Inside the Broadcast Studio
HPU opened its renovated TV studio in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication on March 28, 2024. Students work in a 2,000-square-foot space built to the standard of network broadcast facilities.
- A four-camera 4K multicamera broadcast system
- A 24-foot high-resolution video wall with augmented and virtual reality production capability
- DMX-controlled lighting and a customized news stage
- A production control room where students choose camera angles and call the cuts
Virtual engines track camera position and lens data to place in-studio talent inside a 3D world, the same workflow used in current feature films and network programming. Students have access to the studio starting their first year.
The production control room, where students choose camera angles and call the cuts.
Shows Students Produce Here
Students run the cameras, the control room and the on-air desk for a lineup of regular shows:
- NewsPoint, HPU’s weekly live newscast, with its own sportscast and news website
- SportsPoint and the Panther Pregame show from sports media students
- HPU All Access, HPU Sportslink and the Point Blank entertainment talk show
In 2024, students recorded HPU’s first ESPNU pregame broadcast. In April 2026, HPU Vision, the student-led news and entertainment network, broadcast a six-hour live telethon from the studio and went on to raise more than $10,000 for Communities in Schools of High Point.
HPU Vision students in the studio during the first live telethon in April 2026.
Virtual Production
HPU is one of the few universities in the country offering courses in virtual production and augmented and extended reality. The studio’s 24-foot virtual production wall creates realistic 3D locations, and Virtual Production and Extended Reality is one of the media production major’s key production classes.
The work grew out of student research. Through HPU’s Summer Research Institute, game design and media production students worked with Brian Heagney, assistant professor of game design, on a virtual production setup built from a green screen, a virtual reality set and a computer running Unreal Engine. The team produced a fire safety public service announcement that could be used for film and television, then wrote an online tutorial so others can set up their own virtual production studio.
“It’s bringing both majors together to make a brand-new medium,” said Jacob Drew, a media production major who spent two summers on the project and went on to intern in tech operations at SNY.
Students Austin Edwards, Shane Cooper and Jacob Drew set up the virtual production studio during summer research.
What Graduates Say
Graduates who anchored, produced and called games from this studio now work in TV news and pro sports.
Reanna Rosenthal
Journalism major · Morning Anchor and Producer, WVVA News
“Being a part of All-Access, our news show within HPU Vision, has led me to strive for a career in broadcast journalism. I love the environment in the studio, the stories we tell, and the fact that I am surrounded by motivated, enthusiastic people who want our shows to succeed as much as I do.”
Wendell Epps
Sports Media major · Radio Graduate Associate, Orlando Magic
“This includes having the content needed to put together a compelling reel for both play-by-play and sports anchoring/reporting. I announced games on ESPN+ and anchored various sportscasts and shows inside the School of Communication studio less than three months into my freshman year, which gave me confidence at an early stage of my college tenure.”
Cam Christie
Sports Media major · Operations Technician, NESN
“HPU’s campus has always felt like an environment built to inspire growth. Being surrounded by state-of-the-art facilities, professional-level studios and a community of people striving for excellence motivated me to hold myself to a higher standard every day.”
Industry Pros in the Studio
HPU’s Access to Innovators program brings network veterans into the control room with students.
- Joe Michaels, HPU’s Broadcaster in Residence and an Emmy Award-winning former director of NBC’s “Today” show, joined the student-run special “Broadcasting 9/11” while students operated the cameras and the control room.
- Sellers Shy, CBS Sports’ lead golf producer and HPU’s Network Television Producer in Residence, has led live production workshops in the studio and critiqued students’ pregame broadcasts.
- Byron Pitts of ABC News co-anchored a live newscast with HPU students and gave feedback on their video packages.
Joe Michaels on set during “Broadcasting 9/11,” a student-run special produced in the studio.
Screening Room
Showing student work matters as much as making it. The Screening Room in the Nido R. Qubein School of Communication is a theater-style room where students present their projects to an audience and talk through them afterward.
The room also hosts public events. HPU’s Community Enrichment Series brought a Showcase of Dominican Cinema there, with a visiting film studies professor from the Dominican Republic walking the audience through the country’s film history.
Student films often get their first audience on campus before they go to festivals. “We’ll use the feedback from the HPU screening to adjust our documentary and make it even better,” said Nicholas Masalleras, whose team won the Communication Fellows’ “Building Bridges” film competition with the documentary “Empty Sanctuary.”
The Screening Room, where students show their projects to an audience.
Get in the Studio
Media production, journalism and sports media students produce their shows here. Explore the programs.
Media Production Journalism Sports Media
Questions? Email Professor Rob Powell at [email protected].