Let the Last Year Begin

We'll it is the start of my last year at University. I know many people who loath to leave the safe confines of a tertiary institution but I for one can't wait to leave. That said there is a lot to look forward to in my last year.

One of the major highlights of my last year will be the projects that we will get to undertake as Television Production students. We get to pitch our own ideas and see them through to the finished product. We also get to choose own own crews. This is very exciting as up till now we have been placed into groups for better or worse.

Another highlight will be the two weeks of placement within the Television industry. Many student get jobs directly from these internships and I hope I will be able to as-well. Finally I look forward to conducting research into specific areas of television. I want to look into the technology and process of live links in television, be it through microwave, traditional telco lines or next generation data networks. I want to specifically focus on how data-networks are replacing and complimenting the traditional forms of link transmission. So I hope to keep this blog updated on these topics and any others that come up over the rest of the semester.

Here are a few television type links.
CSU TV Proddie Page
Microwave Link Wiki Entry
Free TV Australia

One particular area of television I am interested in is the area of Outside Broadcast. After reading some information about minimum requirements for sorting and concert Outside Broadcasts it is clear to see that they are major operations. Sports such as the cricket require over 20 camera's many of which need instant replay facilities and the new super slo-mo playback. Each camera needs an operator and many need an assistant as well. Add to this the sound crew, tapes crew, control room crew, engineering crew, executive crew, titles crew and statistician crew you can easily have close to 100 people working on one game of cricket. I didn't realise the scope of the this until doing some research.

Here are some links for Outside Broadcast type stuff.
Outside Broadcast Wikipedia Entry
ABC Outside Broadcast Facilities
Television OB Requirements

P.S. One other aim of this blog is to bring interesting internet resources for television production to light.