Briar Cliff University Department of Mass Communications

The Integrated Multimedia Center (IMC) is the central hub for all mass communication it is connected to the BCU-Radio studio and the BCU-Radio/Cliff News staff office. The IMC is a fully digital production area. The facility has film, slide transparency and photo scanning capability; digital non-linear video and audio editing; CD-Rom production; web page design; and is digital versatile disc (DVD) capable. The student newspaper, the Cliff News@Briar Cliff University, is produced and placed on the Internet via the World Wide Web on a weekly basis. All editorial content in the newspaper is produced in QuarkXpress and placed on the web via Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Acrobat. All of the photos in the electronic newspaper are digitally captured the Nikon D80 digital camera. The lab includes digital audio editing software for the adjoining BCU-Radio studio.

Photographs are captured on a Nikon D80 digital cameras and edited in Adobe Photoshop. The facility serves as a digital darkroom where student can print to one of three Epson 4000 color inkjet printers up to 17’ wide on toll paper. Images can be scanned at one of the seven scanning stations which include a film and flatbed scanner. Video production is accomplished on Final Cut Pro software. The IML was primarily funded by the Department of Mass Communications and a federal Title III grant.

The lab includes a color laser printer for document up to 11” x 17” which is useful for graphic design courses and majors. Dual flat-screen computers in the "quad" allow students to work in close communication with each other. The workstations are networked together via the computer network (LAN), thus allowing file-sharing and transferring of media from one station to the next. All computers (both PC and Macs) have CD-ROM burners and are DVD capable. The lab is accessible 24 hours a day by authorized students (students majoring in graphic design mass communications and new media or students enrolled in courses that require the use of the lab). A live, color video web camera scans the IML 24-hours a day on the.

BCU Radio
The Department of Mass Media maintains a campus-based radio station which reaches a potential audience of 100,000 listeners/viewers in Iowa and South Dakota. A color video camera places a live, in-studio image over a cable channel which reaches audiences is Sioux City and Sergeant Bluff, Iowa; and North Sioux City and McCook Lake, South Dakota. The format of the station is "alternative"... programming the genres of rock, punk, reggae, folk, world, new age, rap, hip-hop, dance, and other styles. BCU Radio is a national reporting station for College Media Journal (CMJ) in Great Neck, New York which reports the new music trends of member stations to music distributors nationwide. BCU Radio broadcasts all its music via compact disc but has audio cassette and reel-to-reel capabilities. Its production room is utilized for commercial, public service and educational productions.

BCU Radio's vast music library houses approximately 4,000 CDs for access by its student announcers. Since the station acquires an average of 20-30 CDs per week, older CDs are regularly rotated out of the library. These CDs are then used as free, over-the-air giveaways. Hundreds of surplus CDs are also given away to Briar Cliff students each fall as a station marketing tool. Current rock music bands from across the United States also produce on-air, station identification announcements for KLIF radio, giving the station a professional, original sound. BCU Radio is equipped with Simian a digital audio automation system

BCU Radio can be seen on Cable One channel 12

BCU TV (Cable One Channel 12)
The Department of Mass Media maintains a three-camera television studio for the production of a variety of student-centered productions, as well as off-campus public service and contracted productions. The acquisition format is by way of two Super-VHS professional cameras. Studio productions are mastered to ¾" U-matic videotape. Non-studio production media is downloaded directly to the non-linear, digital editor. The department maintains two ¾" video editors in addition to the non-linear, digital editor. The equipment was primarily funded by the Department of Mass Communications, a federal Title III grant and a Kellogg Foundation grant.

Students in the Television Production course produce a half-hour newscast which contains on-campus and off-campus news and sports video packages. The newscast is produced "live-on-tape" for cable casting over the educational access cable channel into two states. Briar Cliff University is the only institution in the commercial cable system that can originate programming directly from its onsite campus facilities.