The crew scurried, making sure the lights, cameras and Teleprompters were ready to go. Co-anchors Chloe Hall and Darcy Kawamoto sat up straight and smiled at one another.
"We're not nervous," Hall said. "We've got this," Kawamoto chimed in.
Beckman High went live at 10:25 a.m. on Wednesday — replacing the day's loudspeaker announcements with real-time video. The student-run school news broadcast, "B-Live," will be a weekly Wednesday treat.
Before, the school's video announcements were recorded and professionally edited, and only one show was aired about every two months, Hall said.
But when producer Nate Madick, a senior, found out that the school had the potential to do a live video broadcast, he tested some old equipment, including a video splitter from the 1980s donated by a church. The Teleprompters are two laptops. The setup wasn't ideal, but it works.
The school is ordering and applying for grants for new equipment, Madick said, but he wanted to see the broadcast start before he graduated. For now, the show must go on.
Hall, a junior, and Kawamoto, a senior, were as giddy as can be on Tuesday as they chatted about the long-awaited launch. October's wildfires delayed the fall debut because the ASB group needed to figure out the logistics of the homecoming dance and game after they were rescheduled due to the poor air quality.
Before the holidays, Hall and Kawamoto — along with sports updater Matt Rogers who pops in like the weatherman — did one practice run for the school. On Tuesday, they shared laughs reminiscing about the bloopers, hoping that the kinks are out.
"My face was showing but there was a man's voice," Kawamoto said. Due to a technical error, Rogers' sports updates were synced with Kawamoto's image.
"I was like, my shining moment, taken away from me," said Rogers, as the group laughed.
But he had his moment on Wednesday, as the group officially debuted as an art history class watched on in the same room. This time, the students saw themselves on TV, and quick camera changes, and hair adjustments, were made accordingly.
"That was a big improvement, just camera angles were off," Madick told the group. "We're about three more broadcasts away from having this down."
Despite the challenges of a live broadcast, the anchors are enjoying the video gig.
"It's cuter than just our voices," Hall said. "And they enjoy seeing us mess up, it's funnier."
"B-Live" is done in collaboration with ASB and the media arts class at Beckman.
Hall said the plan is to evolve to a daily production in the future.
