Asbury College and Clark Work Together to Prepare Students

A 40’ HDTV production truck filled with professional cameras, decks and monitors, switchers, various pieces of conversion and slow motion equipment will be used to prepare students for broadcasting major events such as the Olympics. This doesn’t sound like an ordinary student project but then again Asbury College is no ordinary College.

Nestled in the rolling bluegrass of Kentucky, Asbury College’s Media Communications department has been involved with the broadcasting major events since 1984. Their students have worked as entry level staff for most of the networks covering events from auto racing to figure skating and from Presidential inaugurations to music festivals. Asbury students have been very involved in the Olympics, beginning in 1984. The school has made their students available to international broadcasters covering the Games from around the world. This program has resulted in students being hired to work as broadcasters at eight Olympics in six countries. Over 300 Asbury media students have been paid broadcasters at the Games. Over fifty students will be working at the Olympics in Beijing for a variety of broadcasters. Working as camera assistants, camera operators, editors, runners, utilities, audio assistants and loggers, students not only get the opportunity to work with state of the art production equipment but also acquire real world experience in the broadcast marketplace.

As Asbury’s program is increasing in popularity, so are its partnerships. Packed with some of the most respected names in the broadcast industry, Asbury adds one more name to the list, Clark Wire & Cable. Clark has partnered with Asbury as a supplier of high definition camera cable and cable assemblies used for their production truck. Jim Owens, the Chair of the Communication Arts Department for Asbury describes Asbury’s relationship with Clark as follows: “Our school has used Clark products over the years and we’ve been very satisfied . . . we were familiar with Clark because our SD trailer was wired with their cable and when we asked for a recommendation for our new HD trailer [industry professionals] didn’t hesitate to mention Clark’s name.”

The project manager for Clark Wire & Cable sees this partnership as a natural fit.

We are all about coming up with unique ways to help our customers . . . The Asbury project is a perfect example because when we came up with the concept for our new fiber coax hybrid cables, the idea was to develop a product that was electronically sound and also easy for the customer to use. We feel that we’ve developed the perfect field cable, flexible and extremely durable. For the Asbury project we also included portable audio visual reels to hold the cable. This affords the engineers the opportunity to keep the cable tucked away when not in use and spool off whatever length they need when filming.

With over 200 professional awards including the CNN Award of Excellence to their credit, Asbury College is well prepared to give their students the opportunity of a lifetime.