Introduction

• Class Days and Lab Days

Due to the evolving enrollment for this course, we will try to create Class Days and Lab Days.  The Lab Days will be led by an advanced production student in Telecommunication Studies.  S/he will demonstrate and allow you to experiment with the key technologies used in our field.

Our studios and labs are generally open for your use and study.   It will be up to you to arrange times with lab assistants (and Ryan Donchess) to explore these facilities.   .

• Web Assignments

"Links" are divided into three sections (the first of which you are reading now), and each section will correspond to 1/3 of the course.  When you click on a URL, you will be taken to a video, or an audio file, or to a written essay, or to a complete web which you should explore.

Look for key information in each.  For most, this will be obvious.  Your challenge will be to scan these sites and to pick out the important materials.  You should use good judgment to decide what's relevant to the study of Telecommunications:  How a microphone works, for example, is vital, while how a cell phone base station coordinates with other base stations ... is not.

Some links take you to off-campus servers/sites.  Owners might move the files or remove them from public access at any time.

Rule #1: you are responsible for documents within a website's linked directory, but not for documents you can link to from that directory. 

Rule #2: If you're not confident of your understanding, ask.  Others probably are in the same boat.

Rule #3: Do not print the web documents !  As you study each, make some notes so you understand the basic ideas and so you later can find your way around.  Then, to prepare for tests, study your notes.  

Rule #4:  You won't be hounded to learn.   If you are a mature, self-energized student, you'll do fine.  If you tend to blow off assignments, or if you have trouble staying on task, realize it and take steps

Rule #5:  Understand my role, which is to guide you through the links.  I will point out what is important, as opposed to what is less so.  But realize that your task is to condense down all the links and lab visits to essence.  

• Personal Technology

Some items are necessary for you to have personally as you take classes in Telecommunications or to participate in our production activities.  Link to the list..

• LinkedIn Learning

  • Go to your YSU Portal and look in e-Services for "LinkedIn Learning."   Go to that site.  

  • In the search bar look for "Ten Tips for Set Safety."  View it.

  • Remember this location: you will be instructed to view more videos from this library.

   

• General Videos

Here are a few short Youtube videos that explain basic electricity and magnetism.  You probably learned these materials in high school, but a review is good.

Lesson 1: Basic Electrical Principles  An explanation of AC/DC, Volts, Current, and magnetism -- the basic stuff that all telecom tech relies on.

What is current?  Electrical current explained

How fast does current flow in a conductor?  (Very fast!) How fast do electrons flow in a conductor?  Not fast at all.

What is the electromagnetic spectrum?

What is induction?

What is sound?

How does soound travel?  

Here are general videos that explain basic technologies. 

• How do sound frequencies stack up, from low to high?

• The envelope of frequencies humans can hear is called the sound spectrum.

• The ear converts sound pressure to electrical signals.

• The ear is naturally more sensitive to some sounds over others.  Fletcher-Munson curves show how loudly we hear sounds across the sound spectrum

• Your vocal folds make sound.

• Your respiratory system serves as an air engine for your vocal folds.

• Here you'll find five lessons about sound.  Study #1 through #3 closely.  The graphics and animations are excellent.   

• A microphone translates sound pulses to audio signals, using induction

• Piggyback an audio signal on a high frequency carrier signal

• Pulses of electrical energy go to the antenna, which converts them to pulses of radio energy.  They travel in various ways. 

• These waves can be at many frequencies; radio frequencies together are said to comprise the electromagnetic spectrum.   1   2

• Waves in the radio range of the electromagnetic spectrum are known as RF.

• A carrier can be modulated by adding and subtracting to its strength 1an audio dignal, or by adding and subtracting to its frequency.  Here's Amplitude Modulation. 

• That's old radio.  New, digital, radio encodes the analog signal by sampling it and assigning an 8-bit byte of zero's and one's to each sample.  

• Core concept: Digital coding.

• A digital signal can be manipulated by a computer.  Software can eliminate unchanging content or content that humans can't hear.  MP3 is one way, but it does not produce high-quality audio.  

• Core concept:

  • Signal-to-noise ratio  1   2 .  Noise can be video or audio

• Let's review the different types of radio.

• Topic Sheets - short review explanations:

• Studio Orientation

Ryan Alessio is a sports reporter and show host at WBBW-1240.  Here's a short "day in the life" video featuring his personal routine and the radio studios.  Here's another similar video.

Here's "Behind the Scenes" with Dan Acree of KMKT-FM in Sherman, Texas.  

To prepare you for working in our TV studios, here's a PowerPoint presentation about the various technology systems you'll encounter.  Of particular note are the award winning graphics.

Go to the NEP Studios web site.  Look at the dropdown menu across the top.  Drop down each and explore.  NEP provides studios and production trucks for the planet's biggest events.  Top quality.  Top people. 

• Studio Terminology

Material for Part 2 will be posted after the first test (which covers Part 1 )

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Become a Video Production Crewmember

Computer Components and Peripherals for IT Technicians

Producing Podcasts

Video for Photographers: 1 Filmmaking Essentials

Introduction to Video Sound Design

Audio for Video Production