Franklin Hall text-based tour: Franklin Hall: Facilities: About: The Media School: Indiana University Bloomington

Built in 1907, Franklin Hall began its life as the campus’ main library. It was built at the request of William Lowe Bryan, the university’s then-president, and cost $137,000 (approximately $3.4 million today). A fire destroyed much of the building in 1969, around the same time that the Wells Library was being built. In 1972, the building was converted into the home of student services at IU, housing the offices of the registrar, bursar and financial aid. In 2016, $21 million in renovations were completed, and The Media School made Franklin Hall its permanent home.

President Michael McRobbie commissioned this bronze statue of the Pulitzer Prize-winning World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle, an IU alumnus. Sculptor Tuck Langland first created the sculpture as a 20-inch clay model, which was laser-scanned and produced to scale. Once clay was placed over the model, now 110 percent of life-size, it was cast in bronze.

The Franklin Hall commons is the The Media School's living room — a place for gathering, collaborating and just hanging out, as well as hosting special events. Its centerpiece is a 24- by 12-foot screen that displays multiple sources of content simultaneously. At only 4 inches thick, it weighs 3,600 pounds. The commons contains a photo gray skylight, made of electrochromic glass, which adjusts the brightness of the room to account for the amount of sunlight outside.

The IDS newsroom displays the desk of Ernie Pyle, the renowned World War II columnist and summer 1922 IDS editor-in-chief. By tradition, editors-in-chief sign the desk drawer after successfully completing their semester.

The Indiana Daily Student is IU's award-winning student newspaper. Founded in 1867, the newspaper is entirely student-run. Students cover campus and community news, arts, sports and more, and they can get involved as early as their freshman year. IU Student Media also publishes the Arbutus yearbook.

Media School students have access to industry-standard technology. Our inventory includes Canon T5i DSLR, Canon 80D and Sony HXR-NX3 cameras; lavalier and shotgun microphones; and an array of digital audio recorders and microphones.

Programs shot in the Beckley Studio are produced via the adjacent Ed Spray Control Room, which has six server channels of video playback/record and a NewTek TalkShow system for live interviews via Skype. The control room and studio complex is connected via fiber optics to the Radio-TV Building and the Mark Cuban Center for Sports Media and Technology at Assembly Hall. Broadcasting to the world is easy via Facebook Live.

Students in broadcast journalism and production classes gain hands-on experience with industry-standard equipment in the Ken and Audrey Beckley Studio. IU Student Television also calls the studio home. An IU alumnus designed the set using reclaimed lumber and recycled materials. The Beckley Studio is equipped with four robotic cameras. The studio also has a camera on a jib, plus the ability to connect three additional cameras in the adjacent commons space or in classroom 312. It contains tools such as a green screen, which allows reporters to do standups in front of virtual backgrounds; RoscoVIEW polarizing filter technology, which allows the Old Crescent to be used as a backdrop; a talk show set; and a performance set for musicians and other entertainers.

Room 114 is anchored by a 20-foot-wide, multi-touch display that encourages collaboration on visual projects. Smaller displays circle the room for group breakout sessions.

The Michael I. Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism teaches and produces high-quality investigative journalism for the state of Indiana and beyond. The center conducts multimedia investigative reporting on issues of importance to Indiana residents, including matters that reach beyond the state’s borders. Its work is available at no cost to local, regional and national news outlets, and it seeks to supplement their reporting at a time when many are losing newsroom staff. Master of Science and undergraduate students do the reporting, providing them with an opportunity to learn in a real-world setting.

Studio 8 is a fully functional radio control room that features a 14-channel mixer designed for adaptability both on- and off-air. The space comfortably seats five on-air guests, and connections allow for multiple interviews via telephone. The studio is outfitted with CD, vinyl and digital playback devices.

The animation studio is equipped with MSI Trident desktop computers and Wacom Cintiq graphics tablets. Students create digital paintings and sculptures with the use of a pressure-sensitive stylus.

Game design students collaborate in the game design lab, which is equipped with 16 Alienware Alpha computers on four tables, each connected to an HDTV, which displays working projects.

The game design lab's conference room provides space for planning and production meetings.

Studio 9 is available for students to reserve for class projects. Featuring a green screen and a campus mural backdrop, it’s ideal for short standups and motion capture. Twelve motion capture cameras record the movements of actors dressed in head-to-toe black body suits with white reflective dot nodes spaced out across their bodies. The sequence is transmitted to Blade, a software that cleans the data and runs it through a filter to smooth and naturalize the captured movements. The images then stream through Pegasus, a retargeter software that implements the actors’ choreography into Unreal, a video game engine. The actors' moves then appear on animated characters.

Franklin Hall has one of the most powerful computer classrooms on campus, with 19 Acer Predator G1 GTX 1080 machines for game design production classes and other groups, like IU’s eSports teams.

Room 060 is a traditional computer classroom, used for writing, video editing and graphic design classes.

The multimedia lab has 40 5K iMac computers loaded with Adobe, Apple and DaVinci Resolve production and design software. This lab is used for individual and small-group projects.

Sixteen editing suites in Franklin Hall provide users quiet isolation for precision work. Thirteen of the rooms are designed for high-definition video production. UltraWide Dell monitors give editors ample desktop and timeline space. HP DreamColor monitors provide best-in-class accuracy for color grading. Every workstation is loaded with video and audio editing software, including Avid Media Composer, Final Cut Pro X, DaVinci Resolve and the complete Adobe Creative Cloud package. Each suite is also equipped with waveform monitors and vector scopes for precise adjustment of video specifications. Two of the suites use Ultra HD hardware for 4K digital cinema productions. Another is also optimized for podcast production. One room is used specifically for audio, where students can quickly and easily record voiceovers for a variety of projects.

Ernie Pyle was a legendary World War II columnist, known for humanizing the war by reporting on ordinary soldiers as an embedded journalist. He is an IU alumnus. In addition to his statue that greets every visitor outside of Franklin Hall, we also have a selection of Pyle's artifacts on display, including his jacket, his watch and his Purple Heart. The Media School is proud of its close ties to journalist Roy W. Howard, an innovator who, while leading Scripps Howard Newspapers, protected the rights of a free and independent press. Yet he thought of himself as a reporter, often traveling the globe to land critical interviews with world leaders.

The Institute for Communication Research works with faculty and students to facilitate social scientific research. In the ICR, researchers design questionnaires, experiments and surveys; measure psychological factors; and conduct content analysis about the media. It offers psychophysiological data collection labs, survey research rooms, a focus group room, an interview room, a content analysis room and a data analysis room equipped with digital video and audio editing suites, as well as physiology, eye tracking and facial coding analysis software.

The ICR's psychophysiology labs are equipped with technology to measure physical reactions to media, including heart rate, skin conductance, facial muscle activity, eye tracking, facial coding of emotions and brainwave activity.

The commons' second floor offers plenty of space for studying and collaboration.

Room 215 is a traditional classroom that seats 20.

Room 214 is a seminar classroom that seats 18.

WIUX is IU's student-run radio station, broadcasting on 99.1 FM and online. The station is more than 50 years old. Students can host music, news and sports shows, as well as work in PR, events, marketing and more. Students can get involved as early as their freshman year.

WIUX's 950-square-foot facility comprises two studios — one for the FM station, and one for its online B-Side station — as well as a conference room and an office that doubles as a production room.

The film screening room features stadium seating for 20 people. It offers DIRECTV, two Blu-ray players and a Dolby Atmos surround sound system that supports a digital projection system or a 16 mm projector for a variety of cinematic experiences on a 14-foot screen.

Room 310 is Franklin Hall's second-largest classroom, seating 48.

Room 312 is Franklin Hall's largest classroom, seating 60.

The third-floor rooftop deck offers one of the best views of Bloomington.

The Media School

Franklin Hall text-based tour

Take a virtual tour of Franklin Hall

We begin outside the main entrance of Franklin Hall.

Franklin Hall

Ernie Pyle statue

We enter Franklin Hall on the ground floor.

Commons

Ernie Pyle's desk

Indiana Daily Student

Equipment checkout

Ed Spray Control Room

Beckley Studio

Mosaic classroom

Arnolt Center

Studio 8

Welcome to the basement of Franklin Hall.

Animation studio

Game design lab

Game design lab conference room

Studio 9

Classroom 052

Classroom 060

Multimedia lab

Edit bay

Pyle and Howard displays

Institute for Communication Research

Psychophysiology lab

Welcome to the second floor of Franklin Hall.

Commons second floor

Classroom 215

Classroom 214

WIUX living room

WIUX studio

Welcome to the third floor of Franklin Hall.

Film screening room

Classroom 310

Classroom 312

Rooftop deck