Moreau High School adds live broadcast capabilities via Broadcast Pix

By Andrew Lippe
High definition is
beginning to trickle down to the high school sports market as Moreau Catholic
High School of Hayward, CA, recently created its own broadcast studio based
around a Broadcast Pix HD switcher. The new studio allows the school to expand
its post production department and create HD productions.
“High definition is where
we are all headed,” says Paul McKenna, film and video arts teacher, at Moreau Catholic
High School.
McKenna, who also heads up the new broadcast studio, MCTV, is extremely excited
for the opportunity for his students to work in HD. “We have money to do this
now,” adds McKenna.
Moreau High School is in the process of completing a
multi-million dollar project on campus that includes the creation of the
broadcast studio. Snader and Associates designed the studio that includes two
JVC GY-HD250U camcorders, teleprompters and the Broadcast Pix Slate 1000h HD
switcher.
McKenna, who also teaches
video editing courses at the school, says he has noticed how students are
already familiar with the video editing process. “Students today are so tech
savvy, that editing is innate in them,” says McKenna.
Students at Moreau, prior
to the creation of the broadcast studio, created everything in post production
with Apple Final Cut Pro. Now, with an HD studio, news and announcements can be
read live in classrooms. The news program airs on the school’s closed circuit
system during the students’ homeroom period. “Students did all editing and
together they work as a team of storytellers,” adds McKenna.
“Having multiple inputs
makes my job easier and the kids can do more,” says McKenna. Slate HD switchers
feature up to eight live switcher inputs and can be expanded to up to 30 live
inputs with a family of HD routers.
McKenna says he has used
sports as catalyst for teaching video editing to his students. To better learn
the video-editing process students created music videos based on sports teams.
Sports have a prominent
role in the school. McKenna now has a sports anchor that covers the football
team and other sports. Students are in tune with the school’s football team as
video profiles are done on the players. Video highlight packages for the
football team, done in the past, will now be seen on a more frequent basis.
McKenna says there will be more sports coverage in the coming year for as the
switcher allows hours of clips to be archived.
Slate HD switchers include an integrated Harris
Inscriber CG and a clip store that holds up to 40 hours of clips. The ability
to work with Inscriber is important exposure to students. Students at Moreau are
being exposed to technologies that even local stations do not even have.