De Anza College premiered its technologically updated broadcast room to film and television students this winter quarter. The studio features a much-needed upgrade from the aged standard definition technology to high definition equipment.
The broadcast room is located in the Advanced Technology Center and used for the Film and Television 55 class. The class teaches students different jobs required to run a production in a live, professional broadcast studio. This is the first quarter students are using the renovated broadcast room.
Ed Breault, chief video systems engineer at De Anza, spent summer and fall quarters converting the broadcast room to the new HD format. Breault toured Santa Rosa Junior College’s new HD studio and used it as a template with the help of a Hewlett-Packard engineer.
“Fifteen years ago, the ATC had been built for a year and most of the equipment was donated by HP,” Breault said. “We used it for another fifteen years. This is the first new equipment that the studio has seen [since].”
New additions include a green screen, HD cameras, a soundboard, a switcher, three computers dedicated to computer graphics and HD monitors in every room so each station can view the production.
“I am very interested in the process of making TV shows and films,” said Amir Cohen, a film and television major. “I haven’t tried the older equipment, but this equipment is amazingly fun. I now know how TV shows are made, so I’ve learned a lot.”
“The new equipment is easier to use because it is more reliable. The older equipment would lock up and freeze,” Breault said.
Breault was most excited at the prospect for students to create and manifest their ideas more readily into something tangible. “It’s amazing what fresh minds can do with … new equipment,” he said.
“I think the HD broadcast center will make the graduates of the F/TV program more competitive in the broadcast industry. I’ve been to the KPIX studio and it almost feels like our studio is better. It’s reassuring to know that the equipment that we are learning on is on par with professionals in the industry,” photography major and F/TV 55 student Lei Mahi said.