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January 12, 2007 > Arts & Entertainment > RTV5 serves up fresh fare with new Top Cocktail show kicking off lineup

RTV5 serves up fresh fare with new Top Cocktail show kicking off lineup

By Matthew McKee | Thresher Editorial Staff

Television sets across campus may have avoided the local campus station lately, but the staff of RTV5 has announced new reasons to put down the remote while Channel 5 plays.

The staff of RTV5 is implementing a new set of plans to increase campus awareness of the station and encourage more students to create and submit their own video recordings. RTV5 managers will also begin producing more of their own shows, such as the new series Top Cocktail, which shot its first episode last night.

“The idea is just to get content flowing in as fast as we can,” Station Manager Daniel Derozier said. “I’d rather have the problem of too much content than too little.”

A hard year

In the last year, RTV5 produced little content of their own and recorded fewer than 20 campus events, Derozier, a Hanszen College junior, said. Complaints came in about the lack of new content, and group membership dwindled to about half a dozen active members.

Programming Director Brett Snider said the station’s current leadership had to recover from the loss of several seniors who graduated last May. This cost the station many members and their invaluable experience. Further, the Video On-Demand system, through which viewers can make program requests online, had many glitches that needed attention.

“Last semester we spent a lot of the time trying to build up momentum,” Snider, a Hanszen junior, said. “[We] spent time taking the reins, buying the new equipment, and now that that is all taken care of, we’re at the stage where we can start producing a mass amount of new content.”

RTV5 began broadcasting on campus in 1998, and from 2001-2003, the station had almost a dozen active members and shows that aired weekly, Senior Technical Advisor Will Fischer said. Fischer, a Will Rice College sophomore, said a weekly show requires at least six hours to complete each episode. With more members, RTV5 can have shows that appear more frequently.

Now, the station is pushing to have a semblance of that former membership with many fresh ideas coming in.

“If we want to film something, it requires all of RTV showing up somewhere and then we’re still undermanned,” Fischer said. “People aren’t interested because they don’t know we’re even there. … We’re not widely known on campus. It’s really unfortunate.”

TV 2.0

To entice viewers and potential members, RTV5 has announced that anyone can borrow the station’s new cameras to film campus events. Individuals or clubs can borrow equipment for their own needs, and the station will put the content on the air and on DVDs, free of charge. This shifts the responsibility of recording from RTV5 to the students and clubs, the same approach taken by “Web 2.0,” the buzzword used to describe user-generated content, and social media.

“When I’m looking at YouTube and what other universities are doing with their programs, it seems to be a pretty common shift,” Fischer said. “People would rather view their own content than something we do.”

Derozier said the station will air absolutely anything it receives, from Powderpuff practices to full-scale productions of the Rice Players. He believes this will give RTV5 more content and create an effective record of the Rice community. To encourage the user-generated content, RTV5’s increased visibility will allow it to become a resource for unsure students.

“People put on events all the time, and they put a lot of work into them,” Derozier said. “We really want it to be known to all clubs and individuals that we will work with them on absolutely anything. We are a resource not only for our own ends but for theirs and for the entire university. Our goal is to give people the opportunity to record and watch everything that’s going on.”

Snider said he thinks most of the recording made by students will relate to the residential colleges, including college nights and parties, and he believes the risks that might come with those events are worth the benefits.

Content generated outside RTV5 has been encouraged but not actively assisted in the past because of equipment worries. In order to lend out cameras, the station had to change its constitution and bylaws.

“We trust the Rice students to at least be responsible if [an equipment issue] arises, so we’re not altogether worried about that right now,” Snider said.

Other small college television stations with the manpower issues of RTV5 could easily turn to canned content made by other colleges or sold by other distributors. Derozier said he believes doing this would be a disservice to Rice and a slap in the face to RTV5’s mission.

“It’s really important, I think, that everything that airs on Rice TV be uniquely Rice, and so that’s why I think that everything that goes on on our campus is worth being on the air,” he said. “It’s Rice or nothing.”

New line-up

In addition to pursuing content from the broader campus community, RTV5 will also introduce a scheduled line-up, Derozier said. This will de-emphasize Video On-Demand in favor of set programming. It will also allow the station to aggressively advertise its programs instead of forcing it to be at the mercy of online requests.

Yesterday, RTV5 also filmed first episode of its original series Top Cocktail. This new project imitates shows like Top Chef and Iron Chef. In Top Cocktail, contestants and judges will be people from the Rice community. Each episode will have three judges and two contestants. One mystery ingredient, revealed at the beginning of the taping, will be used to make two drinks from a well-stocked bar. Judges will evaluate the drinks using categories such as taste, aesthetics, preparation and originality.

RTV5 staff members have high hopes for this series, and they plan to get the word out to the entire community.

“I hope it becomes the new campus craze,” Fischer said. “I hope it goes up on YouTube and everything.”

Derozier and Snider echoed this excitement and expressed their own optimism.

“I have a feeling it will be popular,” Derozier said. “We’re actively seeking contestants and judges.”

RTV5 staff members have also begun filming the Rice Interview Series. This series will bring campus celebrities into the spotlight and featuring student interviewers. Wiess College sophomore Sabrina Tour conducted the first interview with President David Leebron’s wife, Y. Ping Sun.

The station also hopes to revive the Indie Rock Show, a series highlighting music videos and music trends. Sports Tour with Sabrina, a series that follows Rice athletics, will also continue.

Derozier said he sees these plans as a first phase for the growth RTV5. Snider agreed.

The people behind the RTV5 cameras will hold a premiere party for the new lineup Jan. 19 in the Hanszen Lower Commons. Staff members will be giving away RTV5 merchandise to celebrate the station’s comeback. The station’s new programming will begin airing at 5 p.m. Jan. 19.

As students tune into Channel 5 more often, more content will flow in and more broadcast enthusiasts will stick with the club.

“Honestly … the sky’s the limit,” Derozier said.

End of article

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