Collaborative Technology Services provides Iowa State with help in facilitating virtual meetings and collaborations for colleges, departments, research centers and student organizations, as well as the university community as a whole. To get some inside information on what CTS has to offer, we talked with Roger Suski, program coordinator in CTS:
- What is CTS?
Our mission is to “support our customers through technologies and environments that connect people.” We’ve been around for awhile, but we’ve been in our current fee-for-service form for five years.
The fee-for-service CTS unit grew out of a need to separate and delineate efforts of supporting College of Engineering research centers from the course-credit-delivery side of Engineering-LAS Online Learning. Same great staff, just charged to a different account. All along, the mantra has always been, “How can we help?”
- What services are offered by CTS?
Videography refers to video recording a lecture, presentation or simply raw footage. If required, content, like presentation slides, can also be captured and synchronized to the main presenter video. In addition, we can record interviews and testimonials.
Audio-visual support is where the CTS team provides AV assistance to users for their video conference, high-profile event or anything where the user wants to delegate responsibility of the technology to someone else. CTS can provide microphones, speakers, computers, projectors or simply on-site expertise. We like to assist people to make the most of their event, not simply settle for “it is what it is.”
Remote video production is the complete “production studio on wheels.” Multiple cameras can be sent to the Great Hall, the Scheman Building, or anywhere in-between to capture, stream and video conference a high-profile event. The equipment can add graphics, incorporate presentation slides and bring in additional camera views. Although it can capture lecture-type events in a “TEDTalk style,” we are not just limited to lectures. The same technology has been used to capture and stream the FIRST Lego League Iowa State Championships and the ISU Fashion Show. It is very versatile.
- What College of Engineering events has CTS served at?
CTS has worked with the College of Engineering, as well as individual departments, research centers and units at many events! For instance, we live-stream the Graduate Pre-Graduation Reception so that family who cannot make it to the event can see their student receive accolades and hear their remarks.
We also provide operation and AV support for all events in the Alliant Energy-Lee Liu Auditorium in Howe Hall, serving guest lectures for many College of Engineering departments, ranging from simple audio and projection, to full recording, streaming and video conferencing.
- What’s your most memorable moment from providing CTS services?
One memorable moment that was engineering-related was recording and hosting a conversation with the former chair of Aerospace Engineering, having a discussion with Vance Coffman and Dennis Muilenburg. The amount of knowledge and experiences that were shared between those two was amazing, and it was great to be able to apply our services to deliver a recording worthy of their involvement.
- How can people get in contact with you?
People can review our services at cts.elo.iastate.edu. They can also reach out to me directly at rsuski@iastate.edu or 515-294-0090. We are always happy to consult and talk through people’s ideas to make better experiences, conferences, and events.