Dec. 4, 2006 -- Arkansas State University is the first educational institution in the state to install and use the Pathfire Digital Media Gateway (DMG) system. A CNN affiliate for approximately a decade, ASU has recently upgraded its reception capabilities by acquiring the Pathfire DMG, and can now receive the same daily feeds that are sent to CNN affiliates around the world. These daily feeds are delivered via satellite to ASU’s Pathfire DMG server 24 hours per day, 365 days per year. Student producers are able to access scripts, video clips, sports, and weather information from the server on their computer workstation desktops and use this content for ASU-TV, cable channel 18.

As Collin Pillow, instructor in radio-television and TV studio supervisor, explains, "Instead of recording various satellite feeds throughout the day on multiple tapes, students can access all the content provided by CNN on the server as it is updated constantly 24 hours per day.  Students decide which video clips to use and only dub what’s needed to tape. This saves time and reduces the cost for tapes and tape machine repairs."

In addition to viewing and accessing video clips, associated script notes may be incorporated into actual newscast rundowns. This greatly enhances the productivity of the news gathering process, specifically as it applies to national and international stories. Larz G. Roberts, instructor in radio-television states, "I feel like this is a step that will make an immediate impact on the department and ASU-TV. It’s like going from cassettes to CDs. My students will have more power they can steer with as they go about reporting and putting together a quality newscast."

Radio-TV has also acquired the Autocue QSmart Newsroom Computer System, which integrates with the Pathfire system. The QSmart system is tailored to bring full-scale newsroom functionality to educational institutions. The package includes the QNews database, script archive, wire server, QTV prompting software, and licenses to install the software on up to 50 computer workstations.

According to Pillow, "The Autocue QSmart system is a fully computerized newsroom that will be used by both ASU-TV and KASU. Incoming news content from the Associated Press newswire and other affiliated sources are routed into the QSmart server for access by anyone on the network. This allows students to build an entire newscast for radio or television complete with scripts, rundowns, and even teleprompter files for TV." The QSmart system also allows collaborative work between students, faculty, and staff.