Cicchetti, 'Planning, Building, and Operating a Video Production Facility in an Academic Media Services Environment', MC Journal 0302
URL = http://hegel.lib.ncsu.edu/stacks/serials/mcj/mcj-0302-cicchetti-planning

Planning, Building, and Operating a Video Production Facility in
an Academic Media Services Environment.

By Don Cicchetti

MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship, v3#2,
Fall 1995:66-82.


Introducton

At La Sierra University, the last fifteen years have seen a
distinct change in the media used to teach in the classroom.   In
1980 we delivered many more 16mm films to classrooms than video
tapes, and the videotapes were mostly U-matic (3/4").   In the
following five years the situation mostly reversed itself with
video (now more VHS than U-matic) becoming dominant.   Since 1987
we have delivered almost no 16mm films or U-matic videos to
classrooms.

With the advent of lower priced video production equipment, and
the ubiquitous personal computer, has come an even more
pronounced "Do it Yourself" attitude on the part of many faculty.

They desire more than ever to create their own teaching
materials. In 1992, we put together a proposal to finish our
incomplete, and partially obsolete video studio/edit facility.
Some of the factors involved with setting up our video facility
in our Academic Media Services Department were:

*Page 66*

1. Research. I needed to be very knowledgeable about this field
in order to make coherent decisions and sort through vendor's and
manufacturers claims.   I spent about 4 months learning and
researching current trends and products in this field.   The
complexity is much greater than it was ten years ago
because of all the computer products offered for video.

2. Cost. It costs more than I thought, even with all the
research, but we were pretty close. I learned the importance of
having income to support the facility.

3. Support. I needed broad-based faculty and administration
support for the project before any approval would be given.  This
involves many meetings, and much coalition-building.

After doing all this research, and building the  facility, I also

had to become adept at educating my faculty and administrative
clients in the realities of actually making video.   No
matter how good your facility, these skills will still be
required.  Do you have the people skills to be able to massage a
poorly planned program into something usable?   Can you get busy
faculty to commit time to your projects?  Can you say "no" when
you have to? We have had many clients who walk in with
preconceived notions of how much the project should cost, how
long it should take, how much time do they need to commit to the
project etc....    Most of the time, clients do not really know
how all of this works, so once again, you will be an educator in
order to be successful.

*Page 67*

Assessing the need in your institution.

Once I had defined and accepted the commitment it takes to
succeed at educational video, we took a good look at the number
and types of projects we were likely to face once the facility
was functional.   Anyone planning this sort of facility should be
able to answer the following questions:

1. How many faculty have the drive and the organizational skills
needed to put together a videotape project?   It's a good idea to
send out a questionnaire to determine the interest.   Then follow
up, speak with them,
find out what their expectations are, and what role they can
play.

2. How will you financially support your facility?   Even if you
do not charge for your services (we don't in general), you will
either need to charge for video production, or get a commitment
from Administration for $10,000.00 or more per year in upgrades
and replacement equipment.  This figure does not include repairs.

(You DO have a repair budget, don't
you?)

3. What role will YOU play in producing videotapes?  Are you an
editor, producer, director, script writer, audio mixer, lighting
designer?  etc. You need people to fill each of those roles.   Do
you need additional training in areas for which you will be
responsible?

*Page 68*


Planning to Meet the Need

To what level of quality should our facility be built?  To answer
this, I had to ask the following:

1. What do people at our institution consider "good video"?  This
will determine whether we use SVHS or Betacam, for instance.

2. Do we want to do animation?(yes, it's expensive)

3. Where will our titles/graphics come from?

4. Who will be the final user of the tape?  (on-campus use often
tolerates somewhat lower quality than something we might
want to sell to PBS)


What does it cost?

Assuming you have a space ready for this facility,  (you will
need good clean, well-grounded electrical service, at least 200
amps worth with lighting, quiet, yet effective HVAC, and probably
some acoustical treatments) you can spend from $20,000.00 to
$300,000.00 and more, without cameras, which run from $1,500.00
to $45,000.00 each, or tripods.

Most universities, by the time they "fix" their rooms, do all the
woodwork, buy three decent cameras, and are up and running will
spend $125,000.00 to $200,000.00 for a nice SVHS A-B roll

*Page 69*

Studio/Edit bay. Going with the "nonlinear" computer based
editors is another option, but for comparable quality and
versatility they are not usually any cheaper, and can often be
more expensive than tape in a University or college environment.
If you're starting to get the shakes here, because you've
read how you can do "desktop video" for $10,000.00 total, good!
You are learning not to trust advertising, a required first step
in succeeding at video.

Ideally your needs will dictate your format and budget.  If your
budget is doing the dictating, then you will have to settle for
the best that budget can buy, or expand the budget.   Please
note:  If you build too-good of a facility someone may question
your expenditures, but the users will love the results.  If you
build a not-good-enough facility you will disappoint everyone,
and may waste whatever budget you spend on it since you really
needed the more expensive one.   The loss of enthusiasm resulting
from making the wrong choices in this area can doom a facility
very quickly.  We determined that we were going to build a
facility that we would not need to apologize for.

Our university had 1471 FTE's (full time equivalent students)
last year. While I have a lot of interest from the faculty in
doing video, only three to four fully-funded complete video
projects (telecourses for instance) are approved each year.   We
do less formal projects on a semi-weekly basis, and we do quite a
few edit projects using tapes brought in by faculty shot
with their own cameras.  I've been fairly successful in getting

*Page 70*

faculty to purchase SVHS-C camcorders which helps with
compatibility in our Edit Bay, as our machines accept these tapes
without transferring or using adapters. We do a very limited
amount of single-camera-only location shoots as well.
Multi-camera location shoots require lots more personnel and
equipment and are beyond the scope of both this article and my
department's capabilities. Fortunately, we have been fairly
successful in persuading faculty to use our studio/classroom for
taping their telecourses.

Our facility is an SVHS AB-Roll (SMPTE time-code equipped)
tape-based facility with computer generated titles/graphics.   We
have three good 3-CCD JVC cameras, lighting, and full audio
support and processing.   Our facility could be built (assuming
the physical structure is present) for about 165,000.00.   Our
video is very good quality, but not quite broadcast.  It is fine
for our needs, but I would go to Betacam, Digital Betacam, or
GOOD non linear if we produced programming that went to PBS or
other broadcast outlets.   This will give you an idea of what we
spent to meet our needs.  You must make that determination for
your own institution, but remember: if you err, err on the side
of too much quality, not too little.


Personnel requirements

Are the following roles accounted for?

*Page 71*

1.Executive Producer. This is the person who must approve the
final project.   They can also be the "content specialist".
Often times, the person who brings you the project will end up in
this role.   Even though "Exec. Producer" credit is often a way
of flattering a certain Faculty or Administrator, in reality
they play a crucial role in any successful project.

2. Producer. The Producer is the "vision" person.  She/he take
the content, the goal of the tape, the talent, the people
involved, and the technology available and decide what the tape
is going to say.   The producer decides what the tape is about,
and formulates the concepts it will reflect.   There is no
program without a producer; actual production starts with them.

3. Script writer. The script may be written by the producer, or
you may want to engage the services of a professional video
script writer, or a qualified individual in the English or
Communications Dept.   From the script, the storyboard is
created, which shows how the script will actually be shot

4. Director. The director runs the shoot, coaches and instructs
the talent, sets up all camera angles and framing, and may do
lighting as well.   The director makes the Producer's vision
translate to tape in a visually attractive, and informative
manner. In educational video we often have to work with
non-professional talent (teachers for instance) who want to
speak extemporaneously.    A great director will get them talking
then help them formulate their thoughts into cogent, concise

*Page 72*

statements, then have them speak those prepared statements for
the camera. A great director will understand that we need both
the concision of written-out content, and the energy of "off the
top of the head" commentary and is able to get these sort of
great performances out of the talent.

5. Talent. This is the person (people) who will actually be on
camera.   Always be careful about who plays these roles.   A
"host" (who will be on camera throughout the program) must be
very professional, personable, comfortable, and knowledgeable,
and working from a professionally-written script.  The
skills required to host a program must be learned.
6. Camera Operators. Some of you may be adequately staffed with
qualified camera operators; my department is not.   If you are in
the same position, you should be familiar with several good
freelance videographers in your area who can come in as needed
and run cameras on projects.   Also, if your institution
has a television major, arrange to have students either work for
your department, or help with projects as part of their
classwork.


Editing technology decisions

Currently, there are two basic ways of editing video:
1. Tape  (SVHS, Betacam, Digital Betacam, 3/4SP, 1 inch etc);
2. Computer or "Non linear" digital hard-disc based editing.

*Page 73*


My research, and background led me to the following conclusions:
Tape's advantages are.:
1. It is a better storage medium than your computer's hard disc.
The cassettes or reels go sit on a shelf, and you can put new
ones on. There are removable storage mediums for computers, but
they are vastly more expensive than tape for storage;
2. Tape is still the industry standard;
3. The manufacturers of tape editing systems are real video
companies, not computer companies and have vastly better customer
support, technical support, and repair, than computer companies;
4. Despite having many formats, tape is still more compatible,
edit suite to edit suite, than are computer formats;
5. Compared to the low-end computer editors, (under $30,000.00)
tape is often higher quality;
6. No transfer to disc required before editing;
7. Tape is much easier to produce long (over one hour in length)
programs in most cases.

Tape's disadvantages:
1. Generational loss of picture quality as you edit;
2. Editing with tape equipment tends to be slower, and less
intuitive in nature than the modern non linear systems;
3. Compositing, layering, animation, and titling must still be
done by a computer or other outboard device;
4. SMPTE time code control must be fully implemented for frame
accurate editing;

*Page 74*

5. Much more outboard equipment, technical expertise, and regular
calibration required for the same sort of facility compared to a
properly designed computer-based system;
6. Complicated edits require good equipment and very high
technical  skills in the "tape world";
7. Industry trends are moving away from tape.

Computer Editing's advantages are:
1. Being "non linear" it is faster to edit, in general than tape;

2. It is a lot more intuitive than tape (once you learn the
software, of course);
3. No generational quality loss when editing.
4. Compositing, layering, animation, and titling, may be done on
the same platform as the editor;
5. Complicated edits are much easier to setup and execute;
6. Industry trends are moving towards non-linear and away from
tape.

Computer Editing's disadvantages:
1. Non linear editing systems are still mostly produced by
computer companies rather than video companies, so the level of
tech support, customer support, and repair dept. responsiveness,
is much lower than that routinely found at the major tape-based
companies.   This is more important than I can tell you here!
2. These systems are often sold with very little accurate
information about their actual capabilities given to the client.

*Page 75*

There is something about the "high-tech buzz" that comes with
doing something on a computer that seems to turn off our critical
evaluation faculties;
3. Some of these systems consist of a poorly integrated pile of
CPU's drives and cables that have no intention whatsoever of
working together.  Many people are under the mistaken idea that
you can just get some software, drives, and an output card, and
you are off and running. Unfortunately, these systems rarely work
reliably, and must be debugged;
4.  You still have to copy the output from the computer to tape
to use the program;
5. Many low-end computer editors have a 12-20 minute limit to the
maximum length of the program on disc, before it is transferred
to tape;
6. Many low-end computer editors apply large amounts of
compression to the video signal.  Contrary to what the
salesperson may say, lots of compression (much above a 4 to 1
ratio in JPEG for instance) IS visible.
7. Many low-end (under $30,000.00) computer editors drop out
every other video field to save disc space, losing half of the
video scan lines in the process.  We will only purchase full 30
frame/60 field-low compression-capable equipment;
8. You have to copy your field tapes over to disc, and sometimes
"pre edit" them to make them fit.

  I realize my "Disadvantages of Computer-Based Editing" section
is large, and it sounds like I don't like them.   Actually, I do
like (some of) them, I just feel that potential users should be

*Page 76*

informed about them, and go in with their eyes open.
Which should you choose?    Tape is still viable, but Computer
editing has some unique advantages, and is undoubtedly the wave
of the future.  Do your homework, do your research, and take at
least several months patiently becoming literate in this
technology before you decide which will serve you best.


Graphic and Text Design

Even in a tape based room, most Text and Graphic creation is done
on a computer.   Macintosh's dominate this field with programs
like Photoshop, Comet CG, Bola, and many others   The IBM and
clone PC's are just starting to find more users.   In either case
the quality of the video output card is extremely important.
You really need a broadcast grade (or close to it) output card
for use in a tape based edit suite because of the generational
loss through the editing and duplicating process.   Very few
of the inexpensive (around $1000.00) video cards will work in
this role. We purchased a Truevision NuVista+ output card for our
Quadra 800 for about $3000.00.   The composite (standard video)
output on it is not very good, but the SVHS output, and the RGB
output are very nice, and within broadcast quality expectations.

Our edit bay employs an all Y/C 358 (or SVHS) signal path for
improved quality, so the nice-looking Y/C output from the
NuVista+ was able to be utilized.   Make certain the output card

*Page 77*

you choose is compatible with your edit bay!   (call your video
service tech and ask them about it)   The NuVista+ does not
accept Genlock or Advance Sync. timing signals from our house
sync generator, (remember, it was designed by computer people,
not video people) so unless your switcher has a compensating TBC
on it (ours does) you will not be able to feed the computer's
output into the input of the switcher (this is known as
"upstream").   You should always be willing to pay a good video
systems designer (not a sales person, but someone who has
designed and installed quite a few edit bays) to consult with
you, before you make a purchase. Better yet, contract with them
to design the facility with your input, and have a guaranteed
performance clause written into the contract so that if
the system has incompatibility problems, they are resolved by the
consultant/engineer, not by you spending more money to buy
something you didn't know you needed.   Remember, there are lots
of "cracks" for you to fall through when using computers in the
video production environment.


Audio Considerations

Audio functions in a basic edit suite include:

1.      Signal Level adjustment
2.      Signal Routing
3.      Editing voice-overs to video tape
4.      Editing music to video tape

*Page 78*

Add the following for audio functions in a more advanced edit
suite:

5. Creating voice-overs  (requires proper studio /good acoustics
or voice-over booth)
6. Creating music tracks for video  (requires multi-track
recording, midi implementation, and good monitoring capabilities)
7. Reverb/delay/time based processing
8. A good selection of quality microphones/preamps
9. Compressors, and high quality equalization
10. A full patch bay

Add the following to the above for a very advanced edit suite:

11. Full SMPTE time code implementation on all reel-to-reels or
multi-track hard disc recording/editing with time code.
12. Stereo Digital Audio Workstation  with full editing/time
compression digital EQ, etc.
13. Extensive MIDI control, and time code implementation.
14. A Large selection of good microphones/preamps


   Audio functionality in a video edit bay can run from extremely
simple: basic stereo mixer, cheap speakers and amp, no patch bay,
no effects or processing, etc, to the very complex indeed,
including a large mixer, 24-track analog reel to reel with SMPTE
time code, ADAT, or a Digital Audio Workstation.   Your needs
will determine your choices.  If you will be using your field

*Page 79*

audio, and maybe adding a voice over, or music bed now and
then, you can use a simpler audio system.  If you want to do
music videos, commercials shot and cut to the second, and sound
effects, dialog replacement, and Foley work you will need a more
complex and powerful system.

Our edit suite incorporates a fully functional recording studio
into it, so we have all of the studio audio equipment available
for video use as well. There are times when putting a bit of
reverb, eq, compression, or other processing, on the audio tracks
of our video tapes works wonders.   When designing your facility,
don't neglect the audio.  We use our studio grade audio equipment
to great benefit on our videotapes.


Acoustic environment

It is essential that we had a good-sounding studio to videotape
in.  My professional background in audio engineering saved us a
lot of money in designing for good sound.  If you do not have
that background, this is a good area to bring in a professional
consultant.   We ended up putting a lot of sound absorbing
materials on the walls with heavy curtains over
them, and doing some acoustical treatment to the ceiling.  You
may also want to consider setting up a "voice-over" booth (a room
with very dry, neutral sounding acoustics) for recording
narration and dialogue.

*Page 80*

Maintenance

We use a professional video engineer who works during the day for
a major video equipment manufacturer to maintain the video side
of our facility. Being that he is "moonlighting" his fees are
quite reasonable, and he does broadcast quality work.   Most
cities will have a studio maintenance
engineer available.  You may want to check with a local TV
station if you do not know one yourself.  This individual can
help with emergency repairs, advice, design work, and regular
room calibration and system timing. Don't wait till you need
these services to find someone.  You need to know a maintenance
engineer that you trust and have them on call as you need
them.  And yes, you will need them.


Set

Since we are not able to do sophisticated multi-camera
on-location production, we needed to build a set in our studio so
we could convince our clients to come here to do their taping.
Unless you are setup for field production, you will need a set
built in your studio.   Think of tables and chairs, plants,
bookcases, etc.   Don't forget good lighting.   Many times
a theater department will have set-design and lighting people.
They can bevery helpful in putting your set together.

*Page 81*

Operating a video facility in an academic Media Services
department is a large undertaking, and there are lots of pitfalls
on the way, but it can be done well, and successfully if you do
enough "pre-production."


Don Cicchetti is Coordinator of Media Services at
La Sierra University Library. His e-mail address is:
dcicchet@vega.lasierra.edu

This article is copyright (C) by Don Cicchetti. All rights
reserved. Any commercial use requires permission of the author
and the editors of this journal.

MC Journal: The Journal of Academic Media Librarianship
v3#2
ISSN 1069-6792
Fall 1995

November 1995

*Page 82*