The Digital Media Center is installing a TV production studio for broadcasting students and faculty to utilize.
This construction will last until April, and the equipment installation will finish in July. The production studio will be available and fully functioning by Fall 2019. The Digital Media Center will be renamed after MaxxSouth Broadband due to their large contribution to build and renovate the center.
The area will have five rooms: a classroom, TV studio, control booth, equipment closet and a One Button Studio. The TV studio will have the capabilities of filming, recording, editing and producing in a high definition digital quality.
This new production studio is focused on the broadcasting department’s needs, allowing professors to hold a class in one room and move over to the production studio to show how the lecture is applicable in the professional world.
Currently, broadcasting students partner with the University Television Center to become familiar with the technology used in the professional world and for classroom assignments. John Forde, professor and head of the Communication Department, said he is thrilled of the upcoming facility.
“This is a great partnership, and we are appreciative of the library,” Forde said. “We desperately needed this.”
Students who are majoring in broadcasting can look forward to the new addition to their curriculum. Benjamin Phillips, a junior broadcasting major, said he is excited and thinks this studio will be more convenient.
“I think it will help because if you live on campus, instead of going over to the University Television Center, you could just walk on campus, and it will be available inside the library,” Phillips said. “I think it will save time.”
This studio is both for leisure entertainment and for classroom application. The students and faculty in the Communication Department get first dibs on the production studios and equipment, but it will be available to all students when it is not in use. There will be a certification process for non-communication students to ensure knowledge of how to use the studio.
One of the rooms will not need training. The One Button Studio is just as it sounds—one push of a button and the equipment turns on to record anything, from an interview to a classroom project.
Associate Dean of University Libraries, Stephan Cunetto, light-heartedly described this feature as a “dummied down” version of the production studio.
Even though this facility is for the communication department, the studio is being built in the library to allow all students a chance to utilize the facility.
“If it was in just in the Department of Communication, then only the students and faculty in Communication would have access to it,” Cunetto said. “By partnering with the library, we are able to make it available to all students. We are hoping that the meteorology program will be able to utilize it as well.”
Forde explained by partnering with the library, students will have more access later in the day and on weekends.
“In the long term, it is better in the library because of the library’s hours,” Forde said.
Forde said it would be difficult to find staff to keep the studio open as long as the library can.
Of course, there is the concern of noise from the construction interfering with students’ focus on studying. Sometimes, there are loud noises, but the library anticipated this.
There is another group study area opened not too far away from the closed renovation space. This area is usually quiet, but there are not any restrictions on the noise level. Since this newly opened space is for groups and group projects, it is up to the students to decide the type of noise range for the study space.
Even though there is noise from the construction, the sound is not unbearable. Cunetto described the noise level in the Digital Media Center is not as bad as the construction noises from the fourth-floor renovations. The carpenters who are working on the area try to limit the noises to respect students’ study time. Usually, it is the loudest early in the morning when there are not as many students in the library. The construction will pause during finals to ensure there are no distractions.
Another vision of Cunetto’s is to renovate the Digital Media Center. There are plans to paint the walls, redo the floors and switch out the older furniture with updated desks and tables. MSU’s library is trying to update with the fast-changing, technological world to optimize student education and comfort.