See updated UST TV studio at open house Oct. 4
From Information Resources and Technologies
When communication and journalism faculty and students returned to school this fall some of them received a jolt of reality television: A drastically transformed, new-look digital TV facility for teaching and learning. The UST television studio underwent an extreme makeover this summer, being overhauled and converted from old-style analog to a state-of-the-art television facility that includes digital signal flow from new cameras through a totally revamped and high-tech control room.
If you would like to experience the new facility firsthand, come to a special open house from 3 to 5 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 4, in the TV studio, Room LL02, lower level of the O'Shaughnessy Educational Center auditorium – right next to the tunnel to the library. At the same time, you can get a peek at the KUST radio facility, which was relocated to the lower level of O'Shaughnessy Educational Center this summer. The radio facility is just down the hall from the TV studio so feel free to check them both out.
The renovation and upgrade will allow students to get hands-on experience with the kinds of equipment and technology they are likely to find when they get out into the working world. That equipment includes: Sony SD (standard definition) digital studio cameras, flat screen teleprompters, a Ross Synergy digital switcher, a Pinnacle Deko character generator, as well as a Miranda system for multiscreen monitoring and production. All of the equipment is upgradeable for a potential future move to HD (high definition).
The facility is mainly used by the Communication and Journalism Department and Web and Media Services for instruction and for the production of student shows like Campus Scope and Tommie Nation. The vision for the future includes a much broader use of the facility for locally produced shows, instruction and institutional messages. There are also future plans to digitally link the O'Shaughnessy Educational Center (OEC) auditorium, located one floor above the studio, to the TV control room below. This would allow "live" production and distribution of special events from the auditorium above.
This major upgrade of the TV studio would not have happened without the collaborative vision and combined budgetary resources of Dr. Sam Levy, vice president of Information Resources and Technologies, and Dr. Marisa Kelly, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. The timing also coincides strategically with the merging of Communication Studies and Journalism into a single department: Communication and Journalism.
The transformation of the TV facility began early this summer with the removal of the old analog equipment and massive amounts of obsolete wiring. It then progressed into a total redesign and reconstruction of the control room, with brand new, digital equipment. After a fast and furious pace through the rest of the summer, the facility became a "digital reality" just in time for the start of the fall semester.
If you would like an idea of how this looked at various stages throughout the summer there is a progression of photographs posted on the IRT Showcase Project Web site.
For more information about the open house or the TV and radio facilities at UST, contact Gary Schulzetenberg in Web and Media Services, (651) 962-6279.
