
University Television Station (UTVS), the student-run TV station on the campus of St. Cloud State University, is using three Autoscript E.P.I.C. prompters for their busy production slate. UTVS delivers a variety of programming to the campus and the larger St. Cloud, Minnesota, community.
UTVS serves locally produced programming to 33,000 households on Charter Channel 21, also streamed live 24/7 on utvs.com. Founded in 1978, the station is staffed by the SCSU Mass Communications students: TV production majors work behind the scenes, and broadcasting majors appear in front of the camera and work as producers.
About 100 students actively produce news for UTVS. This semester features two half-hour evening newscasts, a weekly half-hour Spanish-language newscast, and a half-hour week-in-review news program on Friday.
As part of a full lineup of programming, UTVS produces sports and entertainment shows. Back to the Movies is a weekly movie review series; Monday Night Live is a weekly one-hour music show simulcast on campus radio station KVSC 88.1FM; and Trivia Weekend is a popular annual 50-hour trivia marathon staged in conjunction with KVSC. The upper level TV production class produces the new Husky Faceoff weekly sports show; and the weekly sports round up, Husky Magazine, has been on the air since the 1980s. The St. Cloud State Sports Network will begin broadcasting round the clock in the fall with live coverage of a wide array of college sports, a new slate of sports shows, and replays of classic games.
Since UTVS is training the broadcasters of tomorrow, the university is keen to ensure that students' experience on-air and in production replicate real-world working environments. We give our students a taste of what it's like in the professional world, says Derrick Silvestri, TV studio manager at UTVS. Our main objective is to have them use the equipment they'll encounter in the newsroom, so when they graduate they will be more than prepared to work in a professional environment.
Twelve edit suites, which feature Apple Final Cut Pro, Avid Media Composer and, starting in the fall, Adobe Premiere, are dedicated to UTVS; media control takes care of media management and sports replays while the master control center handles commercial insertions and broadcast playback. Production equipment includes nine Grass Valley LDX studio cameras, Chyron Mosaics, Wheatstone and Grass Valley production switchers and RTS intercoms.
In the summer of 2013, UTVS acquired a trio of Autoscript E.P.I.C. 17-inch prompters, which they operate with three LDX cameras mounted on Vinten pedestals and heads.
We were one of the first to have the E.P.I.C. systems, says Silvestri, who purchased the units from systems integrator Alpha Video in Edina, Minnesota. Before, we used a wide variety of systems, including the EZNews all-in-one script writing and prompting system. But our slate demanded a more professional-style system with automated workflows and MOS control. We got AP's ENPS for scripting, but it didn't offer prompting. That's where Autoscript stepped in. Their products are a top choice in the professional world, and with E.P.I.C. we could use ENPS for writing and Autoscript's WinPlus Ultra software for prompting. E.P.I.C. gives us a seamless workflow that works perfectly every day.
In that workflow news writers prepare scripts with ENPS, E.P.I.C. ingests the text and a MOS-activated rundown is sent to +WinPlus Ultra for prompting.
Students have various control options for E.P.I.C. prompting. We have two hand controllers in two control rooms. This way producers can keep pace - two wireless hand controllers for two studios for producers or reporter stand ups, and two foot pedals, one for talent on the sports set and one for talent on the news set, Silvestri explains.
About five years ago, with the advent of one-person journalism, we had alumni tell us that talent needed to be able to prompt themselves, he notes. So we transitioned from having a crew position prompter to having the news and sports anchors prompt themselves. That's most likely what they will encounter when they graduate and move to a small-market station equipped with hand-and-foot controllers.
E.P.I.C.'s foot pedals are particularly awesome. We've had a lot, and these are by far the best.
Silvestri also gives kudos to E.P.I.C.'s 20-percent savings in power consumption and its class-leading High Bright LED prompting screens. The talent loves the fact that we can do colors now for different slugs and cues, he adds. The Clock Plus E feature for time of day and Tally Plus feature for live cameras also come in handy, he reports.
An additional attraction of E.P.I.C. is its streamlined good looks with no extra mounting bracket required. It's a very clean unit, says Silvestri. It works well and it looks really good. We do studio tours and want to impress the people we show around. This unit is designed to impress.
Although he reports that the E.P.I.C. systems worked perfectly out of the box, Silvestri gives kudos to Autoscript's customer support. When I've called with general questions they call me back instantly, he says. Autoscript really stands behind this product.
Three E.P.I.C.s are meeting the current needs of UTVS but Silvestri envisions expansion possibilities. Right now we roll the cameras between the two studios, but if we invest in separate cameras for the news and sports studios, I can see us adding two more E.P.I.C.s.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
07/10/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
21/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/08/2026
Avid will unveil how it is transforming production to help media organizations unite content, agentic workflows, and business insights at IBC2026 (RAI Amsterda...
21/08/2026
New routing, modular processing, orchestration and monitoring capabilities bridge dedicated hardware and software-based processing as part of the Dynamic Media ...
21/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
21/08/2026
When hundreds of thousands of people gather to hear a single voice, there is no room for compromise. Every word must be delivered clearly, every wireless transm...
21/08/2026
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, today announced a strategic partnership with ScorePlay, the AI-powered media infrastructure that spo...
21/08/2026
NUGEN Audio announces the launch of its new Post Plan and Producer Plan, two flexible subscription offerings designed to give audio professionals short term acc...
21/08/2026
Join the Screen Currency 2026 Ask Me Anything (AMA) Online 20 August 2026
(L-R): Adrian Coates, Grainne Brunsdon, Deirdre Brennan, Rachael Perkins
Got questio...
21/08/2026
The countdown to the most wonderful night of the year has officially begun!
Host Patrick Kielty is gearing up for another unforgettable Late Late Toy Show nig...
21/08/2026
Meet puppet duo Bellie and Whizz, who are about to explore all the big feelings ...
20/08/2026
From host-broadcaster and rightsholder support in June and July to MLS, NWSL, US...
20/08/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
20/08/2026
At IBC this year, Veritone (14.A56) is bringing two connected themes to the booth: architectural independence in enterprise AI, and the automation of the media ...
20/08/2026
Telestream and ScorePlay have announced a partnership combining Telestream's...
20/08/2026
The Grand Slam of Curling and Rock League have announced a three-year agreement with ESPN, bringing more than 300 hours of live curling coverage to U.S. audienc...
20/08/2026
Nielsen has announced a series of enhancements to its Big Data + Panel currency measurement methodology, taking effect August 31. The updates were developed in ...
20/08/2026
Net Insight has been selected by service provider Big Blue Marble (formerly ORS Group) to provide its Nimbra platform as the core media transport solution for a...
20/08/2026
The 2026 US Open will bring a series of free fan activations across New York City ahead of and during the tournament, which runs August 23-September 13.
We...
20/08/2026
Bridge Technologies will announce a transport stream (TS) playout feature for its VB330 and VB220 compressed monitoring probes at IBC2026 (Booth 1.A71).
The fe...
20/08/2026
ENCO will demonstrate solutions across captioning, translation, AI production tools, automation, and virtual production at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A34, Amsterdam RAI, ...
20/08/2026
MultiDyne Video and Fiber Optic Systems will demonstrate camera robotics and mot...
20/08/2026
Chyron will demonstrate news workflow solutions at IBC2026 (Stand 7.A23), marking the company's 60th anniversary. Highlights include updates to PRIME HTML, ...
20/08/2026
Spectrum SportsNet LA, the exclusive television home of the Los Angeles Dodgers, is now available to Spectrum customers in former Cox markets following the clos...
20/08/2026
swXtch.io will unveil expanded Global SRT Distribution and native multicast tran...
20/08/2026
Riedel Communications has announced that Transformation Church in the United States has deployed a communications system built around the Artist intercom ecosys...
20/08/2026
The bestselling author and longtime Apple observer explores how product launches...
20/08/2026
The Orlando Magic entered last season with a dramatically upgraded in-venue prod...
20/08/2026
Pacers Sports and Entertainment has announced a partnership with DAZN, making it the exclusive streaming home of Indiana Pacers basketball. A team-branded strea...
20/08/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent ratings news and is derived from press re...
20/08/2026
The NHL has announced two major developments tied to its Germany growth strategy...
20/08/2026
Set up your own private remote collaboration infrastructure
SoundBridge have recently put together a tutorial video that provides users with a step-by-step ...
20/08/2026
New V-Control Pro features restore basic functionality
Neyrinck's V-Control software has long been keeping older Avid control surfaces compatible with n...
20/08/2026
TV, BritBox and Mammoth Screen have announced that filming is now underway on th...
20/08/2026
New York August 19, 2026 Nielsen today shared a number of key enhancements t...
20/08/2026
New Gracenote Data Hub analysis finds sports program titles up 31.2% and individ...
20/08/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
20/08/2026
At IBC, Profuz Digital will showcase at stand 8.A88 the SubtitleNEXT platform delivering innovative AI transcription integrations and stunning new features boos...
20/08/2026
Riedel Communications today announced that Transformation Church, one of the fastest-growing and most influential digital ministries in the United States, has d...
20/08/2026
QuickLink Showcases New 4K Capabilities Across StudioEdge and StudioCall at IBC ...
20/08/2026
The Boys Season Five Graded with DaVinci Resolve Studio
Brie Clayton August 20, 2026
0 Comments
Colorist Siggy Ferstl uses Depth Map to bring a three ...
20/08/2026
Adobe Firefly expands its creative AI studio: generate music, speech, and sound ...