Show Plasma screens may be more flash than function Nicholas Contributing Writer Not so many years ago a plasma screen television seemed to be bea a device straight out of science fiction The sleek appliances fetched a price that put them out of reach for all but the most wealthy gadget But competition among manufacturers has driven down prices and the digital industry which uses LCD and plasma screen technology for advertising has them taking up wall walt space from airports to shopping malls and of course The question is what are the screens intended for and are they succeeding at fulfilling that purpose There are twelve plasma screens at the Taylorsville- Taylorsville Redwood Campus with two more planned for the near future The devices are the property of the Student Life and Leadership department which states that the purpose for the screens is To promote Student Life Leadership at Salt Lake Community College The goal of the screens is to keep students and staff informed of events taking place at all campuses Production Manager Tyler Anderson oversees programming for the machines Although he has ha enough produced College-produced content to create a minute 40 video loop he is still short of the minute 50 target for in-house in content According to the Student Life and Leadership Web site the final ten minutes of the hour are available for outside advertising at a month for off-campus off entities but Anderson said that no ads were sold in 2007 or 2008 When asked about the lack of advertisers Anderson answered Were trying to do it where we dont don't actually deal with selling the trying to work with The Globe and hope to continue to work with The Globe for them to sell ads for them to get revenue and us to get help with our plasma screens School Advertising g Development and Marketing g gr Specialist Michael Clapier Clapie r describes the problems with h selling ad space on Student Life Lif c and Leaderships Leadership's plasma screens We really haven't done as goo good gooda d a job as we could Id I'd like to b be e en selling at least five minutes a an n hour Clapier also related a situation where producing plasma a screen content has obstacles obstacle s inherent inhere to its implementation One of the problems you go got t with plasma is its digital A flowing audience in front youve you've got maybe 20 seconds Given this unique presentation content must be specially y produced to get the most out of this short exposure time Personnel is necessary with any production and the lack of it could be the reason for the undersold ad space Clapier went on ori to say Were producing for three campus projects Discovery Gateway weve we've got a documentary for the Salt Lake International Airport and then the media class is going to kick up a news show so were we're pretty busy We need more students to serve more need Students had mixed opinions when asked about the plasma screens in the Student Center Andrew Lucero found them a abit abit bit lacking for sports sport coverage an intended purpose for the screens Most places places' you just walk by them and hear nothing I dont don't know if people have been complaining about them being too loud or what Janine Smith said I didn't even know they were here In contrast Andrew found the system to be interesting and of benefit sighting a recent feature which was About kids in the digital age how much time they put in towards media and everything I just thought it was interesting just seeing how much technology is influencing the next generation just realizing how big a part it is Plasma TVs Continued on Plasma TVs TV s Continued from A Al Alin I in our lives Alexis Wit a member of of Delta Epsilon Chi an business and merchandising student organization stated We Ve wanted to do advertisements for our club on the plasma screens but theres there's no audio for us to do skits or monologues or anything like that Director of Student Activities Peggy Hoffman was unavailable to discuss the cost of the network of screen plasma-screen TVs The first page of results on a Google product search for 46 inch plasma TV listed machines ranging in price from to The average cost was and the total for twelve plasma TVs TV s at this price reached an impressive On top of the cost of the monitors themselves there is the additional cost of the equipment to feed the system content Its It's safe two posit that the two additional screens the school intends to purchase would cost anywhere from two to six thousand dollars |