School of Communications Facilities
Our students actively engage with media production creative practices in fields such as documentary, interactive media development, podcasting, visual and audio storytelling and journalism. We offer industry standard studios and software for students to practice, develop skills and create both time based and non-linear media. In spaces such as our Media Studio, Photography Studio and two Audio Studios along with our Mac and PC labs students create, capture and produce their media. Via practice in our facilities students are equipped with skills that can be applied to current and future developments in digital media, news creation, non-linear storytelling, games and virtual environments.
MEDIA STUDIO - DCU - SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
MEDIA STUDIO
Our Media Studio offers both a fully functional TV studio an adaptable content creation space. Using our 4K JVC cameras, LiveStream 4K vision mixer and FLX lighting controller, students gain both live news style multi camera programme experience but also specific package creation for programme inserts. The space offers a large green screen area which can be used for both live action and animation capture. Due to the flexible lighting design the space can be rearranged to facilitate installation style media projects and content creation for VR/XR. The live communication and playback between control room and studio floor facilitate recording of larger ensemble sound recording and detailed foley work.
SOUND STUDIOS - DCU - SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
SOUND STUDIOS
We have two dedicated sound studios which offer both a larger recording space that can facilitate panel discussion and ensemble recording and a smaller space which is ideally designed for voice over, foley and solo instrument recording. All our audio recording studios use PreSonus StudioLive digital audio mixer, SE2200a mics and are acoustically treated to ensure clean precise recording. Our students can also use a collection of specialist microphones from Neumann, Seinnheiser, AKG and Shure depending on the source or instrumental they want to record.
PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIOS - DCU - SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIOS
While our students shoot on a variety of Nikon digital cameras which have many options for zoom, marco and panoramic lens we have a fully equipped photography studio. Within the studio students may avail of Elinchrom ELC500 studio lighting and a large selection of various dishes, modifiers, soft boxes and reflectors. The Photography Studio offers over 60M2 of usable space that is precisely controllable for lighting and layout.
POST PRODUCTION STUDIO - DCU - SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
POST PRODUCTION STUDIO
The Post Production Studio acts as a dedicated space for students to engage in the kind of intense long form post production seen in professional environments. The room is equipped with a number of high spec Mac Studio machines and a dedicated DaVinci Resolve Colour Station and a large format viewing screen.
MAC & PC LABS - SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
MAC & PC LABS
Our students create their projects across five computer labs which house Mac Studios, iMacs and Windows PCs. We use industry standard software suites such as Adobe ( Photoshop, Auditions, After Effects and Premiere Pro) and more specialised software such as Abelton, Sound Particles and Unity. Students can avail of the Mac and PC labs anytime within the week and are reserved for School for Communication students use. The labs are equipped to create time based media and non linear and interactive media.
XR & MIXED REALITY - DCU - SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
XR-VR, AR & mixed reality
At the School of Communications our students develop and create media in emerging and interactive forms. Games, XR (VR and AR), branching narratives, along with installation based media projects are made via the green screen facilities in the Media Studio, the Audio Studio along with specialise equipment such as GoPro & Garmin 360 video cameras, Oculus Quests 3 VR headsets and specialist software such as Unity, After Effects and Sound Particles.
RECORDING EQUIPMENT - DCU SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATIONS
LOCATION & FIELD RECORDING EQUIPMENT
Our students use a wide variety of location and field recording equipment to allow them to capture and record complex set ups for drama , news packages, environmental recordings and on the move footage. For video the students can avail of Sony FX3 or FX6 and JVC cameras along with specialist MOJO ( mobile Journalism) which offer 4K+ to online streaming quality. WIth audio our student use Zoom and Sound Devices field recorders which have a wide range of rifle mics (Rode NT5), lavalier mics (Rode wireless go) to more specialised mics like Neumann T103, Rode Ambisonic Mic, Parabolic Mic and Hydrophones. For photography a range of Nikon D series DSLR cameras are used which have the option of additional zoom, macros and fisheye lenses available. These are complemented with a set of dedicated flashes, reflectors and tripods that enable our students getting high quality shots.