Ravensbourne, based in South East London, is a renowned digital media and design institution which has built its reputation on introducing the most talented and creative graduates into the broadcast sector. The high calibre students gain a huge amount of hands-on experience during their time at the college with their multidisciplinary skills being honed using an extensive range of the industry’s latest equipment.
The leading camera support brand, Vinten, has had a longstanding relationship with Ravensbourne, being a strong supporter of the institution for many years. When the college held its annual Degree Show in London earlier this month, sister Videndum companies Autoscript, Camera Corps and The Camera Store also partnered the event to demonstrate the latest advances in teleprompting, remote camera control and grip technology. The two-day show, which took place in June, gave visitors the opportunity to explore Ravensbourne’s various course prospectuses, as well as see live programme productions in progress.
The Degree Show’s student Engineering Manager, Michael Colyer explained: “We built and operated a complete television channel from scratch for the duration of the two day show. We were licenced to transmit locally on two separate Freeview channels and all of the content was produced by Ravensbourne students.”
Vinten was one of the headline sponsors of the show, and The Camera Store provided key pieces of Vinten equipment, including three Heavy Duty tripods and Vector 950 pan and tilt heads. Vinten also provided its Vector 75, Vector 250 and Vector 430, displayed on a range of Heavy Duty, Osprey and Quartz pedestals and tripods, to offer several options for a precise and smooth pan and tilt operation.
Michael Colyer continued: “The students also used Camera Corps Q-Ball remote pan and tilt heads and camera systems which were installed both in the studio and mounted on a balcony above one of the sets. The systems really opened up our creative options and we were able to achieve some fantastic, unusual shots.”
In addition, at this year’s Degree Show, part of the equipment operated by the production team were two 15 inch Autoscript LED on-camera prompters with a WinPlus XBox base station and HC-1 optical hand control. The easy to install solutions were integrated into the college system and were used by the presenters during the two day event.
Vinten has a particularly strong working relationship with Ravensbourne and was heavily involved in the college’s relocation to its current campus on the Greenwich Peninsula. Ravensbourne selected a range of Vinten’s pedestals and heads to equip its state of the art live HD studio and the site now features Vinten’s Quattro, Quartz and Osprey pedestals, as well as the company’s Vector 430 pan and tilt heads.
Andrew Butler, Senior product manager, Vinten said “Ravensbourne shares our philosophy that the future of the broadcast industry lies in both people and product innovation. Our on-going support means we contribute to the development of the graduates’ practical experience helping them create the great television of the future.”
