Getting Involved: Broadcast
By Garrett Mueller, Business Editor

  At nearly every school game, performance, and board meeting, there is a group of students hidden in back corners or above the crowd working with professional film equipment to document the event. This is the broadcast team. Made up of eight members, this small group does a lot of unnoticed behind-the-scenes work in the district and community.
  Broadcast gives students the opportunity to learn about the operation of technical broadcast equipment while also gaining experience for a possible future in film, audio engineering, or radio.
  “[Broadcast] has taught me a lot, and it is going to teach people a lot about technology and responsibility,” said senior broadcast member Lars Cain.
  The team usually covers school sports competitions, Open Mic, guest performers or musicians of talent, graduation ceremonies, Strawberry Festival. They occasionally go off-island to film projects published on the Voice of Vashon webpage. Many of the filmed sports events are live-streamed on youtube at the VHS Riptide Broadcast channel. Broadcast tries to remain discreet during events while still managing to capture the action.
  “We [cover] anything that happens at the school that we think other people will want to see [but] might not be able to come [to],” said senior broadcast member Tor Ormseth.
  Broadcast is a fairly new organization, started about four years ago by then-student Jacob Danielson.
  “[Broadcast] has been a pet project of the tech department, and in conjunction with The Riptide [until] it broke off about a year ago,” broadcast adviser Thane Gill said.
  This coming spring, with the graduation of core broadcast members Ormseth, Cain, Rohin Petram, and Alex Lee, the team is recruiting new members. Initially, these students assist in preparing and taking down equipment, as well as operating cameras throughout events. Once they get familiar with the technology, they can begin taking on bigger responsibilities and operating more complicated systems.
  “We’re pretty open to people just showing up and [taking on a job],” Gill said. “It is a time commitment showing up to those events because it’s right after school until 8 or 11 p.m., but [students] don’t have to stay for the whole time.”
  Students interested in joining the broadcast team can meet with Gill or attend one of the weekly meetings held on Tuesday at lunch in the media lab, room 1116.