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Dec 1, 2002 12:00 PM

    

West Long Branch, NJ's Monmouth University faced a decision in 1999 about what to do with its campus television and radio broadcast facilities. At the time, the radio and TV stations operated out of separate buildings, and both facilities were in desperate need of improvements.

In response, the university decided to construct a new multipurpose facility, which would bring the television and radio studios together under one roof and provide necessary upgrades. Today it's called the Jules L. Plangere Jr. Center for Communication and Instructional Technology (CCIT) Building, a new, state-of-the-art, educational broadcast facility that opened this school year to returning students.

Monmouth's most important objective was to create an environment that was first and foremost an educational facility, while at the same time functioning as a full-service television facility in its own right.

The hub of the CCIT television facility is the master control room. This room features a custom master control console designed by Harris. The hub also includes a Panasonic DVCPRO studio editing VTR with digital still and slow-motion playback and high-speed 60x search, and one 14-inch and two eight-inch Sony monitors with rack-mounts.

The production room features a Ross Synergy 1 digital production switcher with 16 digital inputs, 100-event memory and chroma keying. The production room also includes a Chyron Duet LE character generator and a Harris custom-designed production control console, which includes TD, producer, audio desk, audio rack and 6RU turret to match.

Another distinctive feature of the CCIT Building is that there are 18 remote locations throughout the building where students can go “live” and broadcast back to the master control room.

Among these in-house remote locations is an area known as the “videowall.” Designed to be used for the studio's entertainment report, the videowall consists of nine, 42-inch NEC plasma flat screens. The wall is both PC- and video signal-compatible and connects with a JBL two-way powered speaker system.

Each of the rooms in the television studio also features Harris custom-built furniture and consoles designed at the Harris Pacific Design Center in California and built at Harris' Cincinnati facility. The furniture is created with flexibility, durability and style in mind.

To fulfill the project vision set out by the university, the Harris, Einhorn Yaffee Prescott and Costello Maione Schuch teams had to focus continually on tight timetables, unsurpassed product quality, workmanship, maintainability and effective documentation. The result is a facility that will be an educational resource for many years to come.

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