PHOTO BY AMANDA GARCIA | CONSTRUCTION RESUMED: The AT&T High Definition Production Studio resumes construction after being halted in the Fall 2006. The studio will incorporate more virtual sets by using chroma-key technology and will be equipped with the Pro-tools multi-track audio system. When construction of the facility is complete the install will take place and the studio is projected to open in late August or early September.
Ashley Miller
Assistant Editor
Construction of the AT&T High Definition Production Studio has resumed.
The studio was shelled out when the Fine Arts Complex was completed in 2006. With the donation of Harrington funds, the construction has resumed during the last four months.
When complete, WTAMU will be one of three universities in the nation to house a high-definition studio.
“This studio puts us over the top as far as one of the premier facilities in the U.S.,” Dr. Leigh Browning, director of broadcasting, said. “You would be hard pressed to find a studio that has all the pieces in one place.”
This HD studio will be equipped with Pro-tools multi-track audio, chroma-key technology (green screen), maroon-painted walls and pure HD formatting.
“It’s a studio that will be used primarily as an education space to teach students about HD technology four to five years before it becomes standard,” Randy Ray, assistant director of broadcasting, said.
Expected to be finished in mid-June, the new studio will appeal not only to the mass communication department but the entire campus.
“I love technology and not may people get the opportunity to design the studio from the ground up,” Ray said. “I feel really lucky we’re fortunate that the administration really supports our desire to keep up with technology.”
Available only to mass communication students, the HD studio will also bring in new programming to the University.
The broadcasting program plans to produce more programming in the new HD studio such as cooking or sport shows.
“We’ll be able to do a lot of things and shooting in pure HD format is a huge deal,” Browning said. “We also want to tag up with national non-profit agencies and forge relationships with the arts by shooting things in the studio.”
Classes will be taught in the studio and the University commercial will be produced in it as well.
Mass communication students will be able to put together resume tapes and projects in this new studio as identified by faculty.
“Students will get a good grasp on what working with HD is like,” Ray said. “It’s an opportunity that most students don’t get and will give them a leg up.”
Once construction is complete, the install will take place and the facility is projected to open in late August or September.
“Generally construction isn’t always enjoyable but this team has done everything they can and I’ve enjoyed thinking and envisioning about what it’s going to be like,” Browning said.
Several faculty members are going to a convention in Las Vegas to look at new, cutting edge technology.
“The hard part about buying technology is learning how to be on the edge,” Ray said. “We have to look in our crystal ball to see what it will hold.”
Traditionally when a new facility opens there is some kind of event or sponsorship to promote it.
Browning suggests that there will be a President’s state of the University address.
“I’m certain AT&T will come back and usually whatever is shot in a brand new studio is relatively historic,” Browning said. “This will be live to tape and would most assuredly involved the administration.”
The new studio will have endless possibilities and will incorporate a new learning process.
“I’m unable to even fathom what our students will get out of the new studio,” Browning said. “Just what I’ve thought about will increase their skill level by a full degree and our younger students will be paving the way for other students to come.”