Dilemmas of Democracy
Schreyer Honors College brought Ayesha Rascoe to campus to talk to students about how her role as a journalist has impacted her understanding of democracy. And we were there to make sure the rest of the world could join the conversation.
Going into its third year, the annual Dilemmas of Democracy lecture continues to provide students access to thoughtful, experienced guest speakers, and this year was no exception. Hosted by the Schreyer Honors College, the event featured Ayesha Rascoe, an American journalist who hosts Weekend Edition Sunday on NPR. The conversation was wide-ranging, but focused on the challenges journalists face in our current social (and social-media driven) climate.
This and many other Schreyer events are livestreamed in order to facilitate reach to student populations outside University Park. Although facing an uncertain future, Penn State still has many commonwealth campuses across the state, and part of being a Penn Stater is about connecting with others across the university, regardless of whether you’re attending at Behrend or Berks.
As such, it important to drive viewers to ask questions and feel engaged with the event as a whole, so a little more care was taken with the feel and format of the presentation. A holding slide and some light jazz music welcomed viewers, and a lower third with information on how to submit questions was brought onscreen throughout the evening. Making events feel more polished and professional is something we’re striving to achieve this upcoming season, and although we are at the peak of what current camera, lens, and switcher technology can provide, there’s plenty of elements that we’ll be incorporating going forward to elevate the viewing experience.
Discussions like these play an important role in shaping our culture, sense of community, and understanding of the world, and we’re grateful to play even a small role in amplifying the reach of these events.
About the Project:
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3x Sony ILME-FR7 PTZ Cameras controlled via web browser
2x Sony 28-135 f/4 G OSS
1x Sony 70-200 f/2.8 GM II with Chrosziel Motor
Direct audio feed from venue
vMix Encode to YouTube Live (10Mbps/1080p)
Accessible via Automated Closed-Captioning
Event Archive:
Behind the Scenes | Production Stills:
2024 Renaissance Fund Reception
We made sure that the footage of this event hosted by Alumni Development was as elegant and dramatic as the setting.
Every year, Penn State Alumni Development holds the Renaissance Fund Reception, an event which celebrates yearly honorees of the Renaissance Fund Scholarship. The scholarship helps support academically talented students with the greatest financial need, and the evening gala plays host to the best of our student, university, and local communities.
For the past two years, we’ve been honored to play a small role in the evening’s AV production, as well as being tasked with creating a video archive of the event to send to donors and friends of the honorees to mark the occasion. In addition to projection control, which mostly consisted of a Powerpoint presentation, hangslides with logos, and lyrics to the alma mater, we were also tasked this year with creating a playlist and providing background music for the pre-show cocktail hour. Luckily, the honorees provided pretty specific requests: ‘well-known foot tappers from the ‘30s and beyond, but without lyrics.
While I have a pretty extensive musical background, I thought maybe this could be a challenge taken on by our future AI overlords, and they produced! A search string of ‘upbeat music from ‘x’ decade, without lyrics,’ turned up quite a few hits, and then I was able to aggregate that list and ask for a two hour playlist of a similar nature. At that point, some time was spent in Apple Music creating the list, weeding out the bad seeds, and adding a few of my own that I thought would work well, and voilà, a dj business was born!
For the video production we pulled out all the stops, utilizing Sony cinema-line cameras (FX6 and two FR7s), all with matching full-frame sensors and set to 4k60. PTZ camera control was supported by the RM-IP500 controller, and our new production cart made sure all those connections were tidy. A huge thank you to the Penn Stater AV staff for making sure ‘The Wahlmark’ build order was in place, which involves a couple dry line feeds to the front of the room for those beautiful podium and crowd shots, along with an audio patch from, and to, house sound, and the projector hookup.
We want to thank Penn State Alumni Development for inviting us back to support this event, and we look forward to doing it all again in 2025!
From the Client:
CW Studios has captured several of my events with incredible success. From start to finish, their professionalism and meticulous attention to detail have been truly outstanding. Their customer service is exceptional—they take the time to listen carefully to your needs and consistently go above and beyond to ensure your satisfaction.
The final results were nothing short of stunning, beautifully capturing every detail of the events and highlighting their exceptional skill and creativity.
I couldn’t be happier with their work and wholeheartedly recommend CW Studios to anyone in search of a professional, reliable, and talented team. Thank you for providing such an outstanding experience and delivering a final product that exceeds expectations!
About the Project
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Graphics preparation
Background audio playlist creation
Powerpoint finalization
Qlab show file for projection
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Blackmagic ATEM Live Switching and Record at 4k60fps
ATEM Live Projector Control
Sony FX6 | FR7×2 with GM Lenses
VISCA over IP Camera Control
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Premiere Pro edit with live archive and final donor list
Final archive to Vimeo
Sent for human captioning (Rev)
