The Nevada InNEVation Center opened a new community podcasting studio on Wednesday, Sept. 27. The new space is designed to be used by students and members of the Reno community.
Vanessa Vancour, a professor at the Reynolds School of Journalism, was the one who first brought up the idea about a year ago.
“We have so many supportive people like Rose [Catron] and the Dean [Al Stavitsky] that made it so easy,” Vancour said.
Rose Catron, the operations manager for the InNEVation Center, welcomed the expansion.
“I had members that had been asking about a podcast booth, so it seemed like a really good fit, I was excited about it,” Catron said. “Startups actually naturally use podcasts already as a way to communicate about whatever it is they’re excited about.”
The InNEVation center already hosts several local business startups and engineers, but Vancour hopes to see it grow in more multidisciplinary areas. She looks forward to potential podcasting classes being taught by students or faculty members, so community members can work with the university.
She also says she looks forward to students being able to use it as a sort of off-campus office. Rather than meet interview subjects on campus where there are distractions, this can give students a unique space to work.
“My dream is that students will feel comfortable in the space, I know a lot of students have never even set foot in the building,” Vancour said.
The downtown facility, which was opened in September of 2015, is about two miles from campus on the corner of Liberty and Sinclair Street.
The podcasting studio is free for university students, faculty and InNEVation Center members, and can be reserved online at unr.edu/innevation.
The studio was paid for in part with funds left over from an Online News Association grant that was used to launch Noticiero Movil, a bilingual news outlet from the Reynolds School.
According to Luke Sorensen, IT coordinator for the Reynolds School, the equipment cost about $2,000. Sorensen said the biggest hurdle from an IT standpoint was the noise from the nearby rooms and elevator. Directly outside the studio is a large makerspace with several loud 3D printers, and mere feet from the elevator.
Despite the room not being soundproof, Sorensen was able to cancel out the background noise with software that essentially removes anything not spoken directly into the microphone. The software allows podcasters to be recorded clearly even with the elevator and 3D printers running in the background.
The studio is on the bottom floor, and includes five microphones, a desktop, and a soundboard and condenser. It even features a whiteboard to storyboard podcast ideas before recording.
The studio is open from eight to five Monday through Friday, and from twelve to five on Saturdays.
Kevin Bass can be reached at mpurdue@sagebrush.unr.edu and on Twitter @NevadaSagebrush.