Working with the pros

I've written about the student run broadcasts our school does here and here. It's been a really fun experience. This group of students is a blast to work with!

Recently I made contact with the Kevin Janison, the weatherman from our local Channel 3 news station. I invited him to visit our school to see what these students were doing and to answer questions about his job. He agreed and also set up the opportunity for us to tour the Channel 3 news station and watch a live broadcast. When I announced this to my TBN crew they became so excited and that was all they would talk about for days!

Kevin came out on a Wednesday afternoon. My crew gave him a short tour of our studio, describing each of their jobs. We even did a "live" broadcast so he could see us in action. We then met with another group of students. These students belong to two clubs on campus, the Roving Reporters and Concept of the Week, that provide content for our broadcasts. He spent a good 30 minutes answering a bunch of questions about his career and what it's like to work at the news studio. He also gave the TBN crew some really useful tips to make our broadcast even better.

Kevin Janison answering some hard questions

He videotaped a short segment and aired it during his weather forecast that night on TV. Here's the clip, taken from the Channel 3 website.


The next Friday students and their parents met at the station. Kevin gave us a tour of the station, including the control room. He allowed the students time to play with the green screen pretending to tell the weather.

It's hard to know where to point!

We got to watch a live broadcast of the 6 o'clock news. Kevin surprised us by having all of the students come on air at the end of his weather segment.

Squeezing in for the camera

After the broadcast he took us to the control room where we got to see all of the equipment and ask questions about how everything worked. It was amazing to see all of their professional equipment!

Do you think my principal will let us upgrade our equipment?

We then went back to the studio and students were able to take pictures with Kevin at the anchor desk. The whole night was an amazing experience! Everyone was so polite and patient with all of the students - it was probably the largest turn out they've had of any group.

The TBN crew

All of the students and teachers

Here is the video from the news broadcast. The anchor first mentions the students at about the 6:12 mark (that's 6:12 towards the end of the video). The students are at the end of the weather segment and appear at about 3:22 saying, "Back to you, Marie!"

We wish to extend a big thank you to Channel 3, especially to Kevin Janison, for allowing us to visit and learn about professional broadcasting!

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The nuts and bolts of a student run broadcast

I talked about our school's morning announcements in a previous post. You can view previous broadcasts here. The broadcasts are going extremely well. I love working with these students and am very proud of how quickly they learn and take over. Several people have asked about the equipment I use, so in this post I will list the equipment and describe how the studio is set up.

EQUIPMENT

I am lucky enough to have an office that is big enough to hold my work space as well as fit the entire TBN studio nice and neat. The studio is set up in the back of my office as shown in the bottom picture. Here is a list of most of the equipment used in the studio.

• Video Furnace - this device (#7 in the picture) was provided by the district. It captures the video and audio feeds, sending them down to the district run PBS station where they are encoded and sent back to the school through the Cable in the Classroom program.
• Sima SFX-11 Digital Video Mixer (#1)- I picked this mainly for the price. It's one of the cheapest video mixers out there at less than $500 and does an excellent job for my purposes. It has 4 inputs (two RCA and two S-Video). All of my video sources (two cameras and one laptop) are connected to it. It has several outputs so I can connect a monitor to it to see what I'm capturing. The main video out connects directly to the Video Furnace device. My crew is able to select the different video sources at the push of a button.
• Behringer XENYX X1204USB 12-Channel Mixer (#8)- The video mixer can handle basic audio mixing, but I decided to go with this audio mixer because it can handle more inputs and different types of inputs. I have two microphones for the anchors, one microphone for the weatherperson/interviews, a laptop playing videos, and another laptop providing background music. The main audio out on this goes directly to the Video Furnace device.
• Teleprompter software - I currently use a free program called Microscript Pro. It's got a few quirks to it. I'm interested in trying out something different like AquaPrompt or PromptDog. I have it installed on two computers, one for the anchors and another for the weather/interview person.
• Computers - I use three laptops in our studio. One runs the teleprompter software for the anchors (#2), another runs videos (opening sequence, closing credits, and any other special videos) (#3), and the third (#11) runs the teleprompter software for the weather/interview person as well as playing background music (Radio Disney).
  
• Video cameras - I have one camera setup on the anchors (#4). A second camera (#10) is setup for the weather and is moved for interviews since they take place in the same space.
• Lighting kit - the first year I set up the studio the Student Council was all excited about it so they donated funds for more equipment. I decided to purchase a light kit similar to this one. It helps brighten up the whole studio so it appears better on screen.
• Monitors - in order for my crew to see everything that is going on I have several computer monitors. One is to display the teleprompter script for the anchors (#5), another displays the teleprompter script for the weather/interview person (#9), and the third is hooked up to the video mixer so we can monitor what is actually viewed in the classrooms (#6).
• Cables and dongles - of course there are all kinds of cables running all around and dongles connecting the computers to the monitors and mixers. I included headphones for all of the crew so they can hear the broadcast just like the school would hear it.

In the picture below you can see how the studio is set up. The anchor desk for two anchors is set up to the left, and the weather wall is set up to the right. I have a primary grade weather kit hanging on the wall. The chairs in that area are setup for any interviews we do.

The TBN studio

PROCEDURE

The whole broadcast is run entirely by 4th and 5th grade students. I have a crew of 9 that arrives each morning at 8:40. They turn on the equipment, load up the scripts, and practice the day's script. During the practice we have a static image (the school logo) displayed on the screen and Radio Disney playing. This gives teachers the chance to turn on their classroom equipment and make sure they are receiving the broadcast.

A few minutes before the broadcast begins the audio mixer shouts "Going live!" and turns on all the microphones. At that point everyone becomes completely silent. At the first bell the broadcast begins with an opening segment and from that point forward the broadcast is live - bloopers and all!

The person running the video mixer is pretty much in charge. They queue the anchors and weather person for their parts and switch between the cameras and video. The audio mixer brings the microphones in and out and monitors the audio level for the videos and background music.

The crew were selected from students who filled out an application expressing interest in being part of the crew. The students rotate through the jobs every two weeks so that everyone gets a chance to try each job. Everybody wants to be the anchors and be on air, but they also enjoy the behind the scenes job as well. Some jobs are very complex and hard to do (video mixer), while others are simple and don't require a lot of effort (camera person).

The best part about this? I stand back and do nothing. The students run all the equipment and I just stay out of the way!

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Picture Book Month

November is Picture Book Month! This celebration of good books was started by authors Dianne de Las Casas and Katie Davis. From their FAQ they describe the need for a Picture Book Month:

In this digital age where people are predicting the coming death of print books, picture books (the print kind) need love. And the world needs picture books. There’s nothing like the physical page turn of a beautifully crafted picture book.

Even though I am a a digital cheerleader and spend an inordinate amount of time in front of a screen, I have to agree with that statement. I find it difficult to enjoy a book on my iPad. When I read a book I want to hold it in my hands and enjoy the feel and smell of the pages. I cannot read my newspaper online - I have to sit in my recliner and hold it in my hands. As an avid reader, the thought of an entire month dedicated to celebrating and loving picture books appeals to me!

I have been reading to my children every night before bed for a very long time. I've tried reading novels (and we've loved some really good ones), but I keep coming back to picture books. There's something special about the joy of good pictures and the story that goes along with them. My kids and I learn so much from these books: how to laugh, how to get along, why Mr. Tiger prefers to be wild, why Z stands for moose, how a good bowl of soup tastes so yummy after a night of adventures, and a whole lot more!

One year I made it a goal to read every Caldecott winner with my kids and talk about the pictures. We talked about page layout, use of medium, color, and technique. We talked about how the pictures matched the words on the page or how the illustrator would use perspective to emphasize a part of the text. I'm proud to say that we made it through all of the Caldecott winners at that time!

This past summer is when I learned about Picture Book Month. I immediately decided it was something we had to celebrate at my school. Our morning announcements are done through a video broadcast, so I decided to have picture book commercials.

I enlisted the help of a first grade teacher on this project. She is working with a group of students to create 30 second book commercials. Students will interview teachers, record them talking about their favorite picture book , and edit these commercials down to 30 second clips. The commercials will air each day in November during our morning broadcast. Here is the first commercial we will air on November 1.

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Student generated morning broadcasts

One of the exciting projects I'm looking forward to this year is our morning broadcasts run by our 4th and 5th grade students. Rather than just do announcements over the school intercom, I've setup our own little TV studio and we stream the announcements live each morning. Our production is called Triggs Broadcasting Network or TBN.

The studio is ready for the new year, I just need to get a crew of students together. Since it was new last year not many students applied to be on the crew. This year, however, students were familiar with the opportunities to be live on air and the response was overwhelming - over 40 students applied to be anchors and run the equipment!

The TBN studio setup - just add students!

After a little bit of training from me the entire production is run by students. They are the anchors, weather person, and interviewer. They run all of the equipment and create most of the content. We air live every morning with the daily school announcements and a few extra learning segments. The students absolutely love it!

I'm always amazed at how well they do. Every morning I just stand back and watch as the professionally run the whole show. It is a sight to behold! You can check out some of last year's broadcasts to see what I mean. The broadcasts are archived at the CCSDTV website.

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