Nov 19, 2019 One Button Studios

By Robert Nelson

Greetings,

One of the most successful services implemented in the Marriott Library has proven to be the One Button Studio. Located on Level 2, in the Fine Arts Library, these are the bullet points on the media service:

• Student scheduled video studio
• Located in a public space; not a staff space
• Open the same hours as the Marriott Library
• You do not have to a be video wizard, to record good quality video
• Can extract audio only from the camera recording
• Simple instructions:

1. Insert flash drive
2. Press the One Button
3. Five second recording countdown to hit your mark on the floor
4. Video recording begins
5. Press the One Button to stop recording
6. Video file writes to flash drive
7. Leave!

The utility of the One Button Studio has been so successful that openings are scarce in peak hours. I have had to try and find slots for people during the weekends.

Thanks to student fees, Matt Irsik, Head of User Support and Computing Services in the Marriott Library, used his poker skills to wheel and deal the Library funding for not one, but two, new vocal booths. (It is still to be determined if they will be branded as One Button Studios.)

As Head of Media Studios with Creativity & Innovation, I have been consulting with the Marriott Library’s Media Engineer, Angela Wilkins, to help select modular, soundproof recording spaces that could be moved, if needed. (The current One Button Studio is a re-purposed Librarian’s office.)

Protospace is the location, also on Level 2, that is the service hub of the Digital Matters Lab:

• 3D Printing, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality and Motion Capture
• GIS Mapping displays
• Video game consoles
• Visualization Wall (soon)

The new vocal booths will be added as a natural, new media service. They have to be judiciously placed: they need to be off “noise bleed” pathways to enhance soundproof recording and each booth needs its own power to work the automatic lights in the One Button arrangement.

I had hoped this blog post would be about the installation of the new recording studios. But alas, our first bid last summer was rejected. (The high price of low cost!)

The second bid went through and the pieces of the to be assembled booths arrived just fine. Alas, again! The crates were too tall for the Marriott Library’s elevator. In Reggae there is a saying, “Warrior no tarryer!”

Angela has scheduled a moving crew to hoist the too bulky pieces onto the second floor. Just like how the Egyptians built the Pyramids!

PS – This is what I am hoping will fit…podcaster microphones (see image).

Robert Nelson | Head of Media Studios
Creativity & Innovation Services / Media Studios
robert.nelson@utah.edu