Emanuel School students get creative in new Trickbox TV/Film Studio

Emanuel School is a co-educational public school in Battersea, south-west London. Founded in 1594 by Anne Sackville, Lady Dacre and Queen Elizabeth I, it occupies a 12-acre site near Clapham Junction railway station and has 804 pupils between the ages of 10 to 18. The school required a multi-camera TV/film studio with a portable control system so that students can record multi-camera events in the theatre and other areas of the school. Trickbox installed a permanent studio and designed a portable production unit that can be wheeled in and out of the control room as required.

“In October 2017, we were proud to announce the opening of The Dacre Centre for the Arts and Humanities,” says James Skinner, Emanuel School’s Media Coordinator. “The Centre was the vision of our previous Head Teacher Mr. Hanley-Browne, who first planned the building nine years ago. The film studio built by Trickbox on the top floor is one of the centrepieces of the facility. It enables students to join our extra-curricular Media Club and learn how to produce, manage and deliver broadcast productions using equipment that you’d find in a real-world environment.”

The studio equipment installed by Trickbox included a range of systems that allows students to really get hands-on with the kit. This includes:

* Blackmagic Studio Cameras: These compact cameras provide Emanuel School with highly advanced broadcast quality cameras for live production. The cameras include 10” viewfinder, talkback, remote camera control, tally indicators, phantom powered microphone connections and SDI or user installable optical fibre connections that let the school connect to their switcher with a single cable.

* Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio Pro HD: This professional, compact, all-in-one production switcher and panel provides Emanuel School with four SDI and four HDMI inputs, which means they can use either professional or consumer cameras. It has high-end features for live production with built in camera control and can be controlled remotely via Blackmagic’s ATEM software.

* Blackmagic Smart Videohub CleanSwitch 12x12 broadcast grade router: This forms the hub of the studio install. Input and output connections can be switched quickly and easily with no need for rewiring.

* Blackmagic HyperDeck Mini: These compact recorders provide students with continuous recording. This means that they can record each individual camera feed, the program mix, or both.

* Blackmagic UltraStudio HD Mini: This capture and playback device delivers broadcast quality 10 bit recording of video formats up to 1080p60.

* Blackmagic SmartView/SmartScope Duo 4k: Used on the production desk, these monitors and scopes check feeds and levels. Built in waveform monitoring means that when the students need to analyse image quality more accurately, they simply look at the picture.

* Tecpro Talkback: This system allowed the school to integrate with an existing Tecpro system in their theatre.

* Full lighting grid with LED lighting.

Soon after the facility opened the school launched Emanuel TV News, a three-minute news bulletin produced by the students that’s played out on screens around the school, in assemblies and on the school website. James says, “We make the programme during the Media Club. The children switch around and take on different roles, they run the cameras, use the comms system and do the vision mixing. In the junior club I’ll generally get things set up, but we currently have some seniors doing the Duke of Edinburgh Award and they support me to fulfil the Award’s volunteering section. We have an iPad set up so that we can have one student controlling the teleprompter. It’s been a really interesting learning curve for the students and we’re now producing our second bulletin.”

Trickbox installed the studio during the school holidays so that students wouldn’t be disturbed during term time. James explains, “Liam, Andy and Dan from Trickbox all came to see the site and then invited me to the Trickbox Tower Bridge TV Studios. They set up all the kit that we’d be using and took the time out to make sure that what they were suggesting would meet our needs. They are always responsive, and the quote suited our budget. They also provided us with problem solving support along the way. It’s an amazing facility and we’re really excited to see what the students produce going forward.”