Well, we have survived the first few weeks. But I imagine we are all thinking, surely it will improve sooner rather than later. I have a feeling the virus is going to be a problem for a lot longer than we think, and we should be thinking about the long term implications. In fact things may not start returning to normal until there is a vaccine, which is at least 12 months away.

We need to develop our coping mechanisms to deal with the future. As in the previous article one of the things we can do is update and improve our skills. But we also need to look after our mental and physical health. In fact, this can be harder than training. Luckily there seem to be a few organizations that can offer help at this time. Also, remember to reach out to friends and family. Make new friends online with some of the companies you would like to buy gear from, work with, etc. We are all in this together and we need to support each other until we get back on our feet and compete with each other in this industry. What will be a worry is the small companies that were running on the smell of a burning PAR 64, will they survive? We are often asked to trim our bills, keep the cost down or they might get another company to do the job. Will they guys that worked for a little money with their gear still be around, the weekend warrior type.

Resources

CENTRELINK
If you’ve lost your job or a substantial part of your income we suggest signing up for Centrelink CLICK HERE

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT STIMULUS PACKAGES
First stimulus: HERE
Second stimulus: HERE

Information

• Income support for INDIVIDUALS: FACT SHEET
• Support for BUSINESS: INFO
• Second stimulus package: What You Need To Know (from the Victorian Music Development Office):HERE

This is support from a variety of sources. These are as follows:

Support Act:
Here or Ring GENERAL 1300 731 303 WELLBEING HELPLINE: 1800 959 500 or EMAIL [email protected]

LifeLine
Call Lifeline Australia on 13 11 14 or text their helpline on 0477 13 11 14

CrewCare
CrewCare is all about supporting technical and backstage personnel and their loved ones, those who work or have worked in the Australian live music and entertainment scenes.
HERE

Training

I may have already mentioned some of these. These wil at least keep you busy for a few hours during our lockdown.

grandMA Training 
MA University – Intensive training for all MA products. We are working with MA Lighting to offer a limited number of readers access to the full MA University training for free 
grandMA2 Tutorial Series – Youtube videos created by MA Lighting 
grandMA3 Tutorial Series – Youtube videos created by MA Lighting 
Christian Jackson’s MA2 Console Resource – Great tutorials on programming a show on grandMA2 

ETC Training
ETC Connect Courses – Temporarily free to the community 
ETC EOS Training and Workbooks – More free training material from ETC 
ETC & High End Systems Study Hall – ETC and High End Systems launch live events on Study Hall featuring webinars, Q&As, and round tables led by both our employee experts and our friends around the industry.

OTHER
Chauvet Live Tech Talks – Tune in at 2pm (est) every Thursday for a “LIVE” stream Tech Talk series hosted by CHAUVET Professional Product Managers!
USITT Teaching Archive – FREE online resource for teachers in areas of technical theatre and live entertainment 
Avolites Online Learning – hosting live learning sessions on their Facebook page for both their Titan and Ai platforms 
Gaffer Systems 3D Modeling – Free training for their 3D Modeling/Visualization software 
LightWright6 – Free through June 1, 2020
Capture Student Edition and Demos – Great for creating small rigs that lighting designers can play with, will link with Nomad offline relatively easily 
Drafty App – CAD Tool with a few tutorials 
Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) – Light & Color Courses 
LightWright – Temporary license for students
ARRI Academy’s Lighting Systems Control  –  Goes over the basics of digital lighting control technologies 
https://lightingtrainer.com/ – whole lot of info and training materials

Audio Training

HARMAN Professional University – Audio, control, and networked AV certification courses 
JBL CBT Calculator Training  – Video tutorial 
Crown Amplifier Training – Video Tutorials 
QSC QSYS level 1 – Always free. Great certification for an Audio Tech 
Dante level 1 and 2 (maybe 3) – Always free. Great certification for an Audio Tech 
AVID – 90-day Temporary Licenses for students attending institutions which use AVID products (Pro-Tools, Media Composer) 
QLab4 – FREE Temporary license to teachers and students. (educational email address required) 
Mic Pool’s QLab Cook Book – Templates and clever programming guides 
Reaper Daw – Temporary License Key for versions 5 thru 6.x (valid until the end of June 2020) 
Shure Online Audio Institute 
Stage Research – FREE access to their library of applications (SFX, ShowBuilder, RF Guru, RF Scanner) with “SUPPORTARTS” discount code 
Waves Soundgrid Certification – Online Courses 
Yamaha – Pro Audio Training 
Rational Acoustics Webinar series 
Neumann Webinars 
DAS Audio Webinars 
L-Acoustics Daily Webinars – Free – L-Acoustics demos, trade shows and events around the world. 
D&b Audio Webinars 
RCF Audio Academy – Free training 

YouTube Channels and Videos
Lighting Challenges – From the guys at LearnStageLighting.com – A playlist of different lighting challenges and how to solve them 
Blackout Lighting Console – Developer of the Blackout Lighting Console App for Film/TV/Commercials. Very informative videos. 
DMX 101 Tutorial – Great playlist with DMX tips 
Dance Lighting Designer Round Table – A round table discussion about lighting for Dance 
Jennifer Tipton on Edward Hopper – Theatrical lighting designer Jennifer Tipton discusses the use of light in three paintings 
Jennifer Tipton working with Jerome Robbins 
Paule Constable on Lighting the Matthew Bourne Swan Lake 
Al Crawford, Alvin Ailey Lighting Designer: Breaking Barriers – provide a discussion of the art of lighting design as it is relates to hybrid design 
TEDx-Science and Magic Illuminating the Stage with Lighting Design – 
The Role of Lighting In Theatre: Don Holder – 
American Theatre Wing: lighting design  – A technician, an artist, a magician… What does a Lighting Designer do in the theatre? 
Lex Products Cable Coiling Video Series – Become an expert at coiling cable in your down time 
L-Acoustic Webinars – A collection of their past daily webinars. Lots of great info here