las Vegas Facility
• 9:35 Access Control Training Systems
• 12:58 PoE and Fiber Lab Environments
• 18:10 Fusion Splicing and OPGW
• 25:27 Legacy and Modern Telecommunications Training
• 33:41 Fire Life Safety Systems Training
• 36:27 Instrumentation and Cybersecurity Lab

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey Wiremonkeys, welcome to another episode of let's Talk Cabling this week's show. I visit a very special place in Las Vegas and no, it's not a casino.

Speaker 2: 0:12

Welcome to let's Talk Cabling your gateway to the world of ICT.

Speaker 1: 0:31

Get ready to dive deep into knowledge and power. Welcome to the show where we tackle the tough questions submitted by installers, apprentices, project managers, project foremen, estimators, customers, even IT personnel. We are connecting at the human level so that we can connect the world. If you're watching this show on YouTube and you like this content, would you mind hitting the bell button and the subscribe button to be notified when new content is being produced? If you're listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? Listening to us on one of the audio podcast platforms, would you mind leaving us a five-star rating? The simple little steps helps us take on the algorithm so we can educate, encourage and enrich the lives of people in the ICT industry.

Speaker 1: 1:13

Wednesday night, 6 pm, eastern Standard Time. What are you doing? I do a live stream on almost all of the major social media platforms where you get to ask your favorite RCDD and you know I'm your favorite your favorite RCDD questions on design, installation, certification, project management, estimation. I even do career path questions. But I can hear you now Check out my truck at Wednesday night at 6 pm coming out from work and I want to crash. Okay, I record them and you can listen to them when it's safe to do so. And finally, while this show is free and will always remain free, if you find value in this content, would you click on that QR code right there? You can buy me a cup of coffee. You can schedule a 15-minute one-on-one call with me after hours, of course, or just buy let's Talk K-Helming t-shirts.

Speaker 1: 2:05

So this episode I got to apologize in advance because it was filmed in vertical format, because a close friend of mine is an instructor. He's an assistant director at the Joint Apprenticeship Training Council facility in Las Vegas and I've always wanted to go see that place, and so I talked to him. He said, yes, you're coming over, we can do some filming. So I went over there with the intent of making a bunch of shorts, but as I started recording stuff, there was so much information. I'm like, man, this is going to be a great show, so I'm going to apologize in advance because everything was shot in the wrong format for YouTube and stuff like that, but it's still a great show. So let's get on with this show and walk through this impressive facility and impressive things that these people are doing to help shape the next generation of low voltage installers.

Speaker 1: 2:54

So I decided to take a little side trip. Now I got friends. I got friends everywhere. So my buddy Matt, let me come see his training facility. Wait till you hear about this. Matt take over. Yo everybody, hey, my name is Matthew Wapthill. See his training facility. Wait till you hear about this, matt take over.

Speaker 3: 3:06

Yo everybody. Hey, my name is Matthew Aptho, assistant Training Director here at the IBW 357 Southern Nevada Chapter, NECA Electrical Training Facility, beautiful Las Vegas, nevada. So our training center here actually houses two separate apprenticeship programs one telecommunications installer technician and an inside journeyman wireman program. In the past we always talked about apprenticeships being of years of duration. These days they're hours-based. So 6,500 hours of on-the-job training and 720 hours of related instruction for the technicians, or we've got 8,000 hours and 900 hours accordingly with the inside journeyman wireman. So excellent opportunities that we have here.

Speaker 3: 3:48

This facility has 10 classrooms with 10 attached labs, as well as a welding shop and a fully functional streetlight and traffic control lab. So we also do a lot of other cool things like NFPA 70E, osha 10, osha 30, all of our own equipment training, osha 10, osha 30, all of our own equipment training. And we even house and host sometimes a Digger, derrick and Crane certifications in our open parking lot just to the south of our facility. So a lot of cool things here. We're a Bixie ATF. We also have lots of FOA classes.

Speaker 3: 4:17

We've been training the telecommunication space for many, many years now. We love having members from our jurisdiction as well as other jurisdictions come and train with us. If anybody has any questions, man, just reach out to me, and I'd love to talk to Chuck a little bit more and show him around, and you guys as well, let's do this. Yeah, matt Firmich was the first training director. We have a picture of him in here too. He was the first training director of the JATC, as it was back in the 1940s, and he was a president of the local and just a local.

Speaker 1: 4:54

You know you're around electricians when they're making coffee.

Speaker 3: 5:00

So it's 10 classrooms, 10 attached labs. The overall square footage of the facility is about 25,000 square feet, which is great, Sounds really good, but the majority of the square footage is actually taken up with our courtyard right here. Our largest attached lab is actually our welding shop, and we're going to see that a little bit later, but the welding and electrical work usually don't kind of aren't synonymous with each other. However, in Southern Nevada, on Department of Defense and Department of Energy Installations, welding electrical infrastructure and fixed and direct attached appliances are something that is within the spec and if it's an electrical item or appliance it is within the scope of the electrician. So we train electricians to be welders.

Speaker 1: 5:47

So, matt, what's the purpose of the tools in these?

Speaker 3: 5:49

showcases.

Speaker 3: 5:51

The tools in these showcases represent different tool sets from various manufacturers that apprentices and electrical workers will be using in the field.

Speaker 3: 6:01

Several of these are tool partners of ours, the field Several of these are tool partners of ours, and all of our tool partners and our training partners are very generous with their donations to the JETC as well as their involvement with us in tool boot camps and onboarding process and other special events that we have in conjunction with the school district and with the college system here in Southern Nevada, our office operations here. Without them, a lot of this doesn't happen at all. You know, from apprentice tracking and grades and compliance things with our various entities that we work with in the state and the federal levels to communication with apprentices and especially since we're taking applications 24-7. Now a lot happens right here, including maintaining a very, very dynamic classroom schedule throughout our 10 classrooms and all of our curriculum classes, including our extra classes that come up on here as well. I'm Julianne Peoples. I'm the assistant training director here at the Electrical JTC of Southern Nevada inside wireman and advocate for helping people out, making their lives better.

Speaker 3: 7:12

When we walked inside the building here, you can see that we have some new pipes, some new boxes on the walls and that's because we have a fully functional access control system. Now you know, I was affectionately referred to as a janitor with a bunch of keys on my hip for this many doors and this many classes. But now we're going the way of technology in support with one of our training partners, peewee Texas. Peewee Texas is indent in digital building intelligence is the backbone of our building automation system, but also we work with another company called ZK-TECO for the hardware side and the door controllers so that we have effectively a 100% POE access control, security and intrusion detection on all of our doors here within this facility. It's helped streamline our process access. But it's also a training item and I'll show you a couple locations to where we have intentionally left available spots on relays, available spots for the students and journey level workers to interact with a live system, as well as live networks, wired and wireless, to be able to accomplish different training tasks. So follow me.

Speaker 3: 8:21

So here's one instance of a training location for our access control system. You can see our main power is actually just a Cat6 cable that's bringing 72 watts of power into this device. It's splitting out the data and the power DC is powering our access control board. This is a training location and it's got a couple relays and a couple spots open. So this is a two-door controller and currently it only has one door on it. So students will interact with this board and it's associated JBOX just to the left and wiring up additional contacts, additional door strikes, additional relays, additional mag locks to complete a second door. On this installation, students go through the physical wiring. They go through the process of actually installing devices on doors, as well as the configuration and commissioning process, what it takes to input doors and credentials and scenes and schedules into our matrix of doors in this facility pulling your first cable or managing multi-million dollar installs, you're not alone.

Speaker 2: 9:34

Welcome to Low Voltage Nation, the largest, most active community of low voltage pros in the game, with over 176,000 members on Facebook and growing. This is where ICT professionals connect, collaborate and level up together. Got a question? You'll get answers from real techs with real experience Facing a job site challenge. Someone here has solved it and will show you how, from fiber to access control, estimating to entrepreneurship, low Voltage Nation is your power network. This isn't just another group, it's a movement. Join the community today at lowvoltagenationcom or jump into the conversation at our Facebook group, because in this industry, the strongest signal comes from those who connect.

Speaker 1: 10:26

So tell me, matt, when do you typically teach the class? Are they after work? Are they during the day? Are they weekends?

Speaker 3: 10:32

Oh man, our class schedules vary. You know, a lot of this is as needed by the contractors and by the workers. We do have fixed schedules for apprenticeship classes. That is, either typically two nights a week in the evenings, 4 30 to 7 30 pm. We also have classes on the weekends. Sometimes it's a friday, saturday, sunday, depending on the class. Sometimes we do have day classes here from 11 to 2 or 8 to 4. But sometimes we do have requests from contractors coming from outside of our jurisdiction to where they need specific training to fit a specific job specification and then we will respond accordingly at the direction of our committee. So it's really and truly seven days a week and can be anywhere from the hours of 7 am all the way up through 9 pm.

Speaker 3: 11:33

I'm asking here right now just for the fact that we are in the process of building out this lab environment, this wall right here. So, like right now on the south wall, right here we're in the process of building this out as our PoE and fault managed power lab, this out as our PoE and fault managed power lab. The way that the board and everything is designed is that it is one lab if you look at each individual rack all collectively, but each rack itself can be its own lab space. All the fiber and all the copper that we have within this lab simulates live networks and live installations. So all of this is with the intent and the purpose of being able to bring in apprentices and being able to bring in journey-level workers and provide them with a real-to-life scenario of not only installing ICT infrastructure and structured cabling, ict infrastructure and structured cabling but also installing fault-managed power systems, electronics devices and other PoE devices. That's within our racks, that's also directly to the wall. That is, utilizing VoltServer as one of our power delivery methods.

Speaker 3: 12:46

Now, this VoltServer system, although it is not the newest, the latest and the greatest, it is an incredible technology that represents the future of the electrical industry and power delivery in general. So these racks right here have connectivity, both copper and fiber. We work with training partners to bring these and make them available to our workers and to our apprentices. A lot of that is by way of donation. We love our partnerships within the industry, such as Legrand, such as Softing, such as POE Texas, such as Clearline Fiber, such as Big C and the FOA, and I can go on and on. One of our latest partnerships with Milwaukee Tools a lot of amazing made-in-the in the USA tools in the telecommunications space. If you haven't seen them, try them. They're awesome.

Speaker 1: 13:37

So if you're considering helping support this program, make sure you get in touch with Matt.

Speaker 3: 13:44

A lot of what you guys see in this lab has actually been donated. We do not accept money or take money from the school district. We do not take money from the state. We are not a publicly funded education. All of our funding comes from donations and from a small amount of money that's basically given by every worker and every hour that's worked within our jurisdiction.

Speaker 3: 14:15

But I cannot emphasize enough how amazing working with all of our various training partners are to make everything that you see here possible, from all of these racks and all the wire management to all of our connectivity, to some of our latest installations here, so we can actually display and have a hands-on practical application of what power delivery and connectivity looks like today.

Speaker 3: 14:43

And have that in a diverse manner to where each installation within this lab might not 100% represent what happens in the field, but yet it is a collective of what the workers might be experiencing in the field. It gives them enough breadth and depth of experience in dealing with the different cabling types and termination types, whether it's copper, fiber or wireless, to have that confidence to go out in the field, hit the ground running and be successful. And we do that with our various forms of connectivity terminations, as well as testing, troubleshooting as well. And if you look across the lab here, every item that you see in here is a 100% training item. It has been installed, it has been tested. A lot of times our instructors will go through and will intentionally cause troubles and faults and into these training environments to where the apprentices will actually have to go through and troubleshoot, make repairs. So this is what's that.

Speaker 1: 15:48

Yeah so what the heck is that thing?

Speaker 3: 15:50

this is actually an opgw fiber enclosure. Oh yeah, you know who would like this. Tj, tj, exactly so when we talk about fiber splicing and terminations, then um, a lot of times within the premise, um, cassettes, traditional splice trays, splice on connectors A lot of things like this are very, very popular and common these days. But within the utility space, your fiber, the way that it's jacketed, the way that it's packaged by the manufacturer for specific locations and enduring the heat and the sunlight, is a little bit different, especially when you get to OPGW, which is optical power ground wire, within a cable like this right here. This is a stainless steel and within the stainless steel is actually strands of fiber in a tube Do?

Speaker 1: 16:43

you have one of these broken out that we can see. I sure do. So, this housing. I think I know a lot of trainers. I know a lot of training labs. You're the first one I've ever said that you have OPGW.

Speaker 3: 16:55

Yeah, so I will actually let me find the OPGW the breaker that I have. Okay, I'll just open this up and show you how about that. There you go up and show you how about that, there you go. So within the utility environment, opg W or optical power ground wire is typically found at the top of a high voltage transmission line and it serves two purposes Number one, as a non current carrying conductor. Number two, to actually house fiber optic cabling.

Speaker 3: 17:35

So at substations, inside substations and at other locations, to where there is a need transition from OPGW to other forms of outside plant fiber or other perhaps it's a OSP fiber, perhaps it's an armor fiber like this. There has to be a way to bring this fiber in here, to get to the actual tube and then provide a means of splicing. So this would be a transition point that is popular and common within a substation or another area to where utility fiber for communications, for substation communication, is therefore transferred within the facility and is handled by technicians or other substation techs for connectivity. But this is what the inside of one of these housings look like you friticate, you protect your fiber, the splices happen right here and then within these, right here, you'll go ahead and do your fiber management and breakout, but I will find the piece of OPGW fiber that we have that shows the. You know what the tube on the inside looks like and everything. It's actually pretty neat.

Speaker 1: 18:54

You know. To be honest with you, I didn't even know about OPGW until TJ got hired by Florida Power and Light and he asked me hey, have you ever done any OPGW work? I'm like, hey, wait a minute, I'm the acronym king. I don't know that acronym.

Speaker 2: 19:08

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Speaker 1: 19:52

So you do fusion splicing too, I see? Yeah, it's a shame you don't live in Florida, matt, because I need to run some conduit in the podcast studio and I'm not a conduit person, I'm a little bit of a guy.

Speaker 3: 20:06

Well by trade and classification. I am too. I'm a senior technician here in the southern nevada. Um, the technicians here in southern nevada do have the ability to run some of their own pathways and spaces and I encourage all of our apprentices and journey level workers to take our four levels of conduit installation and fabrication here. It's basic hand bending all the way up to mechanical bending. But but yeah, we do fusion splicing.

Speaker 3: 20:34

One of our really good partners and fusion splicing is fiber Fox. This mini six s splicer is an incredible unit. We do this right here with the single. We do single splicing moves over here. We do get a 6R ribbon unit every once in a while when we need enough volume for a class, but straight through splicing splicing cassettes as well as splice-on connectors, just about anything that needs to happen to fit the specification for the project. All of our training and each individual item that we offer and we train to here is for a reason or purpose, and that is because it's common in the industry. It's found within a job site, it's an up-and-coming technology. We try to be proactive as well as reactive to all elements within the industry right now, and we're seeing a lot of fusion splicing on jobs.

Speaker 3: 21:38

The way of hand-polished connectors is kind of a thing of the past. These days still are seeing a lot of pre polished connectors. A lot of their people call them mechanical terminations and they work. But splice on connectors and splicing in through cassettes is really the way to go these days, especially in high volume environments, especially on projects where the loss specification is very, very tight, such as in modern DAS projects, to where the loss budget of the optical fiber network is literally next to nothing. There is no loss. You have to be as accurate and as proficient with your fiber as possible, and early splicing is the only way to do that.

Speaker 3: 22:22

Apprentices and our workers. They get a lot of experience working with newer fusion splicers such as this we also work with. We'll rent in, we'll bring in Sumitomo fusion splicers such as this we also work with, will rent in, will bring in Sumitomo fiber splicers, will bring in Fujikura. And then we also have a couple older units that we've had for years and years, made by FITEL and by Corning. If you see an old fusion splicer, do not be afraid, they still work very well, alright.

Speaker 3: 22:46

So this is one of my favorite corners in our lab right here, because it actually represents quite a bit of what we do, both legacy technology as well as modern telecommunications infrastructure and construction technology. So anybody that's an old telco guy as soon as I hold this up right here, this is extremely high-count copper. They might cringe a little bit because back in the day a high copper cabling like this was common practice to come in within a DMARC, within a service entrance, and this right here would be almost all of your connectivity for that building, both phone data and everything. Modern construction still does employ some high count copper such as this, but it's not utilized as its primary means of communication or signal transmission. These days, high traffic, high bandwidth, high throughput communications is all done over fiber optics, typically outside plant fiber optics which has a tougher jacket. You see it underground, you'll see it up in the air, you'll see it on poles. But the various methods and ways of delivering fiber optics to buildings and within the buildings is advancing rapidly and in construction today we have to remain as responsive to those technologies as possible.

Speaker 3: 24:11

So in this corner right here, students and apprentices will literally actually train on the methods of bringing in traditional copper lines through outside plant splice cans like this for copper into a building entrance protector such as this, cross-connected to traditional 66 blocks found within most DMARCs of buildings. This copper infrastructure will then be taken and cross-connected through other lab stations. It will simulate dial tone and simulate signal and they'll have to perform basic tasks like punching down, installing cables, cross connecting cables, and they'll be graded for their proficiency and their accuracy on those things. They'll also have to be evaluated on their installation of fiber optic cable, of both cable that is found within the premise and the outside, or OSP, such as this cable that I have right here in my hand and that will be not only on wall stations such as this. This will also be outside plant fiber enclosures such as this one right here, manufactured by Corning, but also within the premise, and traditional rack systems such as our relay racks that we have throughout this lab, as well as these ones that are mounted on the wall behind me. So the grounding, the bonding, the different cable types, methods of termination, testing, troubleshooting Once again, this is one of my favorite little corners of the lab right here, because there is so much going on here and if you'll notice that we even have our grounding and bonding, anything that's coming in from the outside that has any metallic component to it.

Speaker 3: 25:50

Make sure you're following your big CNTI specifications for proper grounding and bonding. You want to protect your building, protect your infrastructure, protect life, and grounding and bonding does that infrastructure to protect life, and grounding and bonding does that. It maintains the integrity of your network. It provides a balanced and engineered path for any unwanted electrical signal to go to, instead of into, your electronics. It also keeps every worker that's working within the facility safe. So proper grounding and bonding and identification of grounding and bonding through labeling is extremely important because that tells you where those jumpers, where those bonding conductors, where everything is going to.

Speaker 1: 26:32

So I expected no less, Matt, because I've been in other Bixie training labs, Because you know one of the things they tell you about bonding conductors is irreversible compression-style fittings, and I've been in more than one Bixi lab where they use split bolts. That's not irreversible compression style fittings.

Speaker 2: 26:51

Let's take a short break. Are you trying to reach the technicians, project managers and decision makers of the ICT industry? Then why aren't you advertising on let's Talk Cabling? With over 150,000 impressions a month across podcasts, youtube and social media? This isn't just a show. It's the go-to resource for the low-voltage industry. We spotlight the tools, training and technology shaping the future of structured cabling, and your brand could be front and center. Don't just get noticed, get trusted Email. Chuck at advertising at letstalkcablingcom and let's connect your brand to the right audience today.

Speaker 1: 27:38

The things I really like is y'all's attention to detail, and most people would overlook this, but you've got three quarter inch AC grade plywood painted and you don't have paint over the stamps.

Speaker 3: 27:51

Yep, you have to be as diligent as possible with every aspect within this industry. The telecommunications industry is the fastest growing sector of the electrical industry. Because of that, all eyes are on us. It is one of the most lucrative industries to be in. It is one of the most rewarding industries to be in. The fine attention to detail is what will separate you from others in the industry that are just trying to make a quick buck. There's a lot of longevity, there's a lot of rewarding success to be made in the industry and, just as Chuck said, attention to detail making sure that you're labeling, making sure that all of your techniques, making sure that you're following your specifications, your codes, your standards is what will separate you as a professional from somebody else who just has a job.

Speaker 1: 28:50

But I also like the blending of the old with the new. Right, you got 66 blocks. Yeah, you know how many times I see comments on social media that 66 blocks are dead and they're not being used anymore. Way too many times. And for those who don't know, you even have Chrome blocks.

Speaker 3: 29:09

We do, we do. You know, las Vegas and Southern Nevada is not old by any stretch, but we do have quite a few facilities here in town that still are utilizing LSA Chrome that still are utilizing this. Many DMARCs within the facility are still utilizing 66 blocks. Although it may not be the preferred method of connectivity today, it's still out there and we do need to be as well-rounded and as well-trained as possible to be able to identify this. You may not have the proper tooling with you at the time, because this definitely takes a specialized punch tool, but to be able to identify it for what it is, to be able to ask the proper questions and then be able to provide the proper solution, is all part of the training that every qualified technician should be able to provide the proper solution is all part of the training that every qualified technician should be able to do.

Speaker 1: 30:06

And see, that's the difference between an average technician and a great technician. An average technician can terminate on 110 blocks. They can terminate on badge panels, but when you throw them a chrome block, you throw them a Bix blocks, because there's a very specific way you terminate Bix blocks and if you don't know them, they will throw you for a loop.

Speaker 3: 30:25

Yeah, and because of a lot of we'll call it architects, designers, engineers and business owners, throughout the age of a building, maybe that property has seen different styles, maybe different iterations of preferred vendor. Maybe part of the building is the backbone was originally done in Krone and Bix. As times progress, those aren't popular anymore and that progressed into Gigabix and 110, possibly 210. You never know. There are jobs out there to where you're going to have a mixed bag of what type of cabling, what type of termination, what type of cross connect, but it's going to be up to you as the technician to make sure that it's as compliant as possible or at least as functional as possible.

Speaker 3: 31:11

You know, depending on if you're fitting a performance-based specification or a manufacturer-based specification, there's a lot that you can end up seeing in this industry and depending on where you travel throughout this country, you want to be as well-rounded as possible and have as much exposure to these things. And even in our racks in here we have several different styles of patch panel, both modular patch panels and 110 style punch panels. We have many different styles of fiber distribution panels here, many different manufacturers. We don't know what all of our workers and apprentices and what the future holds for every property, but what we do know is that, by being as flexible with our training as possible, by being as inclusive with our training with manufacturers and with modern and legacy technologies technologies that our technicians, our electricians and our apprentices are going to be as well-rounded and as functional as possible- hey, one thing I haven't seen yet.

Speaker 1: 32:11

You have any brooms, brooms?

Speaker 3: 32:14

You're going to be hard-pressed to find a broom in here, man, all right. So the telecommunications industry today is dynamic. It's ever-changing. The things that we're learning today that's popular within the consumer and, as well as the military, the medical markets are going to be passed for tomorrow. Our next lab is going to highlight some of those demands. It's going to highlight some of the changes in the industry that we are seeing as not only professionals but also consumers in the same market that we're a part of, from PoE technologies to class 4 power and fault managed power systems.

Speaker 3: 32:51

We need to be as versatile within this industry as possible and we need to be as educated and credentialed within this industry as possible in order to not only keep up but to stay ahead. Well, as you can see, there's a lot of shop things that happen in here. Because we're so, we do a lot of our own component repair, troubleshooting and testing in here. We do a lot of our own fabricating in here. Not every device that we buy off the shelf actually fits and suits our purposes here, so within reason, we make it work. So right, here is an example of several different booths, of all items that are representative of a modern fire life safety system, both a traditional fire alarm system as well as a suppression system safety system, both a traditional fire alarm system as well as a suppression system. In some locations, like data centers, they don't have wet suppression, they have chemical suppression. So that requires a secondary system to be able to recognize, initiate and to signal those types.

Speaker 3: 33:58

But all of our apprentices, whether they're a technician apprentice or a inside journeyman wireman apprentice, they receive training on this throughout their time here at us. These lab availability in this class is available for our journey level workers as well. And this is a 90 hour course, totally comprehensive of not only modern fire alarm life safety for national codes but also for our very, very strict and stringent Clark County Nevada fire codes. So when people take this class, upon successful completion of this class, they are able to schedule a test with the Nevada State Fire Marshal and actually obtain a state of Nevada registered F card or somebody that is licensed and registered to work on a fire alarm system in the state of Nevada. It's a pretty big deal.

Speaker 3: 34:47

But all of these different boxes in here, they're all color coded because they represent different portions of the system. What's the yellow mean? The yellow is part of a circuit that's part of a notification circuit and blue Blue Blue is a modular. It can be a relay component location, it can be a termination component that's between notification and initiation, and red's obviously fire alarm. Yep, red will be a device that is directly attached to a part of the initiation circuit for fire alarm.

Speaker 1: 35:24

So where are?

Speaker 3: 35:24

we at now, matt, all right. So right now we are in our instrumentation lab. What used to be just pure instrumentation and calibration has now truly evolved into other things, true process control. Part of process control is cybersecurity, is other automation systems and SCADA systems, supervisory control and data acquisition, distributed control systems, other forms of telemetry that allow plant managers, plant systems building operators and owners, both at a small to medium business level, to enterprise level and a true citywide level, to be able to control certain processes, whether that's traffic, whether that's lighting, whether that's water and gas and other utilities. Everything that you see in here serves a purpose for automation, for process control and for other things that find their way onto a network.

Speaker 3: 36:27

These days, traditional electrical work to a future, to where the IT person or the information technology worker has to have certain awareness of the operational technology, such as traditional water systems, electrical systems and security systems. We're seeing more and more electrical workers, technicians, that have to be versed on being able to implement devices that are network enabled, to be able to configure them and install them in a safe manner so that no matter what division of the electrical they're working on if it's division 26, division 27, 28, purely electrical, purely telecommunications or possibly security and access control, that their scope is done accordingly with modern code and modern standards. And policy Changes in the NEC with the 2023 cycle, as well as changes recently with NFPA 70B, make sure that cybersecurity with electrical systems is a priority. So these lab boards behind us represent different training elements of not only cybersecurity building automation systems when it comes to lighting systems and HVAC and power monitoring control, access control systems and security other items that are operational technologies that are now being mixed in information technology systems. Our apprentices are enrolled in what's called WECAT or cybersecurity training, that is, western Electrical Cybersecurity Apprenticeship Training Program that is in conjunction with UC Davis and the Department of Labor, and another program called the California Advanced Light and Control Training Program. These are both programs with the goal of training electrical workers to be more intelligent and aware with modern cybersecurity and billing automation practices. That way, all of our modern installations can be compliant with modern codes and standards but also safe. And that can be found from the lighting systems to the HVAC systems, because everything has an IP address these days. If it's plugged into the network, then most likely it has a MAC address, it has an IP address and it can walk and talk on the network and we want to make sure that everything from the lighting controls to the thermostats, to the building automation controllers, to the surveillance and security and access control and the power monitoring and metering is all done properly and safely.

Speaker 3: 39:16

This lab represents many different activities and levels of technical trade. Many different activities and levels of technical trade. We train on many different manufacturers lighting systems from Lutron, from Legrand to Wattstopper, to PoE, texas and Denton. We're finding.

Speaker 3: 39:34

A lot of the technology these days is becoming smaller form factor, more modular, even powered by PoE.

Speaker 3: 39:42

Power over Ethernet is driving much of the technology and the trends that we're seeing today.

Speaker 3: 39:48

It's enabling designers and manufacturers to power devices more intelligently and moderately, being able to deliver power of what they need when they need and being able to measure loads and be able to have certain measurements on there that you typically wouldn't have with a traditional electrical system, and then also provide many different forms of inputs and outputs for different styles of control. All of this is very, very common and popular with building automation systems and typical control systems these days. It's what is making a user experience and an installation experience, as well as a guest experience and entertainment from healthcare as well as education, all possible today. So the next time that you walk into a building and you turn on the lights, or you open up your phone and you access a wireless network, or you walk into a mall and you find your favorite eating outlet, know that there is some kind of a wireless system, some kind of a network, some kind of an automation control system that operates and lives on devices like you see in my hand right here.

Speaker 1: 40:55

Why does it got to be an eating outlet?

Speaker 3: 41:01

Because eating is like what we like to do. I live to eat. I don't live to. I don't eat to live I need one of them for the podcast do you put together by the time that somebody turns out or graduates from our program, either as a technician or a inside journeyman wireman? In the eyes of our industry, in the eyes of our state and our federal government, they are a legitimate, bona fide, qualified electrical worker, I could wax poetic about the differences between a union and non-union workforce.

Speaker 1: 41:44

I've been both a union worker and a non-union worker. I've managed both a union workforce and a non-union workforce, and there's advantages and disadvantages to both. I don't understand why our industry argues over this all the time, but I will tell you this the one place that the union outshines everybody else is in their training, the Joint Apprenticeship Training Council and their labs. Their training labs throughout the country are no joke, no joke, and I can tell you this as a professional instructor now for telecommunications. That is the Taj Mahal of a place for me to be training. It is such a cool atmosphere there.

Speaker 2: 42:44

Till next time. Knowledge is power In the world of ICT. Let's ride this tide. Thank you for joining us on let's Talk Cable. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with innovation. Keep connecting, keep achieving. Until next time, I'm.