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Apple Certified Training

Solutions inc. train professionals on Apple software and creative software that was designed to use the superior capability of the Mac. Whether you're an architect or network administrator, we can enhance your Mac experience and get you qualified to further your career.

As an Apple Authorised Training Centre, you'll get the very best training. We also offer the exams to get Apple Certification Pro status. We have dedicated classrooms at our Hove, Bournemouth and Chichester stores or can come and train you at your own site.

Contact For all Apple and Adobe certified training enquiries contact our training team on: 0844 8751 610 Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

What's new in Apple Certified Video Training

So now that you have had a chance to look at the new version of Final Cut Pro what is Apple going to do about it's certification program. Apple have heavily slimmed down the range of certifications that they were offering from ten to three.

Out with the old

 The following certifications will be retired January 12, 2012 and removed from the Apple Certified Professionals Registry:

• Apple Certified Pro - Color Correction in Final Cut Studio Level One

• Apple Certified Pro - Compressor 3.5 Level One

• Apple Certified Pro - DVD Studio Pro 4 Level One

• Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Express Level One

• Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Pro 7 Level One

• Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Pro 7 Level Two

• Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Server 1.5 Level One

• Apple Certified Pro - Motion 4 Level One

• Apple Certified Pro - Sound Editing in Final Cut Studio Level One

• Apple Certified Master Pro - Final Cut Studio

Apple Authorised Training Centres will continue to be able to run courses and exam up until this date. As of August 31, 2011, Final Cut Pro 7 exams will no longer be available in Prometric Test Centres.

In with the new

They will be replaced by the following Certifications

• Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Pro X Level One

• Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Pro X Level Two

• Apple Certified Pro - Motion 5 Level One

The materials for the new courses and certification will be available in late September so don't expect any Apple Certified FCP X courses until then. The books will be available in hard copy or as an iBookStore title.

There will be four courses available.

FCP 101: Introduction to Final Cut Pro X

3 days leading to Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Pro X Level One

FCP 200: Comprehensive Study of Final Cut Pro X

5 days leading to Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Pro X Level One

FCP 300: Advanced Editing in Final Cut Pro X

3 days leading to Apple Certified Pro - Final Cut Pro X Level Two

Motion 101: Introduction to Motion 5

3 days leading to Apple Certified Pro - Motion 5 Level One

Once the exams become available there will be a grace period where a current Certified Pro can upgrade there certification by passing an online exam, open book in their own home, for a set fee. After this they will need to sit the exam at an AATC under normal exam conditions.

The FCP test exam will be replaced by a Peachpit Test Yourself app downloadable from the AppStore.

In general human beings are resistant to change. We prefer to stick with what we know and understand. If often feels easier to deal with the problems we are used to rather than tackle new ones. In the world of video editing with the Arrival of Final Cut Pro X  the decision has been made for us.

This new version of Apple's widely used video editing software requires a different approach to the process of editing. Ultimately the goal is the same, but a new tool requires a new way of working. This seems to be the key to getting your head around how to use the new software. Some of the old concepts are gone and trying to get FCP X to fit to your old working pattern will not work. It does a lot of things in a new way, to get the best from it you have to embrace that change.

Apple's seminar for Final Cut Pro Certified Trainers on Monday was very interesting. We were given a full demo of the new video editing software by one of the Mentor Trainers, showing us what FCP X can do. There was absolutely no information about Apple's strategy for the film and video industry, or what they intended to do in the future. I didn't expect there to be. Even if anybody there knew anything, they wouldn't have been allowed to say. What they were prepared to say is that this first release of FCP X is just the beginning.

What they have given us is different strategy to video editing. All the things that are on the rumour sites about single sequences in a project and other behaviours are all true. But they are only significant if if you stick to the old approach and workflows. The structure of projects and sequences is gone, replaced with Events and Projects, and the project contains only a single edit. Clips are arranged on the timeline without tracks connected to the primary storyline in what seems an impossibly loose way. These changes alone will present challenges to accepted practices but just because we know and understand how something works doesn't mean it can't be improved.

Is shiny and new better, if it wasn't broken did it need fixing. I don't know. But it is different and that change will throw up some new problems, but also some new answers and if those changes enhance your creativity and the ease with which you can edit then the change will be worth it.

Apple Certified Mac OS X Lion Training

Apple have announced there new training programme for Mac OS X Lion. At present it includes only the following three qualifications;

Apple Certified Associate: Mac Integration 10.7

Apple Certified Support Professional 10.7 (ACSP)

Apple Certified Technical Coordinator 10.7 (ACTC)

The ACSA (Apple Certified System Administrator) qualification has disappeared completely and there is every likely hood that the courses that made it up have gone for for ever, from now on only Support Essentials and Server Essentials courses will be in certification programme.

As time has gone on Apple have moved to focusing training only in their technologies and their interface. So as the interface simplifies there's less to teach. It doesn't mean that the functionality isn't there, if you have already have an understanding of the underlying Operating System you can modify the UNIX configuration files or make changes on the command line. Apple just doesn't see it as the job of their training courses to teach stuff that is not theirs and you can find out else where. The problem is that this now extends to some of the most fundamental network protocol; DHCP, DNS etc.

There is a window where the Snow Leopard ACSA courses will still be available and this gives an opportunity for those with requirements for a higher level skill set . The Snow Leopard ACSA courses cover the the detail of  the fundamental network technologies as well as detail of Apple's own technologies that are also apparently missing from the GUI in Lion. The interface will still be Snow Leopard but the Command Line is the same and those skills will stand you in good stead for a future with Lion or what ever comes after.

If it ain't Broke don't Fix it

The release of the details of Apple new video editing suite FCP X, to replace the existing of Final Cut Pro v7, has caused a storm in the video editing world, forums and mailing lists are alight with condemnation, broadcasters are making satirical sketches damning it's features, there are petitions and generally a lot of toys out of the pram.

To be honest there is very little real information out there on what is really going with all of Apple's video solutions, even from Apple. At the moment we know what it will do, but not how it fits in with everything else. A search for Final Cut Express or Final Cut Server on Apple's web-page lands you on the new Final Cut pages. At the moment all roads point to FCP X.

The question is, is this really a problem? If you have a working editing workflow using a piece of software that you know and understand and it has all the features that you need, then where is the problem? Yes in the future when you upgrade or expand you will need to think about FCP X, if it is relevant. Early adopters suffer the for jumping on the bandwagon just because they can or they automatically think that new and shiny must be better. Until FCP X has the features people want then why change, and why get so upset about  something you aren't going to do yet.

Maybe the release of FCP X has been handled badly. Maybe Apple have a plan. Maybe there are a raft of new features on the way. No body really knows, anything you hear at the moment can only be rumour and speculation. Remember this is Apple, it's their game, and their rules, if they decide that they want to move the goal posts or take their ball away and not play at all any more, even if everyone was enjoying themselves, then they can do it.

Lets wait and see what happens, there is no point in getting all hot under the collar, not yet anyway.