The Media Arts Centre offers a professional working environment to develop your practical skills and to make your productions as seamless as you can make them.
Our multi-purpose studio space is used for teaching and filming. Students have access to this space outside of teaching hours to work on their own projects as well as their assessed work. The studio provides 70 square metres of filming space for our students. The space includes a lighting grid, green screen capability as well as various scenery flats and staging.
We have a teaching space called The Loft above the main studio. The Loft seats 35 students and features a 65” touch screen smartboard. The Loft doubles as a seminar room and Foley sound recording space where students can capture sound effect elements andrecord ADR (automated dialogue replacement) with Neuman microphones.
Our studio manager Helen has 25 years of experience in the broadcast media industry. Alongside her work in Media Arts at Royal Holloway, Helen freelances in live television, location outside broadcasts and pre-recorded TV projects for the BBC, ITV and Channel Four.
Central storage server
Our central server currently offers 120 terabytes of media storage for video post-production and sound design. This server allows you the flexibility to log on to any of the 40 Apple computers and continue working on your content.
Location equipment
We offer all Media Arts students access to a comprehensive stock of professional location recording equipment including:
- Sony FS7 cameras with a choice of prime or zoom lenses, matte boxes and follow focus
- Sony PMW-100 camcordersSachtler and Manfrotto tripods
- Sennheiser K6U microphone systems with Rycote windshields
- A wide selection of tungsten, fluorescent and LED portable lighting kits
- Digital stills cameras
- Portable audio recorders
- Range of reflectors, diffusers and gels.
You will be given training in location recording techniques and location safety during the first few weeks of your degree, after which you can borrow equipment for course productions on or off-campus once you have completed the necessary safety risk assessment for each shoot.
Edit suites
We currently operate 10 individual edit suites, each with a Mac Pro computer running Adobe Creative Cloud applications. Each suite is equipped with:
- Dual computer monitors
- Adobe Creative Cloud comprising:
- Premiere Pro
- After Effects
- Audition
- Lightroom
- Character Animator
- Media Encoder
- Final Cut Pro X
- Motion
- Compressor
- DaVinci Resolve
- Blender 3D
Every edit suite is connected to our central storage server so you can access your work wherever you are. This enables flexibility in the way you work and the way we teach. Content can also be shared among creative teams and teaching materials can be made available in one easy step.
Multimedia labs
We run two multimedia labs, each comprising 13 iMacs, all running:
- Adobe Creative Cloud (comprising Premiere Pro, After Effects, Audition, Lightroom, Character Animator, Media Encoder)
- Final Cut Pro X
- Motion, Compressor
- DaVinci Resolve
- Blender 3D
Lab 2 also has Logic Pro X and Final Draft 9.
One iMac in each lab acts as a teaching computer during classes and is connected to a data projector and speaker system.
Sound facilities
The Media Arts Sound Studio has been used for all manner of projects, such as voice overs, translations, music and sound effects for video projects. It has a high-quality sound card and two professional Studio Projects C3 microphones.
All recording is done via the Mac Pro using Soundtrack Pro.
Several edit suites also use Logic Studio X integrated with music keyboards and MOTU sound cards allowing for 5.1 surround sound mixing.
You can easily send audio, mastered in the Sound Studio, to other edit suites around the building, as well as the TV Studio, using our high speed network – making it easier to complete your project.
Studio
Our Studio is a cutting edge, flexible digital studio modelled on BBC’s Radio 1 and Google TV. We have a teaching space called ‘The Loft’ that seats 35 students and features a 65” Smart board interactive panel using Digital Vision Touch technology.
We’ve installed a brand new gallery modelled on BBC Radio 1’s ‘Live Lounge’ productions. “The BBC kindly showed us around their studios and gallery, and have shared with us their insight and advice in setting up our new space”, says TV Studio Manager Helen Adams. The new gallery features Blackmagic ATEM 4K compatible switcher and broadcast panel system featuring two 42” HD broadcast studio monitors, and a new 22 channel SoundCraft mixing desk.
We successfully put on an interview style TV show for our ‘Example’ day (Elliot Gleave AKA ‘Example’ in the music industry, one of our Media Arts Alumni) where we used the main studio in a ‘TFI’ style format with an audience. The students ran the show, operated cameras, lights & sound. This format could also be rolled out for future alumni visits with students taking ownership of the content.
Helen brings an extensive background in media with 20 years of industry experience working in Live TV, Location OB’s (outside broadcast) and pre-recorded TV projects for the BBC, ITV, Channel Four, Maverick TV, Endemol & Tiger Aspect.
Other facilities
Our teaching and research is supported by an extensive range of services in the Media Arts department, Royal Holloway and the wider University of London. These include:
- Our departmental teaching and research video/DVD collection, comprising 3,000 titles
- Dedicated film screening facilities
- An extensive video/DVD collection in the Founder’s Library
- A substantial collection of books, journals, e-journals and electronic databases for film, television and media studies in Founder’s Library
- Access to Box of Broadcasts (BoB) off-air video archiving and streaming service
- Borrowing rights at the University of London Central Library at Senate House.
The British Film Institute with its extensive archival and library resources, while not part of the University of London’s central facilities, is within easy access and is an invaluable resource for researchers at all levels.
