Students interested in enhancing their résumés by learning how to create highest-quality digital media projects may soon do so in BYU-Hawaii's completely refurbished Media Production Center (MPC).
Over the past two years dedicated staff, student workers, service volunteers and Latter-day Saint Conference Center broadcast engineering team experts have worked together to totally make over the BYUH Media Production Center (MPC), which is divided between the TV and audio studio in McKay 146 as well as offices, editing bays and the campus cable TV maintenance shop in the Joseph F. Smith Library, and other locations.
Final testing is underway via undersea fiber optic cable to feed live, as-if live and documentary style audiovisual programming and distance learning content from BYU-Hawaii to the Conference Center technical operations hub in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Conference Center, in turn, can broadcast the content via the Church satellite system to stake centers and Church Educational System locations throughout the university's target areas in Asia and the Pacific.
"It's a professional level media production center with first-rate facilities that can be used to produce content for instruction, information or marketing," said Dr. Duane Roberts, BYUH Director of Public Relations and Communications, who oversees the MPC.
Roberts compared the MPC progress thus far to a "three legged stool. We now have facilities and equipment that are professional and up-to-date. We are in the process of refining our infrastructure — that is, the right people with the right training. And, as we did at BYU Broadcasting in Provo, involve a lot more students than we currently use."
"Media production has a direct impact on students who not only want media experience — either as a minor, or perhaps as a major, but also students who want a set of hard skills they can take with them, whether they go out in business, or any other major. What better way to enhance their career potential than to have a hands-on practical experience in using electronic media for storytelling. BYU-Hawaii students will engage with a few fulltime professionals, learning how to create, package and deliver media products."
"How do we get more students involved? It means we have to have a curriculum," Roberts continued. "There's already a minor in IDD — Instructional Development and Design — as well as some consideration to create an IDD major, which would include the possibility of some Computer Science, IDD and digital media production classes. It would be interdisciplinary by design."
Roberts recalled he first came to BYU-Hawaii in 2002 as general manager of KBYU Television to consult on what to do with the TV studio in McKay 146. "You couldn't use the television studio I walked into then as a broadcast facility. There was no way. They were doing media production out of that very cramped, inadequate, unprofessional facility," he said. "I'm amazed they provided as good as quality as they did, given the equipment and facilities that they had.
Roberts said early plans, none of which came to fruition, tentatively called for a new media center to be carved out of a portion of the racquetball courts, then later a portion of the Physical Facilities warehouse complex. He noted by the time he joined the BYUH staff fulltime, "one of my primary tasks was to see what we could do to upgrade our media production capabilities and recapture the existing television studio."
He fortuitously enlisted the volunteer help of Elder R. William "Bill" Harris [pictured at right]. "It's because of his efforts, largely, and the cooperation of all the players, that we have the new Media Production Center," Roberts said.
Elder Harris, who will soon conclude 23 months of service at BYUH, has almost 50 years of media production experience, including 34 years with the U.S. Air Force and federal government. He also served a mission in the Audiovisual Department at Church headquarters before coming to Laie.
Once the MPC plans were approved, Elder Harris said, "We rented a 40-foot storage container, took everything out of the old studio, and completely gutted it." Refurbishments included:
- New air conditioning
- New electrical and back-up power systems
- New digital video and audio equipment
- Refurbished studio cameras, pending replacement with high-definition cameras.
- A high-speed digital video encoder to connect with the Conference Center in Salt Lake City.
- Interconnectivity between the MPC and the Library "so we can feed audio and video back and forth."
- A suite of offices, media archive storage and four editing bays in the Library
- New furnishings, storage cabinets and shop facilities
"We're now capable of doing anything that any major production house could do," he continued. "When you consider what we have in terms of facilities at this point, once we get the students with the skills, we're going to be able to produce in the studio while we're simultaneously editing four separate programs, and feeding the Conference Center in Utah with distance education materials that come up on the satellite system and land in various locations in our target areas. We have that much capability."
"We have been able to evolve that capability over the last 15 or 16 months," Elder Harris said, emphasizing the entire project was accomplished using previously budgeted funds. "It's been absolutely unbelievable, and I feel so strongly that the Lord has been directing us. It's amazing what we could possibly do with this."
He also pointed out MPC staff have been reorganized: "Sonny Ah Puck now has the CAC, campus sound reinforcement, the TV studio and multi-camera video productions, including devotionals," he said. "Lawrence Lau now manages the video editing capabilities, and single-camera and electronic news gathering production." Glenn Kau, CAC/theatrical lighting, and Larry LeMone, Cable TV Systems, are also on the MPC team.
"We're perfectly situated right now with the facilities and equipment we have to extend the blessings of BYU-Hawaii," Roberts confirmed. "The future of media production on this campus is bright, even glorious. I envision and truly believe that we will connect with alumni, students through distance learning, and with alumni and friends around the world in a way that we have never heretofore been able to do."
"Both internally and externally, the Media Production Center is at the heart of creating and packaging our message content so that the people who need to know will be able to know and understand what's going on at BYU-Hawaii."
"I honestly feel like I've prepared all my life to come to this place and to do this work right now, both from communications and media production points of view," Roberts said. "This is the right place to make this happen now."
— Photos by Ian Nitta and Mike Foley