By Christie Wisniewski
Anyone with an interest in broadcasting, video, cameras, journalism, or communications in general can rejoice. Hood College finally has implemented a broadcasting studio to be used by its students, and it’s available this semester.
The top floor of Rosenstock is mostly home to CAAR and a few classrooms, but now it holds what could be the next driving force of the Communications program: the Hood College Broadcasting Studio. The room contains an anchor desk on one side and a glass-enclosed control room with a variety of equipment. Ideally, students will be able to hold different roles including anchor, camera operator, director, producer, and equipment operator.
Professor Tim Jacobsen, who teaches classes such as Visual Media Production and Digital Photo, helped with the functionality and requirements of the studio and plans to be a large part of it.
“There wasn’t really one person doing one specific thing,” said Jacobsen. “There were a bunch of us kind of collaborating over how to put all of this together.”
Jacobsen added that Jeff Welsh, instructional technologist at Hood, did much of the work in finding the three studio-quality HD cameras that will be used. The cameras, made by an Australian company called Blackmagic, are high-tech and offer students experience using technology similar to what is used in bigger studios.
“They’re not exactly low-cost, but they’re not hugely expensive,” he said. “They’re cameras for video podcast kind of stuff. I think they’re going to be very valuable to us. “
Students will be able to operate the cameras on their own, but if a smaller team is using the studio they can choose to operate the cameras remotely. Every camera will be set up on a tripod.
Students taking Visual Media Production II will be the main operators of the studio for the first year. This way, more experienced students can operate the equipment and give suggestions on how to make the studio even more beneficial for others in the following semesters.
The studio needs to be staffed full time in order to operate. Jacobsen will be there in between classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and his Visual Media Production II class will often be in the studio during the afternoon of those same days.
Natalie Kendall, a senior, is scheduled to take Visual Media Production II this fall. When signing up for the class, she wasn’t aware that much of it would be spent in the new studio, but says she thinks it could be fun.
“It’s definitely not what I thought we’d be doing,” she admitted. “But it will be a new experience which will be nice.”
“Students will be the driving force creatively,” Jacobsen said. “[Students] will be the ones coming up with what programs to do, [students] will be the ones writing the scripts. A lot of the first year will be teaching [students] how to use the equipment. That’s going to be a big thing because we’ve never done it before. It could take three or four classes or it could take half a semester. It’s a learning curve.”
Jacobsen says that a large benefit of the studio is that students will be able to add different skill sets to their resumes, which makes applicants more marketable. Any communication major recognizes that companies prefer to hire journalists and writers with diverse talents: people who are able to tell a story not only through words but visually through design or video.
The studio will allow students who missed a guest speaker or gallery talk to watch it on the studio’s YouTube channel.
“This first semester is going to be a big experiment,” Jacobsen said.
Tim Sylvia, a Hood junior, CMA major, and occasional host of Blazer Radio, is elated to have a broadcasting studio for his use at Hood.
“I’m a huge fan of the new broadcast studio,” he said excitedly. “It’s something that I’ve wanted for the [communications] program since I got to Hood. Most importantly, I feel that it adds an element of legitimacy to the CMA program, which is huge because hood obviously isn’t a CMA focused school. I’m excited to use it until I abuse and overstay my welcome and am banned.”
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