By Amanda Yarger
Reporter
Recording a professional resume interview or YouTube video can now be done in one trip to the library, courtesy of the TechPoint Video Booth in Moody Memorial Library.
The video booth is the first of its kind for Baylor. Its purpose is to provide students and faculty with technological capabilities that include recording interviews, lectures, group presentations and other digital media- related projects.
Andrew Telep, manager of TechPoint Services, said the booth can be a great resource for anyone who has a need for audio and visual recordings because the process to use the booth is intended to be an easy one.
“Walk in, plug a USB in, the lights will come on, and the camera turns on,” he said. “You press a button to begin recording and it does a countdown for you ‘5,4,3,2,1’ and it starts recording. When you’re done, it tells you to wait while it exports the audio/visual to your USB. Unplug the USB and you’re done.”
The booth is located in the garden level of Moody to the left of the TechPoint printers. It has an HD quality camera, shotgun microphone, acoustic panels, a projector and a playback monitor. It is based on Pennsylvania State University’s One Button Studio, according to the Baylor Libraries Techpoint website.
“There are dozens of these across [Penn State’s] campus now and the reason is because it’s hard for students to find one available, they’re so popular,” Telep said. “They are continuing to add more more features to their studio. The latest is green screen.”
Telep said although the video booth in the library provides more basic features than Penn State’s, the future for the booth holds endless possibilities, from recording YouTube videos to faculty recording lectures for students to watch in their own time.
“Say you have a speech you’re presenting and you’re not too sure how you look when you’re presenting, the mirror is OK, but if you could get a video of yourself— so much better,” he said. “What happens if you’re a linguistics major? If you want language practice, you could have conversations in there.”
Only film and digital media students have recording equipment readily available, and the library intended to provide these materials to all students with the addition of the video booth.
Faculty from the Hankamer School of Business and George W. Truett Theological Seminary have both expressed interest in adding a video booth to its buildings, but for now the growth will depend on the booth’s popularity, Telep said.
Lantana sophomore Kathy Son said she would use the booth to prepare for a group situation where members may need extra practice together.
“Just getting the hang of who is saying what and practicing can makes things easier,” Son said.
Although Son is a biology major, she said her business administration minor makes tools like the video booth more useful for preparing for professional interviews.
“I feel like it would useful for seniors or business students. Business is really centered on communication with other people,” she said. “Sometimes you don’t know if you make weird faces and it can change things about your interview — that includes non-verbal communication. [The video booth] could help with that.”
The video booth is open seven days a week, and the hours are listed on the Baylor Libraries TechPoint website. The library’s online reservation system can be used to rent the booth for three hour increments, up to nine hours a week.
