Two views of Lyons Hall, home to the Communication Studies Department. Extensively renovated in 1999/2000, the building houses the department's main office, faculty offices, a seminar room, and four labs. The building is also home to the Media Center, which features a television studio and a screening room.
Four computer labs, digital video editing stations, an audio/music production studio and a television studio/control room are available for student use in Lyons Hall. HD equipment will be available for student use beginning in Fall, 2009.
The Lyons Hall third-floor Mac Lab, in Lyons 312 features 26 Macintosh iMac Flat Panel computers with DVD-RW drives. Software available includes Adobe CS4 (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Flash, Dreamweaver, After Effects), Cinema 4D and Ableton Live. A scanner and a laser printer flank the room. A touch screen in an instructor’s bunker controls a VCR, DVD player and an Elmo documentation presentation system. Ports for plug-and-go setups, such as laptops, are built into the bunker.
A Web and imaging lab in Lyons 325 provides eight Apple iMac Flat Panel computers with DVD-RW drives, two scanners, three drawing tablets, a large format color inkjet printer and a color laser printer. Software is identical to the software in LY 312.
The digital imaging lab, which is maintained by the Media Center in Lyons 413, houses: four Final Cut Pro non-linear editing stations (MAC); four iMovie non-linear editing workstations (MAC); two iMac computers for still imaging and audio editing; one scanner workstation (MAC); one audio editing workstation featuring Digital Performer, GarageBand, Ableton Live & ProTools and an audio production studio. This lab also houses the CCTV computer dedicated to their use.
An additional lab, Lyons 122, features 15 20” high-end iMacs, a laser printer and a scanner. Software includes Second Life, Maya, Modul8 and Final Cut Pro as well as all software in LY312 except Ableton. This computer lab is primarily used for advanced Digital Media Arts electives.
A design production lab in Lyons 328 features a 17” wide large format printer and mounting resources for presentations of printed digital work.
In the Media Center on the fourth floor of Lyons Hall, a 26’ x 30’ television studio features a hard cyclorama, lighting grid with dimmer control and three digital studio video cameras. The control room has custom-built consoles to house the digital video switcher with special effects, a 16-channel audio mixing board, teleprompter, DAT audio recorder, character generator and an IFB system. The digital video-mastering format is DVCAM with BetaCam SP, and S-VHS video transports. Four equipment racks and 83 consoles house the audio/video distribution, including patch panels and routers. The studio also has the capability to send video to the campus cable RF video system. The college’s Media Center provides the TV studio’s operational support.
Across from the TV studio, a screening room provides comfortable tiered seating, a video and DVD projector, as well as a professional sound system.
Students can also sign out equipment (various digital cameras, camcorders, etc.) from the Media Center on the 4th floor of Lyons Hall. Check out /mediacenter/equipment.asp for a complete list of available resources.
The department has co-curricular arrangements with the weekly student newspaper (The Griffin), the campus television club (CCTV), the student-operated radio station (WIRE) and campus Little Theatre. Student chapters of the American Advertising Federation, the Public Relations Student Society of America and the Association for Women in Communications, Inc. provide networking opportunities with local and national professionals.
Check out the Media Center Homepage