By Abby Drake
Staff Writer
Video By: Keely Leonard and Nick Jordan

From the start KCBY only had four PCs and two old and heavy cameras to work with. Now, with the inclusion of new, advanced equipment, the talent of the staff is blended with impressive gear, taking KCBY to a whole new level.

A generous Texas company, Texas Country Reporter, donated equipment that was no longer useful to them to KCBY last fall. In comparison to past gear, the new items are far more advanced and technical.

What was once a small room home to a lonely couch in the back of the KCBY hallway is now filled from wall-to-wall with new soundboards, large computer monitors and switch boards.  The room, named by the staff as the “control room”, mimics the look of an authentic news studio.

“The control room looks and feels exactly like a real news room,” Program Director senior Keely Leonard said. “The atmosphere gives the staff a professional feel when we are working on our segments.”

 The new pieces include a switcher board, two new cameras, three teleprompters, a sound board and microphones. All of this equipment would have easily cost the school $10,000 to supply: $6,000 for the cameras, $4,000 for the lenses and $2,000 for the teleprompters. But since everything was donated, not one cent was taken from the school district’s pocket.

 The new equipment helps the KCBY staff maximize efficiency, as it helps to cut out a lot of the work that the students previously had to deal with. Before, the staff had access to teleprompters they had to memorize lines before they were ready to be filmed.  Now, they are able to simply read their information off of the screen as they are being filmed.

This year, members are able to film live, which means there will be less video editing involved when trying to get each camera angle involved in the scene. Also, their new hard drive captures all footage at once so that they do not have to pick and chose individually what they want to be stored.

Fears about losing data when there is no power to keep the show running is a thing of the past. This equipment is backed up by tough batteries so that no accidents can occur.

 “We can now run the show with the power turned off,” Technology Director senior Allen McClintock said.

 Due to the complexity of the equipment, it has been a lengthy process getting staff members accustomed. All of the instruments were donated last fall but were not ready to be used. KCBY adviser Irma Kennedy had it all shipped to a company, Digital Resources Inc., who refurbishes and restores broadcasting equipment in order to prepare it. Once it was all up to par, Kennedy had someone come in and install all of it and make sure that it would be ready for use.

Even this fall, after all of the preparations have been made, the new equipment is not quite up and running yet. It will take time for every member of KCBY to become familiar enough with the tools to use them for everything.

The wait, however, should not be too much longer, since every student in KCBY is very excited to get their hands on the new equipment.

“It is so amazing that the kids are dying to learn how to use it. It is a great motivator for the students,” Kennedy said.

  The new equipment that KCBY acquired this year has shown a huge leap in the technological advancement of Coppell High School.  The path to further progress is paved and hopefully many other programs from the school will follow.

“With all of our new power, KCBY is going to be better than ever before,” Leonard said.