Based on the request made by the Head of Department
Mass Communication, via the letter she dispersed to the evaluation team formed
from different media organizations across the state, viz; NTA, EBBC and FRCN
Unity FM. The letter requested that the
team should carryout an evaluation and assessment act on the status and
workability of the media equipment existing presently in the university
studio. We hereby present this report
reflecting the teams’ evaluations and observations on various units of the
entire radio and television studios of the university.
This report covers the structural installations,
availability and functionality of the various equipment found in different
units that make-up the entire studio. References
can also be made to the individual reports from the different organizations
that formed the evaluation team, for detailed information on the
recommendations and evaluations of the equipment and structures.
The Radio Studio
It is a professional ethic in media practice that a
certain standard be reached structurally and in equipment provision for a radio
studio be it for transmission or demonstration.
Hence, stated below are our observations and
recommendations
Structure:
The radio studio is poorly constructed. PVC materials are wrong materials for studio
construction; because PVC material do not absorb echo rather it causes noise and
reverberation in the studio.
There is also poor lightening arrangement in the
radio studio.
Structural
Recommendation:
§ A professional should be
consulted for proper construction of the studio.
§ Acoustic boards should be
used rather than PVC materials
§ There should be an under lay
of ½” foam beneath the acoustic boards for efficient echo absorption.
§ The entrance door of the
studio should be air proof and well padded to reduce intrusion and noise.
§ The demarcating glass
between the studio and the voice over-boot should be double and not single.
§ The position of the studio
A. C. should be changed and another A. C. be provided in the voice over-boot.
§ The type of light used
(fluorescence) should be removed and changed to a suitable studio light to
reduce noise.
The Radio
Studio Equipment
The equipment in the radio unit was properly
assessed and the following deductions were made;
§ The DJ mixer in the studio
was functioning but it is not proper for a community radio station because it
has gain. Hence, it is not good for
broadcasting. A console with no gain is
more appropriate.
§ There was no pre amplifier
in the studio. This is required to boast
the audio signal.
§ No functional professional
CD player
§ The deck recorder was also
observed not functional
§ The computer system in the
studio was working but it had no user friendly editing software and some other
required software.
§ The entire wiring system of
the studio was poorly done that some of the equipment could not be powered.
§ There was no equipment rack
in the studio for proper arrangement of the equipment, for proper ventilation.
§ We also observed that there
is no earthing system in the entire studio.
This is highly required for safety of equipment and human life.
§ We observed that the types
of microphone in the studio are not professional microphones suitable for
studio use.
Equipment
Recommendation:
Stated below are the recommendations for the radio
studio equipment.
§ We recommend a provision of a
1KW transmitter for local transmission.
§ There is also need for about
150 feet
mast
§ The computer system in the
studio should have a sound card Adobe and BPM software to enhance editing.
§ To monitor the wave form of
the signals from the microphone, an interface card is required. This can serve in place of the sound card.
§ We strongly advice that the
entire power supply system be overhauled.
§ The type of coaxial cables
and antennas should be given serious considerations. Hence, a ½” feeder cable and a 4 element jampro
antenna should be provided.
§ A proper earthing of the
entire equipment is strongly advised.
§ An Fx10 exciter for
transmission.
§ A change of the type of
microphone in the studio is pertinent because the type we met is unprofessional,
unreliable and never functioned during our visit.
For more detailed information on the
recommendations, please refer to the attached report on radio studio equipment
from Unity FM.
Television Studio
Structure:
§ We observed that the
acoustic boards on the studio wall were covered with emulsion paint which
closed the acoustic holes, thereby defeating the aim of the boards.
§ No fibre, no foam material
between the acoustic tile and the building wall. This will make the studio noisy.
§ The floor of the studio is
covered with rug, which will absorb the studio lightening system and make the image
look dark. Rug is difficult to maintain
and can result to bad odor in the studio.
§ The elevated part of studio
floor should be removed to give room for whatever platform studio user
intend. In the same vein, the studio
table structure is bad and needs replacement.
§ The studio door is not sound
tight, and can cause noise during entry into the studio.
§ The positioning of air
conditioner at exactly behind the studio user is not proper. It can cause humming in audio output of the
studio.
§ The position of the off-air
monitor in the studio is not proper. Off-air
monitor is supposed to be where the caster (user) and camera operator can view
it.
§ The position of studio light is not good.
§ The material used for
sacoroma is not proper; we observed that ordinary cotton is used, so it should
be replaced with correct sacoroma.
§ The demarcating glass
between Master Control Room and studio is single and can permit noise entry
into studio from MCR. It needs to be
double glass of different densities.
§ No mirror for redressing and
make up before studio user goes on air.
§ No studio warning light to
prevent studio interference when in use.
§ Improper studio lightening.
§ No studio backdrop.
§ No station identification
backdrop (logo).
Structural Recommendation
The internal structure of the television studio
should be completely reconstructed with new acoustic tile boards, wire gauze,
foam, sacoroma studio props and the position of some equipment wrongly placed should
be changed to make it standard television studio.
Equipment
§ We observed that some
equipment are not available, some are good while some don’t meet basic
television broadcasting equipment.
§ The two Panasonic MD 10000
Cameras do not have view finder, this will give any Camera Operator difficult
task to watch his/her shot.
§ The two microphones in
studio are all unidirectional which is not proper.
§ No intercom between Camera
Operator and MCR director which is not proper
Equipment Recommendation
§ Each camera must have view
finder. A professional type like ENG
Camera with CCU provision should be used.
§ The three (3) types of
microphones i.e. omni-direction, bi-direction and uni-direction should be
provided.
§ They must be noiseless
intercom between studio and MCR for proper communication when studio is in use.
Master control room-television (mcr-tv)
We suggest that, the name given to this unit be
changed to Master control
room-television for the interest of student and the University before
NUC visit. It should not be television control room or control room television.
This is the heart of a television studio. An
adequate assessment was made in this unit and here are our observations:
Structure:
§ The installed rack is not
proper. Equipment in MCR rests on metal and wood open cupboard. Some equipment rest on top of other
equipment. These situations are
unacceptable because of lack of ventilation which can cause fire outbreak,
damage of equipment and noise, etc.
§ No power source monitoring
system that guide the operation crew on power source status to avoid breakdown
in transmission.
§ The arrangement of the
entire equipment makes it uneasy for the operator in the MCR to watch what is
going on in the studio.
§ The position of the A.C in
this unit should be changed.
Structural Recommendation
§ All the equipment should be
in separate rack position.
§ The arrangement of the
equipment in the MCR should be made so that the operation crew will face the
studio and not back it.
§ Power source indicator
monitoring system must be installed
Equipment
§ Some equipment in the MCR is
not supposed to be there, while some did not meet up the basic television
broadcasting standard. Many were not working;
some were wrongly terminated and connected.
§ Some of the monitors in the
MCR are not television broadcast equipment, because they have no provision for
signal output terminals. Hence they
cannot be used as signal source monitor.
§ The audio console installed
in the MCR is not the supposed type to be used in television broadcasting station
because it does not have low noise effect, high based amplifier and
pre-listening output features.
§ We observed that the video
switcher and amateur video selector were working since it was selecting
different video source but was wrongly connected because it controlled both
audio and visual signal which is improper.
This above arrangement gives no room for smooth visual mixing and
switching during source swapping.
§ No link between the cameras
in the studio and the central monitor in the MCR which implies that the image
from the studio cannot go on air.
§ No High Definition Video
(HDV) machine for airing of news, locally produced programmes, recording of
programme on air and transferring of films from DVD to HDV tape.
§ The VHS machine installed in
MCR is outdated in television broadcasting and should not be used.
§ We also observed that the
decoders do not receive local networks.
It was only Ghana multi-television channel signal that was working. The MYTV satellite was not completely installed.
§ The main satellite dish was
not also installed.
§ The outside dish has no LNB.
§ No computer in MCR for
digital tapeless transmission
Equipment Recommendation
§ The monitors in MCR should
be replaced with monitor that has output terminal features.
§ The audio console should be
replaced with correct audio console made for television broadcast service that
have all the required features.
§ We recommend that the entire
video switcher arrangement in MCR be replaced with modern system which
comprises image engine, video mixer, video effect, studio background generator
and proper terminators. Some of these
come with rack which houses the entire monitors, fuses and earth link. This arrangement is necessary because without
it, the entire system will lack internally generated synch pulses.
§ Correct and proper video
cable should be used to link studio camera to the monitors in the MCR.
§ HDV machine should be
provided.
§ DVD machine and HDV machine
mentioned above should be used.
§ The main satellite dish
should be properly installed and tracked to receive local networks like NTA
national which is free to air.
§ Other television network
signal should also be tracked to help in guiding students on things they should
know for instance STARTIMES (NTA) television signal.
§ We also recommend that a dish
farm of about three (3) dishes be introduced to provide various signals. A specification of about 1.8 to 2.4 C-band
dish size of pan type is recommended.
§ The dishes should be
properly earthed with good thunder arrestors of pure copper and not coated lines.
§ Polar mouth installations
are highly recommended.
Film editing suite (laboratory)
We suggest that the name of this unit (Room) be
changed from TV Editing Laboratory to film editing suite.
Our
Observations
§ The UPS available/installed
will work well if charged, though not the best option for the unit. See the
final recommendation from NTA team for the supposed type of UPS.
§ Computer systems available
are good, but not proper editing suit computers. The rationale being that there
is no firewire card/port. Its motherboard is not a media motherboard. The
operating system installed is window 7 and it is not registered software.
§ No editing software.
§ No preview monitor.
§ No HDV machine.
§ No proper connection.
With this configuration and arrangement no editing
work can take place.
Recommendation
§ Minimum of two editing suite
computers with media motherboard should be configured to have firewire card,
window XP operating system, editing software like adobe premium 1.5, flash,
antivirus, video converter, etc.
§ One preview monitor and HDV
machine for recording and dubbing of edited films in the system are needed.
§ The entire unit requires
proper cabling and reconnection.
§ Also the video camera
installed in the editing suite is not proper equipment and should be removed
because the HDV machine mentioned above can do the work.
§ We strongly recommend also
that there should be a central server in the editing suite to enable proper
networking of other systems to the server.
This will enhance the connectivity and transfer of data and information
to other units of the studio.
§ A qualified network administrator
should be deployed to man the central server.
News room
§ We suggest that the name
given to this section be changed from AUDIO EDITING LABORATORY to NEWS ROOM as
the profession demands
Structure:
§ The arrangement of seat,
table and equipment are ok.
Equipment
§ The equipments in the news
room are good.
§ We recommend that the
computer systems be networked to share resources with film editing suite and
configured to handle voicing.
Reference: For detailed information on our
observations, assessment and recommendations, please visit the technical report
by the NTA team.
Conclusion
Having reported on the current state of the
equipment and structures, it is very pertinent to state that the output signal
of both the radio and television studios were not ascertained because no
transmission equipment is installed. The
different stages of signal procession in the entire system did not work
properly.
The editing suite and the MCR have incomplete
equipment and improper installation and configuration.
Some of the equipment supplied is good but obsolete
in broadcasting outfit. Some have no
role to play and some that are supposed to be used are not available.
In the course of ascertaining the availability and
operational status of all the agreed equipment, MAC MEDIA INTERNATIONAL
supplied and installed in the University’s Radio and Television Studios. We requested
that a written document from the HOD, containing the list of equipment, the
university expected to be supplied by MAC MEDIA INTERNATIONAL be made available
to us.
These documents were used to ascertain the
availability of the equipments and they are equipment evaluation report by (Name Here) dated 4th May, 20…. and
equipment evaluation report by (Name
Here) Freeman dated 15th November, 20….
The contents of the two documents are observed to be contradictory.
We must say that the idea of establishing a studio
of this sort in the University is a wonderful one and if successfully
accomplished, will make graduates of Mass Communication of the institution and
the students alike not only to come to terms with the practical aspects of what
they study but also make them more productive and preferred choices in media
outfits.
It will also eliminate in your students the phobia
they exhibit on the sight of modern equipment when they are on industrial
training in media organizations.
Thank you for giving us the opportunity to render
services to your institution and we promise to render more when called upon to
do so.
We wish you all the best in your efforts to upgrade
the facilities of the department thereby enhancing quality and professionalism
in learning.
ATTACHED BEHIND ARE THE INDIVIDUAL TECHNICAL REPORTS FROM THE VARIOUS MEDIA ORGANIZATIONS THAT FORMED THE EVALUATION TEAM
ASSESSMENT OF THE STRUCTURE AND STATUS OF EQUIPMENT IN THE EBONYI STATE UNIVERSITY COMMUNITY RADIO AND TELEVISION STUDIO
by
ebsu radio and tv studio
evaluation team