Media Center to be modernized
The large black gate surrounding the Library Village on Pearl Street marks the start of an 18-month construction project to the Media Center at Santa Monica College. The reconstruction of the center costs $12 million, according to Greg Brown, director of telecommunications and media services and a member of the facilities planning subcommittee at SMC.
The Media Center offers instructional and administrative multimedia and digital print and computer services support to faculty, staff and managers at SMC.
“A new two-story building will be added in front of the Media Center and the existing center will be completely remodeled," Brown says.
The new facility will have "advanced instructional technology," he says.
According to Brown, the reason for the Media Center remodeling is that the infrastructure needs updating in order to accommodate new technology and more servers.
Although the gate around the Library Village is blocking most of the service road’s entrance on 17th Street and Pearl Street, a small path along the Math Complex remains open for students to enter the campus.
Brown says that the construction will take place between the hours of 8 a.m. and 6 p.m., as per Santa Monica code. Construction is scheduled to run through the remainder of the spring semester.
“There will be occasional disruption but this project is not expected to produce a lot of noise during construction,” says Brown.
The most notable part of this project, according to Brown, is a new computer-server center for the college’s data infrastructure, making better technology available to SMC.
Al DeSalles, manager of Media and Reprographic Services at the Media Center, is anticipating a positive outcome from the Media Center remodeling.
“Developing instructional content for online applications will likely be an area that will grow tremendously,” he says. “It will be very constructive for us to have a small video studio and audio recording booth in the future building.”
After the remodeling of the center, DeSalles thinks the college community can “expect to see a new level of innovation in how we produce and deliver media technology.”
The Media Center will help provide instructional improvement and more available services to teach faculty and staff how to use these new multimedia methods.
“The synergy between Media, Network and Telecommunication Services will no doubt result in enhanced SMART [Special Media and Responsive Technology] classrooms,” he says. “Our instructors will have a new Teaching and Learning Center to learn about new technologies and develop different strategies for student learning.”
“We do not have any student services available in the Media Center, but we do support the copy and printing services for our students in the library and at eleven other campus locations,” says DeSalles.
The estimated time of the Media Center remodeling completion is December 2014.
The Media Center’s hours are Monday through Thursday, from 7:30 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday, from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The center is closed on weekends. The department can be reached at (310) 434-4352.