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Education
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High school students run local cable station
Jul 17, 2007
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by Alicia Zappier
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If you're a student at Westlake High School in Westlake, OH, chances are you're already pretty good at video production. Westlake is one of a handful in the nation that houses a multi-million dollar, all-digital TV studio that produces WHBS-TV, a cable station run entirely by students and the community.
WHBS-TV serves as a local cable station for citizens of Westlake and its studio is used for TV production courses that fall under the school's English curriculum. Further underscoring its uniqueness, the studio is funded wholly by grants and does not rely on government money.
"I raise all the money and do all the purchasing, and I decide what goes on the air. So I'm the guy the FCC is going to arrest if anything goes wrong," quipped Tony Hoty, the station's executive director and English teacher at Westlake High School.
Students at Westlake have been making video productions in some form or another for the past 10 years. This new digital studio, however, came about in 2005 when the Board of Education asked the city if it wanted a TV station produced by a local high school. Once the deal was inked, the $3 million studio was built right on the Westlake campus by Ohio-based Industrial Video Corporation.
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| Students at Westlake High School in Ohio produce about 350 programs each year through the school's $3 million production facility. |
The facility includes nine rooms -- a 40x40-foot studio, control room, makeup room, two dressing rooms, private bathroom, and three permanent sets with a blue screen. A green screen is being installed this summer as well as an outdoor patio, which will be used for weather broadcasts.
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| Students at Westlake High School in Ohio produce about 350 programs each year through the school's $3 million production facility. |
Making The Grade
Hoty oversees the day-to-day operations at WHBS-TV and sits at the helm of many of the school's TV production courses. TV I offers the basics such as scriptwriting, camera function, editing, and microphones. TV II taps into multi-camera shoots, directing, and digital editing systems.
"TV III is for juniors and seniors who really want to make this a career. These students produce, write, and edit their own news and sports commentary and they have to produce a certain number of live broadcasts. They can also earn college credit for TV III," Hoty explained.
With each school year that passes, WHBS-TV elects 12 new students to fill various roles within the station, such as vice president of operations, station manager, and sports director. There's even a transportation director who's in charge of the school's production truck, which is used to shoot sports programming.
"We go out on the road and cover football and track. We also shot a pilot for the statewide cable channel SportsTime Ohio. Executives from the show came in, hired my kids, and used our studio for basketball and football coverage. My kids did the sound and the lighting and they loved it," said Hoty.
Westlake has rented its studio to other professional broadcasters in the area and hopes to do more in the future -- though with an already packed schedule, finding the time is difficult. WHBS-TV produces roughly 350 programs a year, one of which includes a weekly sports show, The Demon Zone, named after Westlake's demon mascot. The show covers many of Westlake's sports, such as basketball, wrestling, swimming, diving, and gymnastics.
The show also serves as the umbrella for a variety of other short news segments produced by WHBS-TV, including Community Update and High School Guidance and College Prep. These pieces cover community events such as blood drives and tell students when college recruiters will be in the area or when college applications are due. Another show, Entertainment Update, covers local theater events.
Another weekly show produced by the students is called The Professional Series. Here, students touch base with community professionals such as lawyers, veterinarian, or even the local mortician. "This is particularly interesting for those students who want to become a lawyer or run for mayor some day," said Hoty. "We recently did one where the head of the biology department of Ohio State University came here for a lecture."
Footage for The Professional Series is shot on two Ikegami HC-400W digital cameras. WHBS-TV is working on acquiring a third Ikegami unit. "For field shoots we have three Panasonic AG-DP800 digital cameras. They're great for plays, concerts, and anything in the auditorium. We also have six Canon GL2 cameras that we use mostly for outdoor events. We can use them indoors, too. They're lightweight and easy for the students to use," Hoty commented. The studio's control room houses most of the equipment, including a Ross switcher and Sony VTRs.
Edit This
The studio has two Casablanca Avio NLEs from MacroSystem and an old Panasonic tape-based editing system, which was recently revamped with a Panasonic WJ-MX50 production switcher. But because of the vast number of productions done at WHBS-TV, mostly everything is shot live to tape, leaving little time for students to edit.
"We used to edit a lot, but we simply ran out of time," said Hoty. "We don't edit our sports programs at all, though we do edit some of the theater stuff. If we're shooting on the Canons with mini-DV tape, then it's easy to run right through the Avio systems because it usually only involves changing the light balance or boosting the sound."
The edit bays, however, are not sitting collecting dust. Westlake graduates who attend the nearby Kent State and Bowling Green Universities are also welcome to use them for school projects. "The freshman and sophomores at those schools are at the bottom of the editing chain," Hoty explained. "So if they need to edit something they can come here and use our studio because it's easier and faster than waiting on line. We've always made that option available to our graduates.
"We haven't broken or lost a piece of equipment in 10 years. The students really take are of this stuff. The freshmen always have an older student with them who serves as a spotter, who makes sure that cameras are connected to tripods and such."
Hoty is proud of the work his students accomplish and takes pride in seeing them move forward with a broadcast career. "We've been able to expose these kids to enough professional equipment in the field so that when they get out in the world, they're ready," he said. "We've had 52 students in the past nine years awarded some type of scholarship for broadcasting or journalism. And last month we had our 23rd student turn pro."
MORE INFO:
Canon usa.canon.com
Ikegami ikegami.com
Industrial Video Corporation ivideo.com
MacroSystem macrosystem.us
Panasonic panasonic.com/broadcast
Ross Video rossvideo.com
Sony sony.com/government
WHBS-TV wlake.org/WHBS-TV
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