NEW SCHOOL, NEW TECH

NEW BROADCASTING STUDIO FEATURES CONTEMPORARY TECHNOLOGY, ALLOWS FOR CREATIVITY BY EMMA KOLICK

With reminders of the ongoing construction process at North Royalton High School easily visible to students and staff alike, as the completed STEM wing borders the nearly-renovated humanities wing, the understandable importance placed on traditional curriculum is evident through the school’s development of state-of-the-art facilities. However, found within these remarkable additions are unique classroom settings and collaborative spaces that provide creative outlets for alternative interests that deviate from standard subjects, including the broadcast journalism field.

As electronic news and media become increasingly important in the current digital age only furthered by this period of isolation, North Royalton recognized this salient mode of communication and subsequently incorporated a new broadcasting studio into the renovated high school. Complete with contemporary equipment that enables students to innovate creative ways to broadcast news and events to the local community, this upgrade in technology will substantially change the ongoings of both the broadcasting class, which primarily produces the morning announcements, as well as the high school’s Video Club.

“I think broadcasting not only serves as a venue to get kids used to using media as a platform for journalism, but it also gives them the chance to have their voices heard,” said Mr. Hemery, who has served as the broadcasting teacher for nearly two decades. Throughout his seventeen-year career in which the broadcasting department began with cutting-edge technology, the equipment quickly began to age, and due to common limitations in public school funding, was unable to be replaced. Realizing that purchasing modern equipment for the new studio would be a longterm investment that would simultaneously allow broadcasting students to utilize this technology to expand their creativity and uniquely communicate the news and their interests, the school provided generous funding to ensure the creation of a phenomenal studio.

Through working with the company iVideo Technologies in explaining what the district hoped to acquire through the construction of this unique space, while concurrently understanding monetary restrictions, the regional supplier took both the desires and concerns of the high school into consideration. Ultimately, this process ended in the creation of an advanced studio with equipment that mirrors that of professional news studios across the nation. “There are so many different parts in the studio, like graphics, audio, camera, and the prompter, to name a few,” said junior and current broadcasting student Angela Cicero, “and this newer equipment helps for a smoother and easier process. I think as we become more comfortable with the equipment, we’re able to be creative and present new ideas for the morning announcements.”

Within this new space are incredible technological features, such as robotic cameras that allow for students to control the cameras in the Performing Arts Center of the high school from the studio. As the vast majority of professional setups are robotic in this way, the elimination of needing bodies in the physical space to record videos is one of the ways in which the equipment allows for a simplified process. Additionally, the switcher, used

Colorful switcher that moves between video sources and allows for the live, final output that the audience eventually sees.

Current broadcasting students work diligently throughout the morning to successfully produce the morning announcements for the community and school alike to view.

to switch between video sources in determining final ementary to high school ages, the organization holds an output, as well as graphic capabilities, both experienced additional component in which members occasionally immense increases in quality. These advancements allow create niche programs to broadcast their unique hobbies students to focus solely on their creations as opposed to in a digital format, such as a television show dedicated to worrying about the workability of the technology. sports or art. “In the old studio, there were a lot of times where Prior to the construction of the contemporary stuwe’d work super hard to get the announcements done, dio, Video Club was supported by a cart with a broken but the technology just ended up failing us,” said prior computer, along with a camera that required a screwbroadcasting student and assistant Zander Novak, who driver crammed into the deck to simulate the presence graduated last spring. “It’s like being a painter and hav- of tape. Previously requiring cables that ran across the ing all the right colors, Performing Arts Center floor in order to properly obtain and the effort is there, but recording of district events, this new arrangement allows the wrong size brush. Our for the equipment to be controlled within the studio, creative visions were lim- and microphones were installed along the PAC. As the ited by the outdated tech improvements to the broadcasting department are easthat just wasn’t reliable,” ily identifiable through the production of the morning he said candidly. announcements, the advancements in the final output of He went on to describe Video Club recordings will be vast. the utter defeat he felt Accompanying the creation of the new broadcasting when his group was un- studio comes tremendous opportunities for members of able to execute the work both Video Club and the broadcasting classes to explore they put immense time and commitment into, generating a disheartening situation that led students to feel incredibly discouraged. While the prior studio often required

Current broadcasting students work diligently throughout the students to spend considmorning to successfully produce the morning announcements for erable time tinkering with the community and school alike to view. the equipment in hopes that it would successfully work, the new space enables broadcasting students to work with a sense of comfort in that the studio holds contemporary equipment that allows for endless possibilities in producing the morning announcements. In addition to enriching the broadcasting class, the studio will also greatly assist in enhancing the experience of students in North Royalton High School’s Video Club. “I can already tell that recording events will be easier now because instead of having to actually be in the innovative and creative ways to ensure their voice is heard physical place to shoot, we can pretty much do it all from in a digital format. Additionally, students are provided the control center with improved equipment,” said junior with a modern and contemporary space in which they Lexie Blatnik, current Video Club member. Believing can practice the traditional skills of broadcast journalthe new technology will assist in refining the process of ism in a studio that mirrors professional settings. “This recording district and community events from both an advanced technology we have is going to allow them to ease and quality perspective, she says the final output of dream and do things that I don’t even know are possible,” these recordings will exceed those of prior years. said Mr. Hemery thoughtfully, “and I think in education As Video Club is responsible for recording an array that’s what we all continue to strive for, but this is just a of district events, such as choir concerts ranging from el- little microcosm that allows for that to happen.”

Space in which the anchors for NRHS TV News report the morning announcements, equipped with numerous cameras and a variety of other technological features.