TV, Closed Circuit

Wow. What a fun day on Friday. We did our first, student-conducted Morning Show. Grace and Maclain did a good job with the announcments. Josh (Krusty) did an awesome job with explaining the Cougar Carnival. I had at least a dozen comments from teachers about how the students paid attention during the announcements. I wonder if the teachers did too ;-).

Ms. Bremner and I have worked together, trying to find out what other schools in the district are doing. We contacted Mr. Ross, the system video expert, to help us get started with the wiring. Mr. Helton (director), Mr. Atha (sound), Ms. Autry (music and sound fx), Ms. Keith (location), and a few others have been discussing the equipment needs to make our show something special. This is something that cannot be done with just a few, and the students really like having the teachers help them look good (or goofy) or at least make the famous.

The equipment cost is high; more than I would have expected. But this is not my "cup-o-tea" and I didn't really know the expense for seemingly simple equipment. It actually reminds me of a sign I used to have in my room. "It is amazing how hard I work to make this look simple." I guess the same is true with the right technology. It looks so simple to transition from one medium to another (just a toggle switch), yet the engineering behind the scenes must really be something to make it happen.

Soon, Mr. Helton and Ms. Bremner will conduct auditions for Academic Team Anchors (cool idea). Then we can develop a schedule of anchors for the broadcast.

I know I tend to get ahead of myself...I am a dreamer/visionary type of guy. The elementary schools sell tapes to the parents of the kids who do the news. UPDATE: One of the elementary Media Specialists (I'll call her Westwood Library Lady :-) ) informed me that they do not sell the tapes, but that the parents supply tapes if they want a tape of their child. That's even better! What a way to promote your media center. I think it is still true at the Middle School level that we won't really see a desire for this service. BUT, I wonder if I could tape the show, and put it on youtube.com? The kids would eat that up. The school system might not "get it." A quandry...kids would watch it just to see themselves, parents might watch it just because the kids pass the word around, but the system policy might think it would "endanger" our students. I digress... But I wonder how many hits we would get in a week???

Oh well. I'm learning much from my colleagues about sound boards, mixers, video, and audio. I enjoy the learning. It is also great to realize the kind of talent and enthusiasm we have on staff at DMS. They are the best.