The Cameras are Rolling:
Pass the Salt, Grandma
by Kent Meloy
PTSG: Huh?
The conversation usually goes something like this:
"Hi. I'm Kent Meloy."
"Hi, Kent. I'm [name]. I work as a [readily-recognizable job title] for [department]. What do you do?"
"I manage the PTSG."
Silence is broken only by crickets singing in the distance.
"Oh? Um... what's that?"
To clear confusion, I offer this official statement: PTSG stands for Presentation Technology and Services Group, not "Pass the Salt, Grandma." What it means is simple. We do streaming media, digital video production, video conferencing, virtual and distance learning support. If you can view it on a monitor and it moves, we probably have our fingers in it.
A Brief History of (our) Time
Our department started about seven years ago, as a research study into the emerging technology of streaming media over the Internet. The successful study became its own full-fledged department. Since then it has been responsible for handling all streaming video productions done on campus. Commencements and convocations, press conferences, symposiums, lectures, concerts, and round-table discussions have been staples of our diet.
And Now for Something Completely Different
One of the mandates of the department has been to keep on the bleeding edge of streaming technology. It has accomplished this, handily. Things are changing somewhat, in that the technology has arrived, and is pretty solid. YouTube has brought it to the attention of the masses, and now the most difficult part of the equation is deciding if you want to do Windows media files, QuickTime, or Flash. With this awareness, the above mentioned masses are starting to ask to be part of the revolution.
The next big hurdle isn't so much the technology, but the quality of content. It's easy to argue that quality isn't so much an issue, that the current cultur of reality TV and one-minute online video cips of cats doing odd things with hammers, has led to an acceptance of low-fi entertainment. While that is true to an extent, it is also true that if you want to keep someone's attention for any length of time, it's improtant to make the viewing process comfortable and pleasing to the eye. Shaky cam may imply action or 'in the now,' but the human brain smooths out our own vision during day to day activities. Want proof? Look at an LED clock and crunch a pretzel. The lit display will jump all over the place, but nothing else will.
So, how do we get to an elevated level of content? Intead of streaming a simple lecture in a standard classroom, we prefer shooting the professor in his or her own office, or even better, in an environment that compliments the lecture. For example, with an upcoming anotropology course, instead of using overhead slides and PowerPoint presentations, we're going to be shooting student filed trips to explore caves in Kentucky as the students look into how humans coped with climate change in prehistoric times. There are projects in the works to create virtual field trips for first year geology students, and a full-blown documentary to follow senioer students as they embark on a research excursion to the Kilauea Volcano, including daily video blogs we will stream remotely.
We're also shifting from the real to the virtual, by partnering with DAAP to cerate (for example) exquisitely rendered 3D models of structures or places that no longer exist, and using compositing technology, inserting the instructor into that environment. We're also immersed in propagating Second Life as a distance learning tool, wherein the user creates a 3D avatar of him- or herself, and can navigate in real time in a virtual world. UC has been developing a presence in this exciting technology and the response has been terrific.
Finally, we come to one more acronym that causes angst: HD. As the many flavors of HD vie for supremacy, we have been plugging away, experimenting with the technology, shooting tests, and working with clients to explore this imminent future. Our first major event is scheduled for late March, as we do a 'Live for Tape,' three-camera HD recording of a modern dance piece at CCM, to be delivered as a stream, download, and DVD (HD-DVD or BluRay), with the potential to be aired on PBS. Those same two letters are causing equal head-scratching now that HD video conferencing is available, rasing the whole 'early adopter' vs. 'how big is the pipe' vs. 'wait till it works' debates. But that's another story.
The point of all this is what passed for good enough in the past needs to be left there. The future of education lies far away from the texbook-lecture-and-lab-only model. The richer and more compelling we cna make the content, the more the students will learn, and more important, retain. It's exciting to be part of this little revolution, and you can bet we're pointing our cameras at it.
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