My first major task upon starting my current role as Video Production Manager for the University of Florida's Academic Technology office was the construction of brand new production studios.

Our team was assigned a 4000 sq. ft space on the second floor of a two-story building. We then drew up plans for three video studios, as well as a lobby and office area.

Construction involved the removal of several walls, the addition of new walls with special sound-dampening drywall, the installation of a sound-dampening drop ceiling throughout the entire studio & office area, along with built-in lighting, power, and ethernet to support our technical needs.

Based on production needs for operating a high-volume multimedia studio, I put together extensive equipment lists to equip three rooms. Most of our purchases were made through B&H, with certain items acquired via vendor partners. Equipment included backend video infrastructure, lighting, camera rigs (pedestal, overhead, etc.), as well as audio gear for both video and podcast applications.

Before getting lost in the wires, I wanted to put together the overall lighting and room layout. Due to issues with the drop ceiling, instead of installing an overhead grid, we relied on free-standing truss for our lighting. I hung & mounted an array of soft LED lights, aiming for flattering diffused lighting for our talent that would also be comfortable to stand under for multiple hours. In terms of the room layout, I wanted to keep as much open space as possible, with unobstructed pathways and minimal visibility of cables.

The studios needed to balance both traditional post-production projects along with live production that was manageable for a solo operator. Thus, I engineered a fairly complex backend signal flow that would be easy to operate on the studio technician's side. We also innovated video-over-ethernet applications including NDI to create a seamless signal display and capture workflow, both for the studio operator and flexible confidence monitor & teleprompter views on the talent side.

Our yearlong studio build concluded in late Summer, where we made the changeover from our old facilities to the new studios on the same day. Due to our production volume, we never closed throughout the process and needed to do a bit of leapfrogging in the build process. I aimed to have the first studio fully operational to make the switch from the old rooms, then worked to finish the second and third studios.