Plans to update production studio facilities and technology for broadcast journalism and television, radio and film students are currently underway at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications.

A committee comprised of faculty, staff and Lorraine Branham, the dean of Newhouse, is currently assessing the needs of the school, and the project will likely take the next two years.

The group has been working on the plans to renovate Newhouse II over the past year. Gensler, an architecture firm, was signed on for the project and toured and assessed the building’s current needs in January.

Although the Newhouse III addition was completed in 2007, students and professors said they recognize the conditions elsewhere in the Newhouse complex are in need of updating.

“The lighting board is pre-Civil War. It’s really time for it to be upgraded,” said Richard Breyer, co-director of Newhouse’s master’s program for documentary film and history. “Most of the facilities here in Newhouse are where they should be, but the studios are not.”

Using equipment from the 1970s or 1980s is considered a downside for those looking to become involved in the ever-changing media field, said Andy Robinson, an adjunct television, radio and film professor and general manager for Orange TV Network. Robinson estimates his students are in the studios about twice a week.

“In terms of being able to teach the basics, in terms of teaching students good storytelling skills and lighting and camera work, those studios serve the need,” Robinson said.

But everything has changed for media technology, Robinson said, from the need for high-definition cameras to energy-efficient lighting. Though the equipment is sufficient for students to work, Robinson said it is not the quality they need to keep up with current media standards.

“The studios are definitely in need of updating,” Robinson said. “Everything in there works fine, the technical aspect of everything in there is good, but the technology really needs to be updated.”

The project is not just a renovation for the building, but also for the Newhouse curriculum, said Neal Coffey, a video production manager who is providing technical representation for the project. The curriculum will be more extensive and include working with other media, such as print, photography and the Internet.

Coffey, a certified Avid instructor, said he would like to work on establishing a relationship with multimedia brands, such as Avid and Sony.

Plans are in the works to create a server with a large amount of bandwidth specifically for broadcast journalism majors to share files, Coffey said. This will also allow students working in production studios on the first level to store their project and continue editing on the fourth level.

He said the committee is also looking at creating a more open space with windows and an atrium area. The Newhouse II corner barrier may have windows that will broadcast student work out onto campus.

“Some of the questions we’re asking are, ‘What’s the future of an academic institution in terms of how do we move and manage media?’ We’re looking at a lot of state-of-the-art facilities, but we’re also thinking down the road,” Coffey said. “The technology is only going to get better. We’re in a world of high-definition television, and 3-D is right around the corner.’