Prospective Students

The Television classes listed below require students to have personal and continuous access to a laptop computer that meets the requirements found below. Students who do not already have access to the appropriate laptop and required software may be able to include those costs in the calculation of their financial aid by filing a Cost of Attendance Appeal with the Financial Aid Office. If you have questions about this requirement, please contact the CTVA Department at (818) 677-3192.

Television Classes: CTVA 240, 331, 340, 341, 342, 346, 352, 358, 440, 441, 442.

Recommended computers: 

For CTVA Television students, the following MacBook Pro laptops are certified by Avid to run their Media Composer software. Students may custom order a MacBook Pro or purchase a stock (off-the-shelf) model. Below are the minimum recommended specifications, especially for students who intend to become editors. Additionally, students may be expected to obtain external storage drives in the future, for specific class projects. These systems will be able to connect to most external drives on the market via a USB-C port.

Please note: Avid has not yet released supported configurations for the 2025–26 (M5) MacBook Pro models.

Basic System (or equivalent)

MacBook Pro (14-inch, M4, 2024)

• Apple M4 chip with 10-core CPU, 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
• 24 GB unified memory (16 GB is not supported; Media Composer will not launch with less than 24 GB)
• 512 GB SSD storage
• MacOS Sequoia 15.x or later

Pro System (or equivalent)

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2024)

• Apple M4 Pro chip with 14‑core CPU, 20‑core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
• 24 GB unified memory
• 1 TB SSD storage
• MacOS Sequoia 15.x or later

MacBook Pro (14/16", M3, December 2023)

• 8‑core M3 processor with 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
• 24 GB unified memory  
• 512 GB SSD storage 
• Mac OS Sonoma 14.x or later 

MacBook Pro (14/16", M2, January 2023)

• 10‑core M2 Pro processor with 16-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
• 32 GB unified memory  
• 512 GB SSD storage
• Mac OS Ventura 13.x or later  

MacBook Pro (13-inch, M2, June 2022)

• 8‑core M2 processor with 10-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
• 24 GB unified memory  
• 512 GB SSD storage
• Mac OS Monterey 12.4 or later

MacBook Pro (14-inch, 2021)

• 8-core M1 Pro processor with 14-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
• 32 GB unified memory
• 512 GB SSD storage
• Mac OS Monterey 12.4 or later

MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2021)

• 10-core M1 Pro processor with 16-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine
• 32 GB unified memory
• 512 GB SSD storage
• Mac OS Monterey 12.4 or later

The Emerging Media classes listed here require students to have personal and continuous access to a laptop computer that meets the requirements indicated below. Students who do not already have access to the appropriate laptop and required software may be able to include those costs in the calculation of their financial aid by filing a Cost of Attendance Appeal with the Financial Aid Office. If you have any questions about this requirement, please contact the CTVA Department at (818) 677-3192.

Emerging Media Classes CTVA 361, 362, 461, 464, 468

Recommended computers:

Windows:

• Processor: 2.1 GHz or faster Intel i7 or i9
• Memory: 16 GB or more
• Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 / 1050 Ti / 1060 / 1070 / 2060 with at least 3 GB of dedicated GDDR5 memory
• Storage: 1 TB 7200-RPM hard drive or 1 TB hybrid drive and/or 256 GB or greater SSD
• Operating System: Windows 11 Professional 25H2

Mac OS:

13-, 14-, and 16-inch MacBook Pro (2021 and later models)

• Apple Silicon (M1 Pro or newer) processor
• 16 GB memory (or more on models that support it)
• 512 GB or more internal SSD storage
• Mac OS Sonoma 14.x or later