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OpenAVC Academy

OpenAVC Academy is the training site. Its courses are self-paced, and you take them in your own OpenAVC installation against simulated equipment, so no AV hardware is needed. Any install method from Getting Started works.

The courses

Foundations is for someone new to OpenAVC. It covers what OpenAVC is, choosing and completing an installation, finding your way around the Programmer, reading the Dashboard, keeping a project safe, and how a button press becomes a device command and panel feedback. It ends with a guided exercise in the Simulator and a quiz. Passing the quiz earns a certificate of completion.

Associate is for programmers who build and hand over spaces. Across four modules (Devices, Logic, The panel, and Finish and hand over) you build a presentation and meeting space from a blank project, with checkpoints along the way, then design one feature yourself from a written specification. Two assessments follow: a practical, where a reviewer opens your exported project in a clean OpenAVC instance and operates it, and a scenario quiz. Pass both and you are an OpenAVC Certified Programmer, Associate, with a certificate you can share. Associate is approved by AVIXA for 6 Renewal Units (RUs) toward CTS, CTS-D and CTS-I.

Drivers is a practical add-on covering Driver Builder, YAML and introductory Python driver authoring. Build commands, read reported state, separate channels and diagnose protocol failures against your own online practice amplifier and display. The labs progress from guided edits to adding a capability from a device manual. Complete the practical checkpoints and a short retryable knowledge check to earn a certificate of completion.

Basic Scripting introduces Python project scripts through a zone-level controller. Calculate different targets from one request, apply per-zone limits, combine reported readings and diagnose failed requests. The lessons explain Python as you use it, with a community driver and the built-in Simulator. Complete seven practical checkpoints and all eight scenarios in the retryable knowledge check to earn a certificate of completion. No previous Python experience is required.

How certification works has the pass marks, attempt limits and what the certificate shows.

Which one first

  • New to OpenAVC: start with Foundations, then continue to Associate.
  • Already built your first space from this site: go straight to Associate. Foundations is short, and it fills in what the tutorial skips, so it is worth a look when you have an hour.
  • Comfortable adding devices in the Programmer and ready to author drivers: take Drivers.
  • Comfortable opening projects, adding devices and using the Simulator: take Basic Scripting to add calculations and combined feedback to your projects. Many common control jobs can still use macros without scripting.

Advanced Scripting and Cloud do not yet have courses. The Scripting Guide and classroom tutorial provide further scripting examples; Creating Drivers is the driver-authoring reference.

What you need

  • OpenAVC installed and the Programmer open in a browser.
  • An Academy account. Sign up with your email address and name (the name goes on your certificate), then click Start course on the course you want. The courses are free to start.

Questions about the Academy go to aaron@openavc.com.