A new television studio in Franklin Hall will be named for former broadcaster Ken Beckley and his wife Audrey.
Ken and Audrey Beckley are both IU alumni and donated a gift to help fund the studio, according to an IU press release.
The Ken and Audrey Beckley Studio will be used for TV broadcast news classes and production workshops. The campus student-run television station, IUSTV, will also use the space for basketball and football halftime shows, according to the release.
“To be able to support this new school that will prepare students for careers and teach them the fundamentals of broadcasting means a great deal to me,” Ken Buckley said in the release. “We are especially excited to be involved with the project in a way that will teach practical studio production.”
Buckley, who graduated in 1962 with a telecommunications degree, spent 14 years as a TV anchor and reporter in Terre Haute, Indiana; Asheville, North Carolina and Indianapolis, according to the release. He then spent 20 years as a senior executive and public face for H.H. Gregg.
“The practical experiences I had in radio and television at IU set me up for my career,” Ken Buckley said in the release. “But my academics taught me how to think and reason, which shaped my career as well.”
Ken Beckley became president and CEO of the IU Alumni Association in 2012 and in his five years on the association led a campaign raising more than $8 million to support the IU Alumni Association. He has also received IU’s Distinguished Alumni Service Award and President’s Medal for Excellence, and is an inductee in the Indiana Broadcast Pioneers Hall of Fame and a charter member of the Media School’s Dean’s Advisory Board.
“This gift comes at an opportune time for us to amplify what we do in the area of television and video production,” the Media School Dean James Shanahan said in the release. “We’re grateful to the Beckleys for stepping in to help us make our facilities as excellent as they can be, both technologically and in terms of the expanded role our studio facilities can play in our new curricula.”
Technology in the studio will include eight high-definition cameras, a multiview monitor wall, six server channels for video playback and recording, connections to the Radio-TV Building and the Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology and more.
Jay Kincaid, director of facilities and technology for the Media School, said in the release the studio is phenomenal. Kincaid graduated with a degree in telecommunications in 1982 and has won regional and national Emmy Awards for his work with WTIU, MLB Network and NBC.
“We could do a top-flight network-caliber show here,” Kincaid said in the release. “Any show I could do in New York, you’ll be able to do in this studio. I think the facility will be second to none.”
RoscoVIEW panels will allow camera operators to shoot videos with a view of the Old Crescent in the background through Franklin Hall’s windows with a reduced risk of overexposure in the video. Such technology has been used by CBS Sports, and Kincaid said in the release IU will likely be the first university to use such technology.
The studio will have a news loft, full news broadcast set, a small stage, a green screen and stand-up spots. Christopher Rhoton, who used reclaimed lumber and recyclable materials to design the studio, said in the release he wanted the studio to have a sense of history with a modern and timeless feel.
“I aimed to create a space that was very flexible and able to achieve a number of dynamic looks,” Rhoton said in the release. “Unlike most television sets, which are only finished as far as the camera can see, this set can be viewed from almost any camera angle and still be visually interesting and look great on camera.”
Carley Lanich
