Want to give your students a great way to learn about television production without breaking the bank? In this article you'll learn how Spotswoodl High School has put together a fantastic multi-camera television producton studio and post prodcution workflow using NewTek TriCaster, Adobe & Final Cut to deliver outystanding student programming. If you are an educator looking to bring TV prodcution to your school, or expanding/ updating your exisiting studio, give our techs a call 800-323-2325 and lets us walk you through the Newtek TriCaster academic offerings and everything else you need to do the job right!

Newtek Blogs by George Avgerakis

Spotswood High School Graduates Successful Video Pros

There’s little doubt that the average age of video professionals is declining yearly. Low-cost mobile device video capability, laptop and mobile-based editing, GoPros, drones and even studio equipment reduce the barriers to learning and entry. Even young teens can get into professional video production!

This decline in cost and barriers creates challenges for everyone. Clients expect vendors to be well staffed yet competitively priced. Vendors expect freelancers to be mature, disciplined and experienced. Teen technicians want to be respected and judged by their skills, not their skateboards. Quality technical training is the key to meeting all the challenges. But teens are not likely to go to NAB seminars and YouTube tutorials do not offer the teamwork experience that makes a great crewperson.

Can public education – namely local high schools – come to the rescue? Let’s see.

Spotswood High School in Spotswood, NJ is equipped with a full studio production facility that serves the local community cable network and also broadcasts online at YouTube at “SPSN Studios” and Twitter at “SPSN Studios @azaborney.”

Are They Streaming? And If So, How?

The facility, which is operated completely by students, includes two radio stations running on Adobe, several video editing stations running Final Cut Pro and iMovie, and a 4-camera TV studio with a switcher and 26-channel audio mixing board, feeding into a TriCaster for streaming. Andrew Zaborney, a teacher at the school, describes some of the action that takes place on a weekly basis, “Our studio features several sets designed and built by students, which are switched around to offer an average of three new shows per week. For instance, this week we’re producing, “Spotswood Tonight,” a talk show; “Huddle Up,” a football program; and “Sports Talk” a live radio show.”

Both a Club and a Curriculum

Zaborney uses the facilities both to serve as a core of several extra-curricular activities and clubs and to support the school’s concert performances and programs. “I teach ‘TV-1,’ which includes such basics as scriptwriting, set design and editing, the object of which is to finish the course producing 30-second commercials. The curriculum also includes producing a 30-minute live infomercial using the studio and control room staff to train team interaction. That’s the big project in ‘TV-1.’ read more...