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Contact: Information Technology Department - 208/792-2215

Mobile Production Vehicle has many Uses

Anyone who attended the 2002 National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) Baseball World Series at LCSC’s Harris Park probably noticed the big, white, bus-like vehicle parked near the main gate. It goes by a mouthful of an acronym: LCSCMPV. That stands for Lewis-Clark State College Mobile Production Vehicle.

The fully equipped studio on wheels came LCSC last February by way of a charitable donation from Jeff Boyer, of Jeda Productions.

It is capable of making high quality video and live productions in the field. During the NAIA World Series, it was used to produce tapes of every game for sale by the NAIA to teams, coaches, parents and fans.

Dave Taylor, Interim Coordinator for the college’s Education Technology Center (soon to be part of the consolidated Information Technology Department), says that although a minimum of 6 people can run the MPV, a full staff of 15 worked during the World Series.

Eight of those were in the unit (technical director, character generator operator, audio technician, slow-motion operators and engineers) and 7 were in the field (cameramen and announcers).

Along with the important role it played during the Series, the MPV has many more uses. On campus, it will be used to record other sporting events, graduation ceremonies, productions for the City of Lewiston public education and government (PEG) channel (Channel 13), and cultural events.

Students interested in a career in broadcasting or communications are encouraged to contact Taylor to become a crew member of the MPV. Those seeking co-op credit are also encouraged to become crew members. The students making up the crew will be encouraged to produce all on-campus events which will give them invaluable experience in live video production.

John Kelsey and Todd Lewis are two LCSC graduates currently working for KXLY in Spokane who credit the experience they received working at the Educational Technology Center in the video production area with helping them gain their current positions.

Off-campus clients from have the opportunity to rent the MPV for events they wish to have broadcast on local telecasts (cable or off the air) when it is not being used by LCSC. Qualified staff can be hired along with the unit if the renter cannot provide it.

Says Taylor of the various moneymaking opportunities (which include underwriters and sponsors for productions), “The outside work subsidizes the day-to-day stuff we do on campus. The net result is that the MPV becomes self-supporting.”

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