Florida College

Tampa, FL

By Technical Resource Group

November 25^th, 2023

THE NEED

Prior to the 2022 renovation of Florida College's Chatlos library the space was far from being the hub of the campuses student life. The dated space lacked many modern college amentaties and lacked space for student collaboration and community.

THE SOLUTION

In late 2021, Florida College partnered with architect Derck & Edson to design a space that provided a central hub for student life and a state-of-the-art library and collaborative facilities. The project began with a complete interior demolition and a thoughtful reorganization of all library materials, including the College’s extensive special collections. New walls define the café area, open study spaces, classrooms and offices, and areas for silent study. Each space was updated with new finishes and furniture.

DIGITAL MEDIA LAB

The Chatlos Library now supported the College’s new bachelor of arts communication degree program specializing in mass media. A significant project highlight includes a digital media studio and control room.

In the summer of 2021, Florida College, by the recommendation of Newsmax Media, partnered with Technical Resource Group to design and construct a state-of-the-art studio space to support the college's new mass media program. Over the next eight months, our teams engineered and created a functional and flexible studio space that provided the students with real-world facilities to gain hands-on experience.

The space features a suspended lighting grid with power and data connections, allowing creative lighting design throughout the studio. The studio was equipped with

Outlining the room is a custom track system suspending an 80' wide cyclorama and a 20' wide green screen.

To control the space's acoustics, the TRG team, in partnership with the general contractor, engineered the studio's exterior to minimize sound transfer. Within the space is an acoustically insulated ceiling, along with acoustic diffusers on the walls.

The production video system is based on a 4k infrastructure and the Blackmagic Design ecosystem. The dedicated control room space provides centralized control of the space's audio, video, and lighting elements. The Meyer Sound audio system within the space allows for linear playback of projects while the Allen & Heath consoles provide flexible multitracking abilities.

CAMPUS WIDE SOLUTIONS

Building-wide audio-visual solutions are throughout the newly renovated facilities. A unified distributed audio system provides central control of music and announcements. This level of automation offers ease of use for daily library staff, allowing administration to program music playlists and announcement schedules.