|
Columbia University 's Graduate School of Journalism has opened the Roone Arledge Broadcast Lab, a state-of-the-art facility for the study of broadcast journalism. The new facility includes a studio with anchor desk and interview sets, a digital control room, a newsroom outfitted with 18 edit stations, ten individual edit suites, and an audio recording booth.
Opening reception
The Lab was dedicated at a reception on January 18, with attendees including Lee Bollinger, president of Columbia University, Nick Lemann, dean of the Journalism School, David Westin, president of ABC News, anchor Diane Sawyer, Gigi Arledge, wife of the late Roone Arledge, and Ruth Friendly, wife of the late Fred Friendly.
Dick Wald, the Fred Friendly Professor of Journalism and former ABC News senior executive, remembered a conversation with Roone Arledge in 2002, in which they hatched the idea for a new television facility. Wald, who led the fundraising efforts for the Journalism School, thanked donors including Robert Iger, CEO of Disney, Inc., a phalanx of Arledge's ABC colleagues including Tom Koppel, Diane Sawyer and the late Peter Jennings, Columbia University President Lee C. Bollinger, Ruth Friendly, and the National Football League, friends of Mr. Arledge's from his long tenure as president of ABC Sports.
Former ABC News Nightline executive producer Tom Bettag (Journalism '67), a Friendly protégée also spoke, noting "we are all the recipients of the legacy of great journalists like Roone and Fred Friendly, who care about the lives around us and love our work. This new facility embodies that legacy."
State of the Art Facility
The Roone Arledge Broadcast Lab emphasizes the flexibility now possible in a digital world. The editing environment is "nomadic," allowing students to access materials from any of 40 networked Avid work stations, all linked to a Unity server.
Elizabeth Weinreb Fishman, assistant dean at the Journalism School and director of the Arledge Lab, is pleased about the opportunities the Lab will provide. "The Arledge Lab allows our students to work in a professional facility, where they can develop skills essential in today's industry. It positions the Columbia Journalism School and our students to be leaders in the rapidly changing world of broadcast journalism."
Fishman noted that the Lab is a valuable resource not only for Journalism Students, but for the entire Columbia University community. "We hope that faculty and administrators around the university will use this new facility for television shoots and broadcasting needs."
The studio, with sets created by ABC News' scenic design department, includes an anchor desk, a podium, and a sit-down interview space. Three robotic cameras and a teleprompter are operated remotely from an adjacent control room. The control room can be viewed through a window from a seminar/ green room, allowing larger groups of students to view broadcasts in production. The Fred Friendly Newsroom serves as a classroom and a production newsroom, where students edit directly from 18 desktop Avid systems.
As the spring semester gets underway, all of the Journalism School's broadcast students will use the facility, including production of a Friday evening "Nightly News" broadcast . Vice Dean David Klatell, who oversaw the three-year project, said, 'We wanted these glorious old walls to shelter a sparkling hothouse of ideas for the future of electronic journalism."
Roone Arledge
Roone Arledge (1931-2002, CC '52) was one of the most influential figures in broadcast television during the second half of the 20th century. Arledge was the only person to have run both the news and sports divisions at ABC. As president and then chairman of ABC News, Arledge created some of the most critically acclaimed and enduring news programs, including World New Tonight with Peter Jennings, Nightline, and 20/20. He was the recipient of numerous awards, including 37 Emmy Awards and a prestigious Gold Baton from the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards.
Fred Friendly
The newsroom portion of the Arledge Lab is named for Fred Friendly, journalism pioneer and Columbia Journalism School professor. A CBS News producer, Friendly had collaborated with Edward R. Murrow on CBS's program See It Now , including their now famous 1954 report taking on Senator Joseph McCarthy for his allegations of communist subversion. When Friendly departed CBS, he joined the Columbia Journalism faculty where he taught for 25 years as the Edward R. Murrow Professor of Broadcast Journalism. |
