R-TV Department dives into digital

photo by Kate Medley

Leslie Hunsaker, a senior majoring in broadcast, confers with Matthew Friend about the production of a recent PBS News Brief in UM's R-TV building.

By Patrick W. Galbraith
J-School Web Reporter

Crystal Ligori remembers a time when producing news segments at the Radio and Television Department was comparable to a kindergarten art project.

“Editing was as close to cut and paste as you could get,” said the senior broadcast journalism major. “All I know about the old…equipment is that it was probably older than me. It weighed a ton and hauling it around for taping was a pain.”

The technology, three-quarter-inch industrial grade analog introduced by the Sony Corp. in 1972, was the video and audio recording standard until the introduction of modern digital equipment.

However, R-TV has made huge headway in its struggle to move from past to present by converting from antiquated analog to all-digital systems this semester.

“Everything about digital is better,” said Ligori. “There really would be no way that we could be producing UM News, PBS Newsbrief or Montana Journal with anything but digital equipment. … It was essential that we made the switch. The quality of video that we produce is a hundred times better now.”

Analog cassettes are about 10 times the size of digital. Three-quarter inch is a measure of the tapes’ width inside the bulky cartridge. Unlike analog footages’ “cut and paste” editing between tapes, data acquired on a digital camera can be entered into a computer equipped with editing software and easily manipulated.

Despite such advantages, the process of change for R-TV was long and tedious.

“We’ve been planning this for the last couple years,” said Ray Ekness, chair of the R-TV Department. “The three-inch equipment was pretty old and tired.”

photo by Kate Medley

Ray Ekness, chair of R-TV, explains the advantages of digital technology for students.

Ligori compared the “tired” production process to an exercise in creative recycling.

“It was a lot of scrolling through film frame by frame and trying to edit from tapes that you can’t even buy anymore,” she said. “Everything was being reused over and over again. It was just bad news.”

Over the course of several semesters, the department had been gradually switching to digital and phasing out older systems. Already in place prior to the project’s completion this summer were seven digital cameras and six editing bays.

R-TV has also been using a limited number of computers loaded with the AVID program, advanced editing software, which it continues to share with the Media Arts Department.

Ligori was among the first group of journalism undergraduates to convert to digital during a class last spring.

“We had already spent all of fall using three-quarter-inch equipment, so we were in the process of redefining our skills,” she said, but added that after the initial discomfort of learning the new systems “the switch was a life saver” and students’ work improved.

Ekness said the provost’s office – after much advocating from J-School Dean Jerry Brown – responded to the class’ achievements by contributing $16,000 to the already allocated $20,000 budget, which enabled R-TV to complete its makeover.

“It’s great to be up-to-date and to have finally made that final push to be all integrated,” he said.

He added that while the new equipment was anything but cheap – more than $9,000 for one complete setup – and the university hasn’t been in the best financial position as of late, administrators really came through for his department.

Despite some reservations he has about the $36,000 price tag, Ekness considers the upgrade a tremendous advance for R-TV.

“It’s great for incoming students to start on digital,” he said. “The kids really enjoy working on editing computers and using the lighter, easier-to-maneuver cameras. … That’s what people out there in the real world are using.”

Still, Ekness has a few concerns for incoming broadcast journalism students.

“A lot of stations still edit from tape to tape, a capacity we no longer have,” he said, pointing out that this might be a disadvantage for students seeking jobs after graduation.

But Ligori disagrees.

“No way. I think it (analog) is a good background to have, but I think that everything will be digital as soon as most of us get out of school,” she said.

Ekness also said that because of the new equipment’s high cost, R-TV was able to replace only two pieces each of its four retired cameras and editing bays, creating a potential problem of availability.

Then there is the issue of longevity. While the analog editing systems have lasted since their installation in 1985 when the PARTV Building was erected, the life expectancy of the computer-based digital equipment is only about three years.

In addition, the new systems were just installed in late August – KUFM, the UM public radio station, is still upgrading transmitters to emit a digital signal receivable by computers – leaving little lead time for faculty and students to adapt to and learn the latest techniques and equipment operations.

“The switch was easy, but getting good at digital editing is the hard part,” Ligori said. “When you switch you don’t know the shortcuts or the tips that make editing easier,”

All things considered, Ekness said that the semester has been “quite a challenge” so far.

Ligori’s diagnosis? No problems.

“Learning digital…was simple compared to editing on analog, it just takes some practice to get used to it,” she said. “I do enjoy the new equipment. It makes my life in the journalism school a lot easier.”

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