KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Michigan’s Kalamazoo College has deployed a variety of Blackmagic Design gear, including cameras, switchers and recorders for campuswide production.
The deployment includes a full TV production studio in the college library, three mobile streaming kits for athletics, lectures and concerts and three performance venues and campus chapel—all outfitted with Blackmagic Design production gear, the company said.
“Kalamazoo College sees media production and media literacy as vital tools for educating students for a rapidly evolving future, and most of our media department staff comes from real-world broadcast backgrounds,” Jaakan Page-Wood, media producer and studio instructor for Information Services at Kalamazoo College, said.
The college’s Upjohn Library Commons is home to a studio used for TV production class, class projects, video presentations, marketing and internal video content. It’s outfitted with four Blackmagic Studio Camera 4K Pros, each with Blackmagic Focus Demands and Blackmagic Zoom Demands, that record to four HyperDeck Studio HD Plus broadcast decks. The signals are then fed into an ATEM 2 M/E production switcher complete with ATEM 2 M/E broadcast panel. Two HyperDeck Studio 4K Pros are also used. One feeds the switcher for selectable video content and the other is used for recording from the switcher, the company said.
“The Studio Camera’s large display is great for teaching because it’s so dominant that it really focuses the students on what their camera is looking at, and I can see what they are doing from a distance in the control room,” Page-Wood said. “The zoom and focus controllers work well with them, and the integrated tally light is a huge help when teaching the students when they are on standby or when their camera is hot.”
The college also has five SmartScope Duo 4Ks to give the technical director a clear view of all four cameras, he said, adding that the director also can see the cameras, a program feed and a selectable aux monitor. “A SmartView 4K is used for program and preview, and a Web Presenter 4K handles streaming,” said Page-Wood.
Page-Wood also created the college’s mobile streaming kit, which is used during graduations, assemblies and student performances on the central campus quadrangle. The kit includes an ATEM switcher and panel, HyperDecks, ATEM Camera Converters, ATEM Studio Converter and Mini Converters Optical Fiber 12G, he said.
“We use this kit, along with a bunch of tactical fiber cables, to turn our outdoor spaces into a multicamera recording space,” Page-Wood said. “We usually have six cameras going, and we use the comms on the camera converters to talk back and forth.”
The college’s two small mobile streaming kits each feature an ATEM Mini Pro live production switcher. One is used in the Anderson Athletic Center and athletic fields to stream more than 100 sporting events a year. The second is used for lectures and student performances, as well as a backup for athletics, the company said.
“Athletics has a variety of spaces where permanently installed equipment isn’t feasible, so we move this kit around to different sports and stream from wherever need be,” Page-Wood said. “Our natatorium has a networked camera that feeds into the fixed production studio, so we often stream swimming events from the library via the web presenter.”
To assist in the production of theatrical and artistic performances, the college has deployed five additional ATEM Mini Pros across the campus, including in the Dalton Theater, Recital Hall, Dewing 103, the Nelda K. Balch Playhouse and Stetson Chapel.
More information is available on the Blackmagic Design website.
