Live From Worcester, It's UMass Med School
We’ve all heard the phrase “live via satellite” when watching the evening news.
That privelege is usually reserved for important government officials and powerful CEOS. But now, experts at the University of Massachusetts Medical School will be able to go “live via satellite” from an unassuming studio thanks to the school’s vice chancellor of communications, Ed Keohane.
So what does a medical school need with a fancy television studio? Well, it may not be obvious to the outside world, but as UMass Medical School has grown in prestige, so have the number of television media requests received by the school.
In fact, Keohane said that within his first two months at the medical school (he joined in December 2009), he heard from three senior faculty who had received requests to be interviewed by CBS, BBC and MSNBC, but who couldn’t do the interviews because they didn’t have the time to drive closer to Boston to find a satellite-ready studio. Hence the need for a studio in Worcester.
Head Downstairs
The studio is located in the medical school basement and is called “Studio B.” It’s pretty unassuming when you first enter. There are two small rooms, the first of which has your standard cubicles. The next room is the actual video studio, which features studio-quality lights, a flat-screen TV backdrop, a chair and a teleprompter.
From the studio, the school can shoot digital video footage that can be sent live via satellite to any of the major broadcast outlets. The camera, the sound, the lights — everything — can actually be operated remotely by a company out of West Newton called VideoLink, which also sold the school the equipment. Just put the body in front of the camera, and VideoLink does the rest.
The satellite feed “almost fakes the viewer into thinking the subject is in the studio,” said Bryan Goodchild, who is on Keohane’s staff as a videographer and editor.
Both Goodchild and Keohane come from the world of TV. Goodchild spent years at a Boston TV station, while Keohane worked at CNN in New York where he was a managing producer.
Keohane is taking that experience and pushing a “new media philosophy” across his communications department, which produces the school’s news website (www.umassmed.edu/news) and online video content. The goal of his philosophy is to not only tell the UMass Medical School story to the general public, but also to the school’s 6,800 employees.
“It’s important that our people are connected to our stories,” he said.
Keohane also hopes that the basement studio will become a source of revenue for the school. He figures there are a number of large companies and institutions that may have a use for a video studio equipped with a satellite hookup.
While the studio officially opened on May 20, they’ve already found success. Thanks to social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, their online videos are routinely shared and watched by hundreds of thousands of people.
I’d say that’s not bad for a medical school in Worcester, Massachusetts.
Got news for our Digital Diva column?
E-mail Christina H. Davis at cdavis@wbjournal.com.
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