A Tour Of NBC Studios In New York City Essay, Research Paper

For my paper I am going to be writing on something other than a Video Exhibition, since I couldn’t find one. However, I was able to undertake something which I found very appealing, a tour of NBC studios in New York City. The father of my friend’s girlfriend gave the tour to a few friends and myself. Since he knew all of us, he decided to give us a private tour. When we first entered the building, I was amazed by the sense of centricity that came over me; it felt as if I was in the center of the television universe. The tour began with our guide, Mr. Kanuk, who is an executive producer at NBC, getting us past the many guards who watch the entrance to the main building. After this initial entry, we delved into a few of the editing rooms at NBC. I was at first taken aback by the many different terminals and editing bays that were in only one room. There were also separate audio production facilities in each editing room. We were shown the few linear and non-linear terminals which people were using to edit their equipment. The next part in our tour was taking a look at the live television studios used in NBC. We first were allowed to go into the studio where the Rosie Odonell show in taped. It was actually very small as compared to what it looks like on TV. The studio was very clean and organized, and Rosie Odenell’s coffee mug (which only contains water) was sparkling clean. Mr. Kanuk then pointed out to us the Robotic Cameras that are primarily used to tape the show. These cameras were in 90% of the live studios we visited. The cameras, according to Mr. Kanuk, are completely automated, eliminating the need for the cameraman. They run on state of the art motion detection and can of course be remotely programmed. The cameras make running the show twice as easy, according to Kanuk.For our next part of the tour we went to the studio where Saturday Night Live is recorded. This studio also seemed small as compared to on television. The thing I instantly noticed in this studio was the lighting rigs on the ceiling. They completely encompassed the entire studio. Everywhere you could think to look, the lighting rigs were superimposed. It was a truly masterfully engineered studio.The next part of our tour led us to the Conan Obrian Show. We entered the studio and witnessed Conan practicing some lines. It was now only 3:00p.m. and they were getting ready to record. When we arrived they were in the process of rehearsal so we had to watch in the outer control room. This was very interesting since we were able to view the inside of the live control room.There were about 3 people inside the control room, all wearing headsets and communicating with personnel outside of the studio. The organization levels here were outstanding. When one member of the crew was told to do something, it was done before the words left the control persons mouth. The inside of the room consisted of an elaborate system of banks and bus’, which left me feeling very confused. It contained a great deal of monitors and nice computers. A few of which I assumed were for graphics, due to the fact that one person was drawing on one.When we were browsing a few more of the studios at NBC I asked Mr. Kanuk about the analog setup which I was viewing in many of the rooms. He told me that NBC was now almost half digital and half analog and that they were in the process of converting to all digital. Once they are all digital they will begin to broadcast all of their programs in HDTV. He told me that it was a very time consuming process due to the expensive and delicate nature of the task. They had been converting for almost two years already. The next and last part of the tour led us to a hall which contained paintings and photos of the many historic people to have worked at NBC. I browsed these for almost a half-hour, before being dragged away. Our tour concluded with our thanks to Mr. Kanuk and the promise to return in the future. I believe that I learned alot from this tour. Some of which is what a live studio really is and what it takes to work in one. This experience helped to put me on track with the video world and to make comparisons to what is professional and non-professional.