UNC- Charlotte’s Broadcast Center

 

UNCC Broadcast Room

by Leora Chai

 

For a large university that is lacking a degree in television or media production, UNC Charlotte has one of the most advanced facilities in the North Carolina University system.  With over one hundred years of experience among its staff and student employees, one is always continuing to expand their knowledge from the department overseen by Craig Berlin, the director of the broadcast communications department.

UNC Charlotte Cable Television station’s history can be traced back to August of 1996.  Relatively a young program, Channel 22 TV programming is growing and can be seen from over a quarter-million households and over a span of several counties within the area. Over the years, the department has trained many students to be successful in the TV production profession.  Here are just a few people behind-the-scenes who keep the broadcast center a model for other universities.

Natasha Stacener, a UNC Charlotte alumna and the TV/ Media services coordinator for the broadcast communication department; oversees the daily production of the distance education classes.  These courses are taught in special equipped classrooms in the Fretwell building or in the Atkins Library, that consist of large, flat panel screen TVs, specially designed seats, several TV cameras and audio equipment.  The instructor is able to teach several universities through a network.  “Seventeen sites in the UNC system are all connected via video conferencing,” Stracener said.  “I’m the person that schedules the classes and conferences for UNC Charlotte.”

These classes are conducted through NC-REN (The North Carolina Research and Education Network), which provides a two-way interaction between different sites on two analog microwave and two digital channels. This allows an instructor to teach multiple schools simultaneously with live interaction between the teacher and student.  An instructor may teach an economics class from the UNC Charlotte campus and students from UNC Chapel Hill can take the class and interact with the instructor.

Stracener also oversees the student employees. “We have a total of seven student employees working,” Stracener said. “We try to train everybody to do everything.”   The students get to participate and learn different aspects of television production.  They are offered many opportunities to learn media production within a working television station environment, such as TV camera operation, studio lighting, audio microphones and non-linear, computer-based digital-video editing.

Occasionally, Stracener receives production requests from outside the university.  “They have called me up before saying, ‘we are working on some TV program.  Do you have someone who can come and shoot footage for us?”  Stracener said.  “For instance, this coming weekend the basketball game needs grips and they asked if I have students available.” In addition to her main duties, Stracener also directs and produces two, in-house shows for UNC Charlotte’s Cable Channel 22:  “Medicine and Society,” which airs on the weekends, and an upcoming new show, called “Business and Society.”

“We started with that show (Medicine and Society) years ago and I took over the program last year,” Stracener said. “Medicine and Society” was previously produced by Brad Bowen, who currently directs and produces the “UNC Charlotte Alumni Today” show.

In comparing the school’s broadcasting department to other universities within the North Carolina system, UNC-Charlotte is on top.  “A lot of people like to look at us as a role model,” said Stracener.  “In the state of North Carolina we are probably the only university that has its own cable channel plus distance education all together. We’re all one department.”

Stracener is the main contact for the broadcasting department and her schedule can get hectic at times.  “The only thing I can’t do is the Web site that would be Dave Potts,” she said.

Potts, a self-proclaimed jack-of-all-trades, is the Webmaster and video production specialist for the department. He produces short promotional videos, acts as video technician and maintains and designs the Web site.

When Potts arrived at UNC Charlotte four years ago, the Web site consisted of a few pages with limited information. “We had a small web presence that really needed to be developed,” Potts said. “We eventually incorporated video.”  Now, audiences can see promotional videos, schedules for Channel 22 and get more information on the programming that is produced.  “I tried to make it more “video-centric,” Potts said.  Each department within the broadcast center contributes content to the Web site.

The Web site is the main source of information for Channel 22, UNC Charlotte’s cable channel.  The station also works with the different schools within the university; the Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences, Lee College of Engineering, Belk College of Business and 49ers Athletics all contribute to the programs taped on campus.

In the future, plans are underway to incorporate streaming video on the Web site, which would be able to host classes, seminars, and longer formatted programming.  Potts is also working on hosting embeddable video, which will allow an easier exchange of video content between the broadcasting department and other departments on campus.  “It would be great to develop web video here into something like a campus-oriented YouTube,” Potts said. One of the larger areas within the broadcast center is the UNC Charlotte Cable Television Channel 22, which is managed by Jaclyn Allmon.  Allmon is the program director and master control room operator for channel 22 and hails from the North with a degree in Electronic Media. She worked on programs like Crossfire on CNN, interned at National Geographic and worked at the New York Film Academy.  However, she later decided that film wasn’t her calling and is pursuing a career in television. She moved to Charlotte in 2006.  “I love the university setting,” Allmon said.  “It’s a really great environment.”  Her job involves finding content for Channel 22 and negotiating contracts with distributors to air various shows. “I look for programming that appeals to many age groups and good content,” Allmon said. “It can be music, art, child programming or science programs, anything goes as long as it’s educational.”

The full TV schedule for Channel 22 can be found on the Web site and amongst the various titles, a special slot for student programming is listed nightly.  Currently, the UNC Charlotte cable station produces four in-house shows and has one show in development in conjunction with the Charlotte Research Institute called “Solve This.”  The show emphasizes different research topics from the research center department at UNC Charlotte.

Another important role in the broadcast center is that of Chief Engineer, Kevin McDevitt. Many things tend to go wrong technically and this is where McDevitt comes in to fix any technical problem involving production, so things will run smoothly again. Mark Nunn, a producer and director for UNC Charlotte’s broadcast center, coordinates all sports-related material.  Nunn brings a dose of school spirit to the small screen.  He’s a familiar sight on the sidelines of basketball and soccer games.  He produces and directs the 49er Insider show, which is hosted by various student athletes while they interview and discuss the highlights from the previous games.

Although the university doesn’t have an extensive production program, Channel 22 provides an outlet for student-produced videos. Students can leave the confines of Youtube and try to get their project aired on real TV.  “It would be hard to find that kind of material, but if they contacted me and said they have a half-hour show or interviews with musicians and how they got to be that way and how they reached success, I could air it, because we have a student programming hour at night,” Allmon said.  The video must be free of any profanity or obscenity and must be within the guidelines of the university’s mission statement in order to be considered.

“It’s been a really great place to grow because of the freedom to become involved in many different aspects of TV production and web production,” said Potts.  For information, please visit the broadcast communication’s Web site at http://video.uncc.edu