Today was the official grand opening of Franklin Hall. The president of the university spoke. Everyone wore their regalia. They conferred an honorary degree upon Fox broadcaster and IU alumnus Joe Buck. We put him on the big screen:

Buck is a funny guy, and thoughtful and was highly complimentary of the facility they’ve put together here. He should be. The place is nice. He said, and I’ll surely steal his line and quote him later, that he works in all the best studios in New York and L.A. and the broadcast setup here is as nice as any place he goes. He’s not wrong. They’ve built something really promising here. And, now, a quick glimpse of the studio that I shot today before we welcomed the open house tours:

This is Ken Beckley:

He is a journalism grad. He became a successful anchor in Indianapolis and then a business executive and now a well-regarded author. Very nice man. He and his wife, Audrey, who is also an IU grad, donated to the renovation of Franklin Hall and now the studio carries their name. This is the first time, I believe, that Mr. Beckley had seen the finished product. He was quite pleased. A friend of his asked him to go stand at the green screen. He said he never had before. But he enjoyed it. Even the old pros enjoy the novelty of the green screen.

And then, after the open house, and after I got to demonstrate the virtual reality set up in the video game lab downstairs — yes, we have all of that here, too, and it is equally incredible — we got to start doing some production training with the IUS-TV crew:

It was 6:30 on a Tuesday night and they walked in and stayed for about 90 minutes. People in student media can be some kind of devoted. That never fails to impress me.