It is freezing right now. I do not know how long I can continue to handle this freeze, but I finish my shift at 9:45, and it means I have two more hours to go.
I just start working at the Academic Technology Network department at the beginning of this semester. I am a camera operator and audio controller in broadcasting classrooms. Everything is still new and so fresh for me. However, I enjoy my job so far.
Can you imagine sitting where I am sitting right now and watching multiple TVs at the same time? Well, that is my job.
In front of my eyes, there are four smallest monitors that I’ve ever seen. They are all black and white monitors, and each of them will screen different shots as well as different angles in the classroom. For example, both monitor number one and two show a professor on the screen. However, the shot on monitor one is closed up to the professor’s face, and the shot on monitor two captures the whole body of the professor. The monitor three shows document, and monitor four focuses on students in the class.
Above those four monitors, there are three old-fashioned TVs. The staffs gave them a named tag: pre-set, programming, and streaming. The pre-set TV usually shows a shot that is going to input to the programming TV and the streaming TV. Normally, the programming and streaming TV will have a same shot because it is what students are going to see online.
On my left and right hand sides are two other computer monitors. The left one shows a class session being live online for students, and the right one is to make sure the stream is working effectively.
However, in order to make a class available on the internet, I need to control the buttons located right in front of the small monitors. I used to be freak out when I saw the buttons at the first time. My boss told me, “if you used to play video games before, these buttons wouldn’t be a trouble for you”. So here I am control all of them as I’m playing video games at home.
There is only one chair in a room, which means only one-person working at a time. No conversation occurs at my working place. However, I listen to lectures and students’ conversations every time I work. I have to always pay attention to what happens in the classroom so that I can choose the right shot to stream it live for students.
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