Teaching and Learning Facilities
At Butler, you enjoy professional–quality facilities and equipment on the El Dorado campus.
Computer Lab/Newspaper Production Room – This room is available to all Mass Communications students. As a student, you also have exclusive use of a 12 station computer lab with Adobe InDesign in addition to general programs like MS Word. This production room serves as the heart of Butler’s student newspaper. In this area, you have staff meetings, pitch story ideas, receive criticism from editors, research articles in previous editions of the newspaper and occasionally hang out.
Magazine Production/Meeting Room – In this production room, you interact with fellow students during staff meetings. At times this room is a quiet place to write; during other occasions it is a place to grab a quick snack. The Magazine Room soon becomes your home away from home. Meetings among other student media staff also take place in this room.
Video Editing Lab – The AVID Video Editing Lab consists of 12 student stations, a master station with large HDTV monitor and a self–contained server. The Video Editing Lab supports courses in video editing and all student video projects. AVID Media Composer software is used in a majority of professional settings in the television, video and film industries.
Television Studio – The production floor of Butler Television contains three 4K/HD studio cameras with teleprompters, a 4K/HD boom camera for overhead shots, show monitors, a full lighting grid and Chroma key screens for virtual sets. Butler’s magazine feature show (Campus Edge), studio portions of Butler’s skit/comedy show (McGrizzlies), athletic interview shows and special student projects are all shot in this studio. You can be a part of the action, either behind the scenes or in front of the camera.
Television Control Room/BCTV Headend – The Control Room for Butler Television‘s studio is based around a TriCaster production system This production system is duplicated at BG Products Veterans Sports Complex, where the Grizzlies play, and in a self-contained portable unit. Separate audio, live title, teleprompter control and lighting control stations support the switching and playback capabilities of the TriCaster. The TriCaster also allows for virtual sets using green screens. In addition, the Control Room contains the automation/control equipment for BCTV 20 programming.
Radio Suite (Studios) – The main on-air studio includes space for a host and three guests. Butler Radio‘s computer system supports live DJ shows, as well as automated programming. On-air personnel also have access to playback equipment, social media, remote connections and telephone lines for live shows. Studio B contains Butler’s news production station (including telephone line for interviews and two microphones for live interviews), an off-line DJ training station and room for panel discussion shows. Studio B is used to produce Radio Theatre–style comedy programming. The Butler Radio suite has a reception area displaying the station’s many awards.
Audio Studios – Butler has a total of four audio editing workstations with Audacity and Pro Tools software located in the Butler Radio suite. These workstations can be used for classes, radio station projects and independent student projects. Students also have access to a 16-track recording unit with specialized microphones and computer interface.
Audio/Video Field Equipment – Newspaper and magazine staff use Canon DSLR cameras and digital audio recorders. Two and four track digital audio recorders are available to audio students, while video students use JVC professional cameras capable of HD and 4K recording. Depending on the video project, tripods, wired and wireless microphones, lighting kits, GoPro cameras, remote broadcast kits and portable Chromakey backgrounds are available.