Education

Middle Tennessee State University Gives Students a View into the HD Future with Sony Technology

The fact that most of his department's broadcast production equipment "was older than his students" convinced Dr. Dennis Oneal, chair of the Department of Electronic Media Communication at Middle Tennessee State University, that the time was right to upgrade to high definition.

Working with Sony Electronics, the Murfreesboro, Tenn.-based school recently completed an expansive upgrade of its television production facilities, which are used both as classrooms and as working studios. Oneal and his team of two systems engineers -- Marc Parrish and Toffer King -- designed, integrated and installed a range of new equipment, with Sony engineers and service teams providing input, consultation and technical support.

"Making the transition to HD was a huge move for us, and we needed to make sure we did it right," Oneal said. "The systems that we chose need to last for 15 or more years, in some cases. We wanted to get the best we could get so it would last longer and stay state-of-the-art as long as possible."

The school first explored an HD relationship with Sony during one of its fund-raising efforts, and the mutual benefits to each party were immediately obvious.

"Of course Sony is selling products, but their role went far beyond simply being a vendor," Oneal said. "Working with them as closely as we did to plan every aspect of this project really made it possible for us to go HD as smoothly as we did."

MTSU's Department of Electronic Media Communication has about 800 students enrolled in traditional broadcast TV production and electronic journalism classes, as well as courses in photography, digital animation, and digital media communication.

The department houses two television studios (B and C), a digital animation lab, a digital newsroom, full wet and digital photography laboratories, a radio station, a cable television channel, and a six-camera mobile production laboratory. The MPL and Studio B are still mostly analog, since the university focused on the larger Studio C for the first phase of its HD transition, which is now complete.

Studio C, originally built in 1991, is a 3,000-square-foot space with about 1,800 square feet of control and support space that is the main "hands-on" classroom for the department.

With some of the equipment approaching 20 years or more in age, it was becoming a full-time job to keep some of the products running, "using a lot of glue and bailing wire," according to Oneal.

The department petitioned the university president for funds to upgrade the studio, and the university agreed to match whatever his team was able to raise on its own.

"It took us a year, but we raised $500,000," Oneal said. "The university's contribution brought that to $1 million and we got to work."

The department's technical systems team started assembling its "wish list" of A/V technology.

"Sony provided insight on what we needed, and didn't need," Oneal said. "We ended up buying our main systems from Sony, and they also advised on appropriate choices for products they don't manufacturer. They were valuable consultants, but it was our decision in the end."

Work began in May 2007 and was completed by October, with two systems engineers and two student workers gutting the entire facility, ultimately replacing nine miles of wiring.

Studio C is now a full HD 1080i facility with a Sony MVS-8000G switcher, four HDC-1400 studio cameras - three on a pedestal, one on a jib - and a Sony IXS-6700 router.

"We chose much of the equipment with the future in mind," Oneal said. "For example, our truck is not HD but it hopefully will be soon. We plan to use the same cameras and switcher that are now in C, in order to give our students a seamless interface and maintain consistency between our studio and remote work."

Other upgrades to Studio C included a video wall, character generators, two digital disk servers, and audio consoles.

Oneal's department has already completed several projects using the new HD equipment, and the differences between the current and previous production capabilities are worlds apart, he said.

"We did an eight-program series featuring musical performances by eight different bands, and we were able to do full 24-track audio recording, which was very nice," he said. "This fall, we're shooting more episodic and special events programming, and that production schedule will increase in the spring. We can do more work more efficiently, and with better production values, now that we have the right production tools in place.'

The next phase of MTSU's HD transition will focus on upgrading its analog mobile unit. The department will initially buy two new HDC-1400 cameras for the truck, but will also use some of the cameras now in Studio C, which Oneal estimated could save about $400,000 annually on the truck upgrade.

"We have capabilities now that we only dreamed about, and we're just starting to test the waters," Oneal said. "We can train our students on state-of-the-art equipment that's actually being used by working video and audio professionals. It's not only improved our teaching capabilities, but it's also enhanced the learning environment. There's more of a professional atmosphere, and students take things more seriously because they know the equipment they're working on now is head-and-shoulders above anything they've ever seen. It also helps our recruiting efforts with high school students. Plus, I love giving tours now and showing off the new equipment!"