San Diego Unified School District's Office of College, Career and Technical Education (CCTE) is preparing students for their future - college and career ready, by providing them with relevant skills and technical knowledge to pursue careers in the Arts, Media and Entertainment (AME) industry sector. CCTE currently offers three pathways in AME, which include Design, Visual and Media Arts, Production and Managerial Arts & Game Design and Integration. Broadcast Journalism, Arts Management, Multimedia Production and Photographic Imaging are just a few of the courses offered in those pathways. In an effort to offer relevant industry approved programs, the District has rolled out several on-campus HD broadcast studios equipped with acquisition, editing and conversion solutions from AJA Video Systems, Inc.

"Affordability and reliability are significant factors for us when choosing technology for our facilities. Our instructors, who come from industry, have the responsibility of maintaining the technology in their facility in addition to providing students with a relevant and rigorous education in broadcasting. The District does not staff broadcast engineers, so choosing affordable and reliable AV systems are paramount to the sustainability of our facilities while ensuring public trust of CTE programs at the high school level," explained Program Specialist Mike Reynolds.

San Diego High, Madison High and Mira Mesa High are the first schools in the District with fully functional HD studios running tapeless workflows; several more are slated to launch in the next few years. A typical facility, such as Mira Mesa High's Broadcast facility, includes an AJA Ki Pro digital recorder, KUMO SDI router, two KONA LHe Plus video I/O cards and a combination of eleven different AJA Mini-Converters, in addition to HD Studio cameras, teleprompters, video servers, audio mixers, computer graphics workstations, a shared storage system and more. The facility workflows were designed by Triton Technology Solutions, a consultant and reseller based in San Clemente, Calif with Triton co-founder Pat Thompson as the Project Manager.

"Providing students access to industry standard equipment is pertinent to the program's success. Students enter our programs have little to no technical experience and have to quickly learn how to use the technology to create original content," shared Reynolds. "AV systems integrated within our facilities must meet the 10 year life span requirements of the Prop 1D grant and are selected by seasoned broadcast engineers. As a result, our students learn transferable technical skills that apply to a variety college and career choices."

Taught by industry professionals, each program track combines lessons in theory with practical application to give students the skillset necessary to develop content. Once created, the content is broadcast throughout the school on a closed circuit TV system connected to Promethean whiteboards in each classroom. Programming ranges from live morning shows and afternoon news broadcasts, to pre-recorded specials.

"It's exciting to see young talent taking an interest in the field early on, as well as a program that fosters an interactive environment where they can learn and use the tools of the trade," said AJA President Nick Rashby. "We're proud that our technology is part of such an inspiring program and look forward to seeing how these students will impact the industry in the future."

About AJA Video Systems, Inc.
Since 1993, AJA Video has been a leading manufacturer of high-quality and cost-effective digital video interface, conversion, acquisition and desktop solutions supporting the professional broadcast and post- production markets. With headquarters in Grass Valley, California, AJA maintains an extensive sales channel of dealers and systems integrators around the world. For further information visit www.aja.com.