The technical director is the guy that sits at the big console in a television control room and makes it happen. When a new camera shot is taken, that’s the technical director. When there’s a graphic on the screen, the Chyron person made it, but the TD put it on the screen. When there’s a video package playing, that’s on the screen because of our friend the technical director. That person sits here:
This is a Grass Valley switcher and it is massive and impressive. It took about a full week of intensive training to get most of it down. And it will do everything we will conceivably ask of it and more. One of the TDs on one of our student shows was comparing this new control room to their old digs. Used to be, he said, he could sit in one seat and do three or four of the roles without moving. Now, in this new studio, a state-of-the-art facility, a full-on production requires a team of nine or 10 crew members. So the short version is: better programming, more training opportunities, win-win.
Such is the dedication to the broadcast students that Indiana University and the Media School have built such an impressive facility. It is a neat treat to be a small part of that. And if I am sitting at that switcher one day and I disappear into the past or transport myself to Mars, just know it was a human error on my part.
View from my run this evening:
An easy three-miler to get through the middle of the week.
