I’m happy to report that I survived and passed Crestron’s DMC-S Certification class from this past Friday. Overall, the class wasn’t too difficult, but a strong networking background will help.
The class was broken up into ten modules (1. Overview of Streaming Technologies, 2. Streaming Technology Products, 3.Designing using Streaming Technologies, 4. Streaming Profile, 5. Methods of Streaming (Unicast), 6. Methods of Streaming (Multicast), 7. Network Impact, 8. CDN, 9. Programming Interaction, 10. Recap/Resources), with an emphasis on the first seven modules.
A few tips, should you consider attempting the certification:
- If you plan on attending the class in Atlanta, plan on arriving early. ATL traffic is a nightmare!
- Make sure to have the most up-to-date version of Crestron Toolbox (you will use the device discovery tool) and VLC on your laptop. The second half of the class was hands on.
- Your computer should have a dedicated Ethernet port. A Macbook Pro running Boot Camp, VMware Fusion or Parallels will (most likely) work, but you’ll need a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter.
- Familiarize yourself with Crestron’s streaming hardware (DMC-STRO, DMC-STR, DM-TXRX-100-STR, DM-RMC-100-STR, DGE-100, DM-DGE-200-C, etc). The class can quickly become an alphabet soup of acronyms with nearly identical looking small black boxes.
- Having a base understanding of DHCP 1.x vs 2.x will come in handy.
- You will receive a printed booklet (and thumb drive) containing all of the slides. I recommend writing in your notebook when taking notes.
- Take a dedicated mouse with your laptop, unless you want to burn a hole in your index finger.
The class was still a work in progress, as evidenced by the somewhat incomplete nature of the student handbook. But, within the first hour of class, I was able to see that IP-based streaming technology will soon become a much larger piece of classroom AV deployments.
If you have any questions about the class, please don’t hesitate to ask.
