photo by Liz Berie

Point Park University announced in a press release that adjunct professor Andrew Conte will be named the director for the new Center for Media Innovation.

“The media industry continues to rapidly evolve in the digital age, and it’s critical the Center be led by someone who has lived professionally in that world,” said Paul Hennigan, president of Point Park, in the press release.

The 4,000-square-foot Center for Media Innovation was announced last semester as a new facility on campus for students to interact with media professionals and new multimedia tools that they will encounter once they enter the industry.

“The University brought in an audiovisual team to bring in all the newest tools for TV and radio productions,” Conte said in a phone interview Monday. “We’re going have a state-of-the art TV and radio studio in there, and a photo studio and multimedia rooms and professional space.”

According to the university press release, the Center for Media Innovation’s TV studio will include “a green screen, industry-specific lighting, and state-of-the-art high-definition cameras.” The new radio studio will be connected to the television studio via a common control room, and the two workspaces “will be self-contained modules with high-visibility glass walls for a ‘fishbowl’ studio experience.”

Other features detailed were a new photography studio and a presentation and gallery space. A “multimedia newsroom” will be a place where students can learn how to implement graphics, social media and more through a “high-tech smart classroom”. Multiple classes will be held inside the center, and Conte desires to see students take full advantage of the new building.

“I really hope students take ownership of the space,” Conte said. “The space will be fully programmed for classes, and there will also be a space for the students to come in and hang out between classes and have meetings.”

The Point Park News Service will be permanently housed in the new Center, though spaces and studios are going to be made available for the other media organizations on campus, such as U-View, WPPJ and The Globe.

Chair of the School of Communication Thom Baggerman expects that those student organizations will take full advantage of the new facility.

“No student organizations have specific space reserved for them. However, they can all use all of the facilities, including the newsroom, laptops, video production studio, audio production studio, photo studio, etc,” Baggerman said in an email. “We very much hope that The Globe, U-View and WPPJ will seek and find opportunities for collaboration in the space.”

Conte and the university will bring in media professionals to work in the Center alongside students, and a fellow will be hired to work from inside the new space.

“Our other goal is to bring in top quality journalists to campus so students have the ability to interact with people who are doing innovative things in the media,” Conte said.

Baggerman said the university is looking into hiring an environmental journalist as part of the grant from the Heinz Foundation.

“We will be working on soliciting applications in May under the guidance of Chris Rolinson,” Baggerman said.

Baggerman also said Rolinson is the faculty lead of the new environmental journalism program at Point Park University.

As director of the Center for Media Innovation, Conte will report to the university’s new provost, John Pearson, instead of the head of the School of Communication.

“The idea is that the center is supposed to be for far more for just the School of Communication,” Conte said. “We wanted to make sure that it involves the entire university.”

The Center for Media Innovation, located at the corner of Wood Street and Third Avenue, was designed by GBBN Architects and will cost $2.5 million to complete, according to the press release. The Allegheny Foundation contributed a grant and Trib Total Media is a sponsor of the center.

Baggerman said the facility is slated to be open for student use in August and a grand opening, day-long event for the center is planned for September.

Although there is not much to see as the center is under construction right now, Conte said that the building will undergo radical change between now and the time students come back for the fall semester.

“It should be a real transformation. It will be one of those things where students leave and there’s not much to see,” Conte said. “I’m looking forward to giving students that ‘Wow’ moment when they return in the fall.”