Every summer, Marion Knott Studios gets to take a deep breath and relax.

Like all of us, the studio we work in needs a chance to grow, expand, and change with the times.  With most of our students away from Orange, whether on a cultural exchange program, internship, or simply traveling, the queit summer hours are the perfect (read: only) time for the Dodge College staff to do the kind of major overhauls to equipment, hardware, and software needed to keep this digital-savvy school as cutting-edge in 2011 as it was in 2006.

While we normally do these repairs silently, I thought some of you returning and prospective students might enjoy seeing exactly which new toys you'll be playing with next semester!

Here's the comprehensive list of 2011 upgrades, thoughtfully shared from our Chief Technology Officer, Dan Leonard.  Use the navigation tabs to jump around:

Equipment | Software | Projection | Computer Labs

 

Equipment and Upgrades

  • 3D monitor for 3d Digital arts creation suite
  • 3 Go Pro 3D Camera Rigs for Documentary Production
  • 2 Additional Shure Wireless Microphones for the Folino Theatre
  • 8×8 HDMI Patch Matrix for the Folino Theatre.
  • 1 High end Digital Camera, either One Alexa, or Two Red Cameras
  • 12 1.8 K HMI Lights
  • 10 sets of Zeiss Compact Prime lenses, with Lens adapters for AG-100 cameras
  • 10 Ag-100 Cameras with Zoom Lens
  • 10 upgrades to Nitris DX hardware from our Adrenaline hardware for Avid Media Composer
  • Upgrade DVD duplicator to Rimage 8100N blu ray and DVD duplicator
  • 4 upgrades to Native Pro tools 9 in the Mix rooms and Foley
  • 10 Upgrades to our pro tools Audio Edit suits to control/ MBOX3
  • LTO5 tape Backup system
  • 7 Kona cards To Upgrade Smoke/Lustre/DS systems
  • Add 3D Blu ray playback in the Folino
  • Dolby DMA8 plus digital to analog convertor for the Theatre
  • Leader Hand Held Analyzer
  • AJA FS2 Frame Sync for the TV studio
  • Clearcom Tel 14 to allow phone iin guests on our newscasts
  • Additional Motion capture suits and supplies

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Computer Lab Upgrades

  • MKS 206 Audio Lab – 26 New workstations
  • MKS 265 Prod. Design – 7 New workstations
  • Production Management Suite – 6 Replacements 2 enhancements
  • Avid DS Suites – 4 New Workstations
  • Audio Lab – Upgraded to 24" Widescreen Monitors

New workstation specs:

  • Dual Intel Xeon 2.66Ghtz Processors
  • 12GB RAM
  • Nvidia Quadro 4000 Graphics card with 2GB RAM
  • Windows 7 Enterprise 64bit OS

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Software

  • Upgrade Movie Magic Budgeting and Scheduling
  • Upgrade labs to Final Draft 8
  • Upgrade to Media Composer 5.5
  • Upgrade to Pro Tools 9
  • Upgrade Nero to add Blu Ray playback ability on lab computers and suites.
  • Adobe production premium will be upgraded to version 5.5
  • Upgrade to Autodesk 2012 suite
  • Add Vray Rendering for Maya
  • Add Vue9 Xstream for Digital Arts
  • Upgrade Kompact Plug ins in the labs for Music Composition
  • Upgrade Waves Diamond Plug ins
  • 3 Alitverb convolution reverb plugins (one for Folino and the others for the mix rooms
  • 3 Neural UpMix plugins by DTS to turn stereo programs/files into 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound
  • 1 Dolby Media Meter 2 plugin for Folino
  • 3 Waves Dorrough Surround Collection Native,
  • 1 Speakerphone plugin
  • 10 Izotope RX 2 plugins
  • Expanding access to Lynda.com to all dodge students on campus

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Projection Upgrades

  • MKS 111 and Cinematography Classroom upgrade projection to Panasonic PT-DZ8700 projector
  • Plasmas in MKS 117,118, 119 are being upgraded to 1080P Panasonic TH-50PF20U monitors
  • MKS 121, 206, 208, and 265 Projectors are being upgraded to Panasonic PT-DZ6710

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