Ball State University Buys Broadcast Equipment to Educate News Students

For some colleges, a new curriculum and freshly constructed learning space brings new technology.

This was the case for Ball State University, which invested in new broadcasting technology for its Unified Media Lab to educate its news students about the journalism industry.

“[The installation] included Telemetrics robotic cameras, GV playout servers, and a GV Director, all under the control of Ignite Automation. The GV Director is a composite product which encompasses not only the functions of a simple video switcher, but also integrated character generation, still store, video playout, and some audio tasks. Under control of Ignite, we are able to merge the GV Director’s functions with those of external devices such as robotic cameras, video playout & routable sources. All of these tightly-integrated technologies give Ball State the ability to execute a planned rundown from INews or execute unplanned or live/late-breaking elements with equal control.”

-Jonathan Reddick, Automation Systems Specialist for Grass Valley

Pictured is a Grass Valley Director.

Tim Underhill, an instructor for the Department of Telecommunications at Ball State University says the lab’s new ecosystem of Grass Valley equipment gives students a taste of the news world.

The equipment includes Grass Valley cameras, director, and Grass Valley Ignite, and automated production system.

Underhill says this is the first time all of these products have been “put together.”

“Using Grass Valley Ignite and having cameras that are robotically controlled and an Ignite system that controls a lot of operations through one person helps us concentrate on the content,” he says. “So we can have a Grass Valley Ignite operator who’s running cameras, mics, video graphics, director, technical director – one person can do it all.”

Underhill says he first started with Grass Valley Ignite to save money for the school, and then realized it enabled him to wean off of the support of other roles in the lab, like the technical director.

He says Ignite only required the input of one person, and then automatically sets up a video display.

“I can turn on my T.V., switch my show to what I want it to be, and set it up ahead of time,” Underhill says. “You can have things planed ahead and the consistency really comes out for your final product. It looks really nice.”

Underhill says Ball State University chose Grass Valley as its technology provider because of its automated solutions. He says the automation of Grass Valley’s broadcast products lets students focus on video creation rather than working the equipment.

“We knew we wanted to go with automation,” Underhill says. “We knew that we wanted that because we’re concentrating on content…The big thing is first to concentrate on content and not have to worry about how to make things happen to make it go up on the air….We don’t have to worry about having any roadblocks during production time.”