This article appeared in AV Video Multimedia Producer in February 1998. 

High-Tech High

Minnesota’s Eastview High School teaches with an advanced DVCPRO-equipped production studio

In one of the most innovative video-education programs in an American high school, eager students are learning - better yet, devouring - the intricacies of television production, from writing and directing to taping and editing. "They'll know more after leaving here than I knew after getting a master's degree in broadcast production," says Cliff Dodge, video and multimedia specialist and developer of the program at Eastview High School in Apple Valley, MN.

Students in the multi-sided curriculum are getting what Dodge calls "on-the-job training," because they'll be ready to handle some of today's most sophisticated professional equipment.

Eastview's recording and editing suites are enitrely digital, which is virtually unique as a high school project of this kind. Aiming for professional broadcast quality, Dodge selected Panasonic equipment across the board - from cameras and editors to monitors and speakers.

"Panasonic was the first to offer broadcast-quality digital video that was affordable for schools," he notes. "But Panasonic's reputation was the deciding factor- it's always been a great name in video production." The video-training program is highly diverse, ranging from in-class instruction to the production and editing of a regular series of shows.

While some of these shows - organized, written, directed, taped and edited entirely by students - are shot in school, others consist of material gathered in the field. A key presentation, called The Flash, is a 5-minute magazine program that airs weekly on all classroom monitors. Covering a variety of school-related topics, the show will soon be offered two to three times a week. Even more ambitious is a monthly half-hour program. Dubbed The Half-Hour Show, it's a longer-format magazine program covering students' interests and lifestyles.

The video studio is also used for creative projects by classes throughout the school. A French teacher, for example, has students produce a cooking show voiced entirely in French. The show is then aired in class.

Why did Eastview High School go all-digital? "With VHS or S-VHS you really can't afford to make mistakes when copying or editing," states Dodge. "I knew that kids would naturally make a great number of mistakes - and lose a good deal of quality. With DVCPRO, they can edit, make decisions, re-edit, and absolutely not lose any signal strength - video or audio."

Accordingly, he acquired four digital camcorders and four DVCPRO decks. Two of the cameras are AJ-D200s 3-chip professional units in a studio configuration. The other two are AJ-EZ! DV handheld camcorders.

"The AJ-EZ1s are particularly light and easy for students to handle," Dodge notes, "and they offer a lot of features - including auto focus, auto white balancing, and image stabilization."

The decks at Eastview are two AJ-D640s and two AJD650s, broadcast quality VCRs. Among other Panasonic equipment in the school's complete production studio are an A/B roll editing controller; a multi-event unit - AG-A850 - that controls all the decks; and a digital mixer, WJ-MX50, that switches all devices and provides fades, chormakeys, and other effects.

Beyond this video involvement, the school maintains 10 Panasonic S-VHS VCR-equipped workstations situated throughout the building. Hooked to computers in classrooms, the equipment allows students to record video material on their PCs and work with computer AVI files for multimedia projects.

Viewing Eastview High School's overall video capability, Dodge comments; "Kids are sitting in a professional environment - like an actual postproduction house. And when it's time to close the studio for the day, they just don't want to leave."