Asbury College in Wilmore, Ky., will send 56 students who have been trained on broadcast equipment from Thomson to the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. The students will support commercial broadcasters by performing a number of tasks, from footage to video and audio editing to operating cameras.
The school’s Media Communications Department, where the students are enrolled, currently operates two Thomson Grass Valley Model 200 switchers; one in a production control room attached to its on-campus television studios and another onboard a 24-foot mobile production truck. The department is also now building a new 40-foot HD-capable truck, which includes a new Thomson Grass Valley Kayak HD 250 switcher.
The new truck, which will hit the road in August and begin producing a variety of events to be carried on the local cable TV system, will be used to train students for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver, Canada.
“We really like Thomson Grass Valley technology and have come to appreciate its reliability and how easy it is to train students on it,” said Jim Owens, chairman of the Media Communications Department. “Once our students leave here, they can operate a Thomson Grass Valley switcher anywhere in the world.”
Asbury College has been sending its students to every Olympics since 1984.
