Page 11 - Campus Technology, March/April 2018

AV SMARTS
feedback from both teams, it was determined that there were certain pieces of equipment that the studio lacked. “We asked for [McGraw’s] requirements,” recalled Hopkins. “They went down their list of what was needed, and we said, ‘Well, we would like those things too.’”
Thus was born a beautiful friendship.
4K Wishlist
At the top of both organizations’ wish lists was an interest in upgrading the technical capacity of the production studio to 4K. 4K provides better clarity of image than previous recording technology, which becomes increasingly important as new devices have the capability of displaying higher-quality images. Nobody wants to spend $999 for a phone to have it display 320x240 video, noted Hopkins, when it can accommodate a much higher resolution — akin to jumping from old-fashioned videotape to Blu-Ray.
Just as important, 4K also makes the production team more efficient. When shooting a full-screen 4K image, such as an interview between two people, Hopkins explained, zooms won’t lose resolution. Previously, doing the same kind of shot would have required two production people: one to focus on showing the speakers and the other to prep a zoom shot. Now the same shot can be handled by a lone crewmember. The camera is on a track system, allowing the person behind the scenes to control movement back and forth, up and down.
“We work back and forth. We stay in communication with each other for different ideas and plans that are coming in place so we can be prepared for it. We want to make sure we have the equipment ready to go for those productions.” — David Hopkins, Princeton University
“You would think it was a three-camera shoot, and you shot everything with one camera,” he said.
The 4K upgrade cost about $150,000, estimated Bakken. That included an ATEM 2 M/E Production Studio 4K switcher and related gear from Blackmagic Design; a Sony PXW FS7 II 4K XDCAM Super 35 Camcorder for 4K recording and streaming; a 75-inch 4K ViewSonic touchscreen for faculty to work with their presentations; along with multiple 4K and other monitors from Blackmagic, Panasonic and LG.
Setting Priorities
The upgrade occurred about a year ago, about the same time Bakken joined OIT to lead ISS. Since that time, McGraw put a new director, Rebecca Graves-Bayazitoglu, in place. And the two units have had to figure out the best way to prioritize and schedule work.
Ultimately, said Hopkins, the studio space is “at the mercy of news.” When a professor is being interviewed on television, that takes precedence over anything else the studio works on. After that, it’s sorting through faculty needs and wants.
“We work back and forth. We stay in communication with each other for different ideas and plans that are coming in place so we can be prepared for it,” Hopkins noted, adding that scheduling is made more complex because some setups take longer than others. “We want to make sure we have the equipment ready to go for those productions.”
A recent project, for example, involved figuring out how to help a faculty member use Google Hangouts. Setup for that takes more than simply turning on a computer webcam: In this case, there were five or six students in the room with the professor, and another nine to 12 being remotely connected through Google’s videoconferencing service. The tricky part is getting good quality audio, so in-studio guests’ microphones are individually recorded onto separate files for later editing. On the remote side, the audio is recorded as a separate track for editing. “A lot of hours of effort and testing goes into that process,” Hopkins pointed out.
To improve customer service and the ability to engage with clients across the university, OIT also recently implemented ServiceNow, better known for its help desk management
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CAMPUS TECHNOLOGY | March/April 2018