24 hour Access
All our facilities are available for student access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, via an access control system. A small deposit is exchanged for an electronic access fob.
Video & Photography Studio
This has been designed as a dual function production studio. Features include a large green screen facility, full 'cool light' video lighting rig, programmable DMX lighting desk and associated monitor and grip equipment such as dolly, tracks and jibs. Photography students benefit from five Bowens 750w flash heads mounted on a pantograph rail system, an array of soft-boxes & snoots, as well as a permanent white infinity curve and additional backdrops.
Audio/Foley Studio
This has a dedicated control-room with large separate live-room used for audio post-production. Whether recording voice-over work or an entire score for a screen drama, it can be captured with our bespoke Pro Tools HD multi-track recording installation and mixed in 5.1 surround sound.
Voice-over Booths
We have three specially created audio post-production booths used for voice-over work, radio documentary narration, or 1-1 interviews. Each booth comprises of a large diaphragm condenser microphone, high-quality channel strip, audio interface and latest iMac spec'd for silent operation. Students can record directly to our media server, ready for instant editing access from any of our 108 computers within the media practice facilities.
Video Edit Suites
We have 18 Mac Pro video editing workstations spread across two teaching labs and seven individual suites. Each dual-monitor workstation is equipped with the full Adobe CS6 Master Collection suite of software, which includes Premiere Pro as our core NLE (non-linear editor). Final Cut X is also available, as is many other complimentary software packages. Calibrated CRT reference monitors and dedicated SD/HDV editing decks for video capture/transfer to tape are found on the majority of workstations. Blu-ray authoring can be viewed via an HD projector in our preview theatre and newest teaching Lab, which also features 3D playback. Video projects are edited via our specialist in-house secure media server, backed-up daily, designed to meet the needs of editing multi-stream HD content. Video projects can be accessed from any workstation, creating a non-tethered editing environment.
Teaching labs
In addition to this we have five teaching labs with between 16 and 19 iMac or PC's in each, running Intel i7 processors. Each machine had access to the full Adobe CS6 Master Collection (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro, Audition etc). The labs also include a projector, three LCD monitors and full audio playback for efficient delivery of interactive teaching. Our newest Lab, created with journalism use at it's focus, also includes a radio sound booth, industry Burli newsroom software, and Nvidia GPU acceleration graphics cards for the speeding up of workflow in many of Adobe's software applications.
Equipment
Our photography side concentrates on a fully digital work-flow; from capture, processing & output. We have an extensive collection of DSLRs including 40 Nikon D7000's. Full-frame is covered with a selection of Nikon D700 & D3 kits with 3 prime lenses with each body. Our Mamiya ZD medium format digital camera is used for studio use. Flashguns, tripods, additional lenses and associated support equipment are all found in the media stores. Available also is a portable self-powered 2-head flash kit for location shoots. We do also have a selection of traditional film SLR, medium format and large format cameras that can be used and processed off-site. Our specialist film scanners can convert these into high-res files for digital workflows.
Our video equipment includes a large collection of Sony ACVHD, HDV & DVCAM video cameras ranging from consumer to broadcast level. These include 4 x Sony NX5 kits, 5 x Sony Z7 kits, 6 x Sony Z1 kits, 2 x Sony DSR-570wsp kits and 1 x Sony FS100 super35mm digital film camera. Each kit is supplied with a industry standard shotgun microphone, headphones, field monitor, tripod and optional lights and additional support gear. There is a dolly, track and jib-arm, along with a full-harness junior steadicam & smaller Stadicam Merlin to make full use of.
The stores also supply a full range of digital audio recording equipment for location sound including 11 x Marantz PMD660 solid-state recorders and 4 x Zoom H1 handheld stereo recorders. Microphones range from Lapel, Short-shotgun, Riffle, Large Diaphragm Condensers and Binaural - wired & wireless. All microphone cables, mic stands and studio grade headphones are also provided.
Online Booking System & Support
All equipment bookings are made by students & staff via our specialist online booking system. This can be accessed via a desktop, laptop, smartphone or tablet. The Media Stores are open for 7 hours weekdays and offer technical support for the equipment and the media practice facilities.