NBCUniversal has donated broadcast equipment to Columbia, giving students in two programs access to additional industry-grade tools after the company renovated its NBC 5 Chicago and Telemundo Chicago studios.
The gear was divided between the broadcast studios in Columbia’s 33 E. Ida B Wells and 600 S. Michigan Ave.
“It feels amazing because I know it’s coming to the right place,” said Jorge DeSantiago, a news reporter for Telemundo who helped facilitate the donation.
Brady Hyde, director of production operations at NBCUniversal and a former Columbia faculty member, also played a key role in coordinating the donation, DeSantiago said. Kevin Cross, a 1991 Columbia graduate, is president and general manager of NBCUniversal Chicago.
The donation includes four studio cameras with box lenses and triaxial cable systems, camera pedestals, teleprompter systems, production switchers and rack processors, video monitors and wall displays.
It is valued at about $830,000, which is what it would cost to buy similar new equipment. The gear will allow students to have practice on additional professional-grade equipment. While NBC is upgrading to newer models of cameras and lighting equipment, the donated equipment is still used at multiple news stations.
The donation comes as the college works to address a $40 million operation deficit through a series of cost-cutting measures.
In a video message to the campus community on Monday, April 27, President and CEO Shantay Bolton talked about the donation, which she valued at $1 million.
John Petrosky, chief engineer for the School of Film and Television, said his student employees are working on unpacking and sorting some of the gear, which will be used to renovate the TV broadcast studios on the 15th floor of the 600 S. Michigan Ave. building. A second switching room, which has not been operational for several years, will also be reopened.
Petrosky arranged for the equipment to be moved from NBC’s downtown studios near the Chicago River to Columbia’s campus in the South Loop.
New monitors and multiview equipment will allow for screens that can preview up to two hundred images at a single time on “four to six TVs.” New switch boards also allow for more complex graphic abilities, giving students an experience closer to professional standards.
The renovation of the 600 S. Michigan Ave. studio, also used for cinema directing students, will allow student employees to get hands-on experience building the studio set. The renovation will take “several summers” to complete, Petrosky said.
“A lot of them are really geeked up on it as we are,” he said. “And so this would be a good opportunity, even though we’re gonna do a lot of it over the summer. The returning students will be able to kind of see the before and after and help continue tweaking the things out as they go.”
The Live TV studio on the second floor of the 33 E. Ida B. Wells building also will get an upgrade, with a new news desk that had been on Telemundo’s set, a touchscreen TV screen, an electric green screen, news ticker and a video display.
The main studio, and adjacent pocket studio, is primarily used for the “Columbia TV” capstone class, which produces “South Loop TV,” which DeSantiago co-teaches with Professor Jackie Spinner, who also assisted with the donation.
Part-time instructor Brandon Pope uses the TV studio for “On-Camera Media,” and the School of Communication and Culture has hosted events there.
The SCC studios are open to the campus community, and instructors from the School of Business and Entrepreneurship have used them, as well as faculty who teach in the Creative Writing program.
“We are so excited about this donation that positively impacts so many students across the college,” said Ames Hawkins, director of the School of Communication and Culture said in an email to the Chronicle. “This equipment is critical to our practicum classes in Journalism and Television for sure, but the whole idea is to make sure the spaces support students in getting the skills and experiences they need for their chosen creative careers.”
Petrosky added that NBC might also donate a second on-camera news desk, LED lights and audio gear once they determine they no longer have a need for it.
Senior journalism student Andria Childress, who is currently a student in “Columbia TV,” said the upgraded studio will be great for future students interested in broadcasting, allowing them to work with “real studio” equipment.
“I think that it’ll be an upgrade from the equipment that we have now, which is already pretty good,” said Childress, a reporter and anchor for the “South Loop TV” program. “So I think that it’ll make students feel like they’re actually working in a studio and actually doing the job that they are preparing for.”
Editor’s Note: Spinner is the faculty advisor to the Columbia Chronicle, which also uses the studio space. Blakley is a student in “Columbia TV” this semester.
Copy Edited by Samantha Mosquera
