CQC User Group Webinar: Sat, 11/29, 8:30am PST
- Thread starter IVB
- Start date
123
Senior Member
The "pay the difference" part implies a free training session is included with each product. That would be fantastic but I suspect this level of support is reserved for system integrators (and a higher pricing tier).
The free video-tutorials are probably the best way to become acquainted with CQC.
FWIW, I watched four tutorials about Premise before even installing the product. It was four hours well spent; I learned a great deal about its capabilities and was convinced it was right for me. "Show and tell" is effective; take the time to watch Dean's tutorials and IVB's webinars.
The free video-tutorials are probably the best way to become acquainted with CQC.
FWIW, I watched four tutorials about Premise before even installing the product. It was four hours well spent; I learned a great deal about its capabilities and was convinced it was right for me. "Show and tell" is effective; take the time to watch Dean's tutorials and IVB's webinars.
On the topic of learning CQC, one big problem that I encountered was that when you download the trial version of CQC you get just that, CQC and nothing else. When I was looking at other products, ALL of them, when downloading the trial software, gave you a demo system, a few dummy devices defined, some screens, etc. It really helps you get up to speed faster if you have something to play with. CQC needs the same with some screens, dummy drivers, maybe dummy lights, etc. That would definitely get new users more engaged. I bet countless people download the CQC trial, then they are just so overwhelmed they just move on. Webinars help, videos help, but different people learn different ways, and many like to get hands-on fast, and CQC makes that very difficult.
IVB
Senior Member
I also doubt CQC would ever do a paid training class as there's already an unofficial 3 hour "training class" available via the 101/201 webinars, plus the dozen or so training videos that Dean has done. This implies the minimum increment to add value would be an 8 hour class. Given that trainers typically want $75/hour or more, that's $600 just for the instructor, plus room rental & training materials. That's $1000 for "cost to deliver". I also doubt folks would be willing to pay more than $100 for the class, so you'd need 10 people to each commit to the same exact day to do a session in order to break even. I think that's highly unlikely.
Oh yeah, absolutely no argument there. Dean basically warned us that the documentation you see above was all there'd be until he had a chance to update the website/documentation, which wouldn't happen until after he got a few more features added. His guiding principle/theory is that it's better to get the beta out there and start getting banged on by folks who understand "Dean-Speak" rather than hold it up for documentation. Doing that "early, barely documented beta" ends up in a more stable G/A release as it's been pounded on and had the bugs worked out longer.
Oh yeah, absolutely no argument there. Dean basically warned us that the documentation you see above was all there'd be until he had a chance to update the website/documentation, which wouldn't happen until after he got a few more features added. His guiding principle/theory is that it's better to get the beta out there and start getting banged on by folks who understand "Dean-Speak" rather than hold it up for documentation. Doing that "early, barely documented beta" ends up in a more stable G/A release as it's been pounded on and had the bugs worked out longer.
Yep, that certainly is an issue. I don't envy Dean (or any other HA software manufacturer) the tradeoff decisions they must make. Will their company be more succesful by enhancing the features list & architecture robustness, or by making this an easier to consume product? Should you take criticism for having an insufficiently powerful product, or for having a difficult first-glance product? I may be a power user, but i'm not remotely involved with this space for a living, so I can't even guess as to the answer. It is certainly a damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't conundrum, and i'm glad I don't have to answer it.
I'm definitely not suggesting more work or development, but if these demos exist, like what has been developed for shows, it would be great if they could be available as a learning example. For the relatively high price of CQC, you get the development environment, pretty sparse documentation, and basically no samples or demos. If these demos exist, and some do, then just making them available on the site might go a long way in helping new users learn the system, with very little extra effort on Dean's part.
mustangcoupe
Senior Member
You can download the files for the webinars which are done by IVB not CQC so these are in his signature above. And the CQC files are on their site. Go to http://www.charmedquark.com/ click on support, then on the left it says ... Tutorial Videos .... How-To Videos ...
maybe a more direct route to get to them is needed or provide the getting started ones with the initial download.
maybe a more direct route to get to them is needed or provide the getting started ones with the initial download.
