posted by Tim Burrell - I got to go through the studios of NBC 17 Friday morning. Shirley Min, one of the General Assignment reporters called me looking to do an interview concerning Second Life, the virtual world in the Internet. She had a short deadline to put this interveiw on NBC17.com, the website for the station. So instead of having her and her camera crew come to my office, I went to their studios.
I have been interviewed by NBC 17 about the development of downtown Raleigh by Sergio Quintana , a story that was on the air about ten days ago. I met him at West at North in order to give the story a better background. I have been on WRAL News several times, and each of those interviews were in the field, as it had more media value to have the backgound of the story in the picture. But, I had not been to the studio before.
Looking at the inner workings of a television studio is like seeing behind the curtain on the Wizard of Oz, as you get to see how the image is actually created. The news desk where the news anchors broadcast is a part of one room. The broadcast area for the weather reporter is a huge green screen. The director for all the broadcasts sits in front of huge panel of monitors with an abundance of controls and faders in front of him. The news producers sit with banks of computers working up stories. When the news puts a reporter on the air, saying he/she "is reporting from the newsroom", this is where they film. The feature reporters have cubicles at one side of the news room.
I got to meet Donald Jones who came over to talk to me briefly about real estate and Sharon Tazwell with whom I had exchanged emails about real estate before. They were very personable and extremely gracious to take time out of their work to chat with me. Shirley Min gave me a full tour of the studio, as she has great "people skills" and picked up on how interested I was in the way things worked at the studio. She wanted to have some discussion about real estate development in Second Life, as people are making large amounts of money developing property in virtual reality. So, they wired me for sound and the cameras rolled while she asked me questions.
If you ever get a chance to go through a television studio, go for it, as it is a great education.
P.S. The links in the story do not always show up as underlined links. Click on any word that is not the normal color in this story, as it is a link.