The Television Studio on the fourth floor of the Humanities Building is one of many ongoing renovations and technology upgrades currently coming to a close at Wayne State College.
The equipment that had been in use was outdated by about ten to twenty years and was no longer the industry standard.
“We are always faced with changes in technology and we need to keep up with those industry standards,” Vice President of Academic Affairs Steve Elliott said.
According to Elliott, the Athletics Department, Network and Technology Services, and the Television Studio (KWSC-TV 6) worked in conjunction with each other to determine when the overall renovation would take place.  Mike Powicki, Director of Athletics; John Dunning, director of the Network and Technology Services; and Elliott, then dean of Arts and Humanities, started conversations about the improvements to four key areas: the television studio on the fourth floor of Humanities, Ramsey Theatre, the Memorial Stadium press box and Rice Auditorium.
These four locations were “addressed simultaneously and looked at as priorities, and that is where funding sources were identified in order to get that equipment and process started,” Elliott said.
“Integrating this system with the whole campus is a good thing because we will be able to bring in programs that we might put on in Ramsey, Ley, Gardner, the football stadium or Rice,” Broadcast Engineer Tom Schmitz said.
State of the art improvements will eventually allow Wayne State to be able to live-stream events occurring from all four locations in HD.
The television station has control of three channels: KWSC-TV 6.1, 6.2 and 6.3. All three stations will be capable to stream different events in separate locations on campus, thanks to the upgrade, using fiber and digital technologies, according to Schmitz.
For example: if a football game happens to land on the same day as a volleyball tournament, the college will be able to stream both of the games on two of the three channels.
A once entirely manual and analog system will now be converted to a distinctly digital system. In addition, the updated technology also has the capability to automatically schedule archived content on one channel, while an event is live-streaming other content in real-time on another channel.
What exactly went into the renovation of the television studio to allow it to have all of these impressive capabilities? Schmitz has had a hands-on approach to the renovation of the studio, and said that all of the outdated equipment was ushered out and replaced with a new audio board and Ultra HD technology.
Campus organizations and clubs may contact the Media Club in order to arrange for video production or live-streaming of events to take place by contacting KWSC-TV adviser Michael Marek with details of the proposed event well in advance.