State-of-the-Art Facilities and Equipment

[Music]     

Text on screen: Webster University

[Footage of the hallway in Sverdrup morphs into a montage of clips from the School of Communications, including a sound board, a student writing on a whiteboard and someone working on a computer.]

Text on screen: School of Communications

[Music fades and continues in the background, with an aerial shot and an exterior shot of the Sverdrup building cutting to an interview shot.]

Eric Rothenbuhler: We are in the west wing of this Sverdrup building that just remodeled as a state-of-the-art media production and communication education facility.

Text on screen: ERIC ROTHENBUHLER Dean, School of Communications

[Footage of a large screen in the sound stage before cutting to another interview shot of Aaron Aubuchon sitting in a theatre seat]

Aaron Aubuchon: We turned it former TV studio into a soundstage. We have a space that we can build things, so now we can actually put sets in that soundstage.

Text on screen: AARON AUBUCHON Associate Dean, School of Communications

We have an LED wall, so we could do virtual cinema production. We have an isolated audio facility. We've also updated some classrooms for gaming and animation.

[Footage of the LED wall, the audio mixing facility and various classrooms for other visual elements.]

[Music fades from the background into full level as there are a montage of clips from the Sverdrup building, including additional facilities and technology. The music fades back into the background as Rothenbuhler begins speaking.]

Rothenbuhler: We may have particular labs optimized for one degree program or another, but between classes the students are sitting next to each other.

[A close-up interview shot of Rothenbuhler.]

They see what each other is doing. They get curious, they start collaborating, and that prepares them for working in the industry.

[Music becomes full volume again with a long, sped up clip of the LED wall, before fading again, and cuts to video games design and a shot of the Interaction Lab.]

With a complete remodeling and a complete tech refresh, we can make a big, big leap forward. So one of the premier examples is our virtual cinema system.

[Music flourishes into full volume as the LED screen of the video wall changes sets and backgrounds directed by students and professors, and the music quiets.]

Caleb Sawyer: The video wall is one of those things that not many places have.

Text on screen: CALEB SAWYER Adjunct Professor of Game Design

[An interview shot of Sawyer in front of the video wall, as he speaks animatedly with big gestures.]

It's no longer preparing them with tools so that they can figure it out in that environment. It's preparing them with experience so that when they get in that environment, they know what they're doing.

[Inspirational music begins as there are multiple shots of Sawyer working with or in front of the video wall. The music fades and the video cuts to Aubuchon.]

Aubuchon: Right now, we have students who know more about how to use these technologies than the professionals in town.

[The music becomes full volume again and there is a shot of sets/backgrounds moving back and forth on the LED video wall.

[A clip of a Sverdrup hallway and the Imaginary World computer lab appear before cutting to another interview shot of Rothenbuhler.]

Rothenbuhler: The School of Communications has always been a leader in all of the things that we do. We're putting high quality professional equipment, some of it cutting-edge, in the hands of every student that joins us. They've got access to top level equipment and really elite education.

[Music swells and ends as the screen fades to black.]