Summer is normally a time for rest and relaxation – but while everyone else is away enjoying beaches and boggie boards, your technologists are busy making things better here at Sheridan!

This summer, we’ve done a lot to make your learning experience better!  Take a look at this years Whats New list!

 1) Interactive 360° Tour

This year, we’ve launched a new 360° tour of the Journalism production space. This tour will allow you to take a look around the newsroom, without having to be on campus! We’re working on enhancing this tour over time by adding more interactivity, including adding information and tutorials on the various pieces of production equipment.

2) JPORTAL Tutorials

You may have seen some tutorial videos on the JPORTAL before, but this year, we’re launching a whole new branded tutorial experience, called JPORTAL Tutorials. New tutorials will be added as they are completed. With this brand, we’ve launched a series of QR – Quick Reference tutorials that are designed to give you just the information you need, when you need it. With that, we’re going to be putting QR codes on the equipment that you use in the control room, and throughout the equipment room to bring the tutorials to your mobile devices. Simply scan the code, and get connected to the content you need.

3) JPORTAL Forums

Forums have always been a part of the JPORTAL, but we’re relaunching them in a BIG way! We want you to be able to ask questions, and get answers from your faculty and technologists – the best way to do that? In an open forum, where anyone can participate! We’ve often found that the same questions are asked over and over again; head to the forums first to see if your question has already been asked and answered! If not, simply ask and someone will be able to answer.

4) TIF-2000a Telephone Interface

Having a way to connect your control room’s intercom to the outside world is an important feature if you’re sending reporters to remote location. That’s why we’ve integrated a new telephone interface with the control room’s intercom. Since we launched BOND last year, the major challenge was communicating with the reporters in the field. Now, reporters can simply call in from their mobile device, and be directly connected with the control room staff!

5) Soundcraft Si Performer 3 Audio Mixer

That’s right, a new audio console!!! Our old audio console was barely hanging on – in the event of a power outage, we’d have to cross our fingers and hope that it would reboot. Fortunately, we were lucky enough to be able to replace it before anything too serious happened! The new Soundcraft Si Performer 3 Audio Mixer has all of the features of the older mixer, it’s just in a much smaller package. The new mixer also has an iPad remote control interface!

6) JLIBRARY

The JHUB has been the place where we ‘dump’ content, whether it’s old projects or stock footage. We’ve decided that it’s time to change that… The new JLIBRARY will be the place to go for stock footage, photos, and sounds. It may seem a little barren as we transition content from the old system to the new system, but stay tuned!

7) DropBox Modifications

We’ve decided to modify the way we handle Faculty DropBoxes. The last two years we had a system where each program and each course had their own folder, and their own permission levels. Since the inception of the NEW SLATE a couple of years ago, the DropBoxes aren’t utilized as much as they were in the past. There still needs to be a system for submitting assignments that can’t be uploaded to SLATE, so we’ve decided to implement DropBoxes in a new way. Now, we provide each faculty member with their own DropBox, which they’ll be able to set-up however they like for each of their classes.

And that’s what’s new!  Have any questions, about the new gear?  Head on over to the JPORTAL Forums, and ask away!