Franklin County High Broadcast & Film Studio

Earlier this year Amitrace was contacted by Franklin County High School to create and install a full audio visual production suite for their broadcast program. As we always are with these types of projects, Amitrace was happy to oblige.

A professional broadcast production is typically made up of three major parts: the control room, the news desk, and the field production. For Franklin our goal was to cover all three of these areas with modern audio visual technology that would not only resemble the type of professionally produced shows  you watch on prime time television, but also be physically set up like one so that students would be able to get the full broadcast news experience.

Pictured: JVC 170U cameras mounted on Ikan™ PT3500 Teleprompters and Ikan™ DH5E monitors on EL-7004 pedestal kits.

The news desk room would feature a single desk where the on-air talent would read the news each day to a pair JVC 170U cameras mounted on Ikan™ PT3500 Teleprompters. The anchors would be flanked by another pair of large Ikan™ LBX30 Lyra Soft panel lights that would provide professional on set lighting. The back wall of the room had been painted green by school staff so that productions would have the option to key in a background image or make use of a virtual set.

A 50” monitor with a pair of JBL Speakers is used to monitor the broadcast in the newsroom. 

Cables are “snaked” together into a series of long mesh sleeves and run from these various devices back into the main control room where the entire show is run. This reduces clutter and keeps the room safe to traverse.

The control room is made up of several stations, Producer, Director, Technical Director, Graphics, Audio, and Robo Control

Here, a full team of students work in dimly lit room while monitoring and controlling the show from behind the scenes.

The director communicates to their team over a Datavideo™ ITC-100 system, quietly giving them direction through the eight headsets distributed amongst team members across the room and the floor director running the newsroom itself. Every que, transition or breaking news headline is controlled here and then fed into the newsroom for the on-air talent to communicate to the rest of the school.

Multiple 60”  monitors are displayed in the control room so that anyone can monitor the broadcast from any angle.

Of course the heart of the entire operation is Newtek’s premiere live production switcher, the TriCaster TC1. The switcher controls every transition, camera input, graphic, lower third and anything else that needs to go up on screen at the right time. A small panel control surface alit with technicolor buttons and a Novation control pad allow the technical director to switch between the numerous inputs with a press of the finger.

For the field production kits Amitrace provided a pair of Canon EOS 6D Mark II DSLR cameras, complete with varying lens sizes and Rode microphone kits fit to a Rycote Lyre shockmount. Students will able to shoot packages and interviews anywhere outside of the studio with flexibility and high quality.

Amitrace is proud of the work that it has been able to accomplish with Franklin County High School. The ability to create a high value news production is no longer something regulated to major news networks with billions of dollars. It’s now accessible to students that will be able to gain access to necessary broadcasting skills that will put them leagues ahead of competitors in the years to come. 

Amitrace is happy to have been given the opportunity to work with Franklin County High School. If you’d like to learn more about how we might be able to turn your production into one like this, feel free to reach out to us through the form below.

1 Comment

  1. Justin Acree on April 16, 2020 at 4:17 pm

    I’m trying to prove a small broadcast studio for my school. I have a unique space that seems to be laid out well for a production space.

    Could you please contact me about pricing?

Leave a Comment