BARRHEAD - It all started as a half-serious comment about being able to save the school money, says Barrhead Composite High School (BCHS) teacher Bruce Tyrrell, explaining the origins of the school's broadcasting course.
The course, which is in its first year, teaches Grade 8 students the technical aspects of hosting a television or Internet production.
In 2019, the school planned to create a TED Talk-type video of Dr. Jody Carrington's professional development day presentation and rebroadcast it to multiple sites.
Carrington is a clinical psychologist with a background in helping people of all ages deal with trauma. The focus of her presentation was that educational staff need to be in the "right space emotionally" before teaching students.
“(Former assistant Supt. of education services Mark Thiesen) looked into getting a media company and the quote he received was something like $10,000," he said.
Tyrrell jokingly replied that BCHS' com-tech department could do it for half that amount.
He then started investigating it further and learned that the department had the majority of equipment they needed, most notably the cameras, within the portrait photography department.
"What we did not have is a video switcher," he said.
Later he learned that, surprisingly, the school's existing computers had enough computational power to run the video software too.
"(The video software package) actually needs less computing power than Photoshop," he said, noting they are using old computers from 2017 that are slated to be decommissioned.
After buying the switcher, the portrait photography students took on the project as a fundraiser.
After completing the project, Tyrrell started to think about other ways they could make use of their newfound technology and experience.
"I thought sports broadcasting would be pretty cool," he said.
Tyrrell then brought up his suggestion of creating a broadcasting course to then-principal Darcie Eamor.
Little did he know that less than a year later, COVID-19 would make the knowledge they learned become invaluable.
Due to pandemic restrictions, BCHS streamed most of its athletic competitions last year online. However, Tyrrell said the original broadcasts were pretty basic compared to what the students were doing in the course.
The course is divided into four areas: learning how to use the equipment; setting up for a broadcast; video editing; and graphic design.
"Right now, we are focussing on the technology of a broadcast. Things like graphics, multi-camera shots, knowing when to switch and not to switch (cameras), communication between the director, and eventually how to do video replay, along with the actual broadcasting itself," he said.
And although the course is called sports broadcasting, it really has more to do with the technical aspects of staging any broadcast.
Tyrrell noted that, in late September, they broadcasted the school's junior and senior high awards ceremonies.
"The (senior Gryphons volleyball) tournament (Oct. 21 and 22) was our first tournament. We learned a lot," he said.
Because of the tournament's length (two days from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) and because it being held in two locations (BCHS and Barrhead Elementary School) with four gyms, it spread resources, cameras, computers and students quite thin.
At times, Tyrrell said they only had two students, forcing them to "lock down" the cameras and switch between them to create different shots or looks.
"It turned out well and looked really good," he said.
As for the future of the course, Tyrrell says he hopes to expand it. Due to timetabling conflicts, he had to limit it to 25 students and one semester, but in the future, Tyrrell can see the possibility of making it a high school course and involving other departments in the school, adding on-air personalities for colour commentary or play-by-play for sports coverage and potentially adding advertising to the mix.
"Kids would have to approach businesses, learn what they want and need, and create an advertisement, a static page to further teach graphic design," he said. "I see a lot of teaching opportunities that could present themselves."
