In the heart of downtown Columbus, Ohio, WOSU, a public broadcasting station based at Ohio State University, and COSI (pronounced "co-sigh"), the Center of Science and Industry, have teamed up to create WOSU@COSI, a joint venture that brings television and radio broadcasting up close and personal to the public it serves. With two studios, two control rooms, three edit suites, and interactive exhibits, WOSU@COSI is the only science center/public broadcasting station site combination in the United States.
The partnership between WOSU and COSI began in June 2003 when Tom Rieland, general manager of WOSU, contacted then COSI president and CEO Cathy Sullivan -- the first American woman to walk in space -- to see if the science center might be interested in a joint venture. COSI was extremely receptive, as the project is mutually beneficial to both parties.
"COSI was going through a situation, as many science centers are, of having too much space," said Rieland. "And they've had to, in the past year or so, shut down part of that space to cut down on overhead. So they were interested in the partnership [which provides] another income stream and another exhibit."
For WOSU, the alliance generates visibility. "Over 500,000 people come through COSI every year," continued Rieland. "The incredible visibility that we'll get out of producing programs out of there, having a natural audience as well as connecting with a lot more people, appealed to us."
That initial conversation, followed by months of additional discussions and the drawing up of facility business plans, eventually led to an agreement. Overall, the process ran smoothly, but as Rieland pointed out, any such venture goes through a lengthy planning process.
"We had to get approval from Ohio State University, our licensee, and we were very pleased to get approval from our president, Karen Holbrook," he recalled. "She really loved the concept and it fit into OSU's outreach efforts." The university also contributed $500,000 in seed money to help kick start the project.
From there, a contract between the two entities needed to be developed. "That was quite confusing because ... COSI itself is an unusual entity. It's on city land, it's owned by the county, and there's state money put into the organization, so we had to get all levels of approval for this," Rieland said.
***image1***
Lay Of The Land
After years of planning followed by months of construction, the hard work paid off: WOSI@COSI launched on Sept. 29 with a weekend of celebrations showing off the new space. But what exactly did Burt Hill, the architecture, engineering, interior design, and research firm that oversaw the project, dream up for the $5.6 million, 12,000-square-foot space? It all begins with the interactive exhibits.
The first display to greet visitors is the Digital Welcome Mat, a sound and light wave demonstration designed for small children. The beams of light, displaying the WOSU@COSI logo, are connected to sound clips. "Kids come in and they'll here the sound of a chicken squawking, or the crash of a car. The kids just love that," said Reiland. "Some of them never get past the entrance."
From there, visitors pass into UTV, which Rieland said is like a high-tech weather chromakey exhibit. "You put people in front of the greenscreen, which is typical, but you have many backgrounds -- most of them are moving, some are still," he explained. "You'll have a foreground as well, so you're in the middle of three layers. There are sound effects, you can be in the middle of a hurricane, and there's a title-level screen as well. There are all kinds of overlays of different graphics."
UTV took six months to custom build, but Rieland is extremely pleased with the result. "It's a wonderful exhibit. Almost 10 people can fit in front of the greenscreen, and you can have five or six different people manning the different stations," he noted. "I think there's about 20,000 different combinations." Those combinations will soon increase when local footage is incorporated into the exhibit.
Nearby is the EffecTV exhibit, where visitors can their snap pictures and alter them in up to 20 different ways. WOSU@COSI describes the exhibit as a "a psychedelic mirror that you control."
Perhaps the jewel of WOSU@COSI is its working digital production facilities. On the first floor are two studios: the Battelle Studio and the Nationwide Studio. The Battelle Studio is the larger of the pair, measuring more than 2,000 square feet, and is equipped with four Sony HDCAM studio cameras. The Nationwide Studio measures 419 square feet and is designated as a talk and performance studio.
Both studios are accompanied by separate control rooms, one of which will be set up with digital radio equipment for WOSU's AM and FM stations. "We want to do more news and have our classical music hosts [broadcast] from COSI," said Reiland.
In the studio, WOSU@COSI uses Vinten Osprey Elite pedestals and a Jimmy Jib Lite, as well as QTV prompters. Microphones include Electro-Voice lavaliers, Shure hand mics, and Lectrosonics wireless mics.
While the facility launched in September, equipment continues to be installed. Graphics are handled through a Chyron Duet, audio through a Euphonix Max Air digital production console. Other gear includes a Telex-RTS Cronus intercom system and a ST300 slow motion controller from DNF Controls. The facility also uses a variety of Evertz conversion and distribution gear, Grass Valley Concerto routers, and signal monitoring equipment from Tektronix, Videotek, and Wohler. A Grass Valley K2 server and Turbo disk recorder are also part of the mix. Three Final Cut Pro edit suites and a media literacy lab round out the technical facilities.
Make Room For More
One feature you won't find in many studios is the ability to expand or shrink the space. "One of the unique parts is that between the exhibit and the main [Battelle] studio is a retractable wall," said Reiland. The wall is comprised of six sections, "so we can isolate a little bit of the studio or all of it -- or we can open it up and slide it around into a cove to open the entire space." Plus, the wall features glass windows that allow visitors to peek into the studio, yet the space remains acoustically sound.
Each section of the wall has a ratchet that, when cranked, secures pieces to each other as well as the floor. "It seals itself as you use the ratchet on each section," Reiland explained. While it's a manual procedure, Rieland estimated that it only takes about 20 minutes to set up.
With the wall in place, the exhibits can be moved in about 30 minutes because they're on wheels. "What that allows us to do is open up both sections -- the exhibit and the studio -- into about a 4,000-square-foot facility for forums, debates, and all kinds of things," said Reiland, "It's a great flexible space."
Such flexibility allows WOSU and COSI to focus on one of their missions: benefiting the public. "I think local stations, especially local public stations, have to really focus on public engagement, bringing those with common issues together," said Reiland.
All of WOSU television shows are moving from their original studios on the OSU campus to WOSU@COSI. These productions include Columbus on the Record, a weekly program analyzing issues and stories affecting Columbus and Central Ohio; In the Know, a quiz program featuring local high schools students; and the Emmy-award winning ArtZine, which explores artists and groups in the Columbus area. Rieland said WOSU plans to expand its local programming and increase its number of high-profile community issue forums.
WOSU@COSI hopes to increase its use of OSU broadcasting minors (the school doesn't offer a broadcasting major) and even high school students. At press time, WOSI@COSI had about two dozen students on hand as paid staff, in addition to a number of unpaid interns.
The facility will also be used to teach an OSU broadcast course. Not only will students have access to the newest equipment in WOSU@COSI, they'll also be able to use the older, analog equipment retained in WOSU's original space at OSU's Fawcett Center.
As for high school students, in just two years, the junior class of the newly formed Metro High School will get hands-on experience at WOSU@COSI. Metro is a progressive high school with an emphasis on math, science, and technology and, by working at the new facility, will gain broadcasting experience years before many of their peers.
All of these efforts -- the exhibits, broadcast facilities, public dynamism, and education -- fulfill a goal common to both WOSU and COSI: interacting with and working for the communities they serve. "We're really focused on engagement of the public," said Reiland, "and that goes beyond broadcasting."
MORE INFO
Apple apple.com
Chyron chyron.com
DNF Controls dnfcontrols.com
Electro-Voice electrovoice.com
Euphonix euphonix.com
Evertz evertz.com
Grass Valley thomsongrassvalley.com
Jimmy Jib jimmyjib.com
Lectrosonics lectrosonics.com
QTV qtv.com
Shure shure.com
Telex-RTS rtsintercoms.com
Tektronix tektronix.com
Sony sony.com/government
Videotek broadcast.harris.com/videotek
Vinten vinten.com
Wohler wohler.com
WOSU wosu.org
|