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College of DuPage uses sophisticated AV presentation and recording
technology to create culinary theater productions
by Don Kreski, Pro AV Magazine
When Chicago's College of DuPage – the nation's largest junior
college – set out to rebuild its culinary arts dining room, it wanted
to create a "culinary theater" that would serve primarily as a hi-tech
classroom. To meet the school's objectives, the theater needed a
professional quality video system that could record, play back,
and archive cooking demonstrations for classroom instruction. The
resulting Escoffier Culinary Theater is not only a major upgrade
to the school's food service education program, but it also helps
attract students and the public to the campus.
Theater design
George Macht, the school's hospitality program coordinator, says
cooking shows on the Food Network, such as Emeril Live, served as
the inspiration for the project. Once he knew what he wanted, Macht
spent several months working out his ideas and brought in architect
Bob Suennen of Evanston, Illinois-based OTA Partnership to design
the space – a culinary theater featuring a 50-seat dining room.
Lisle, Illinois-based Media Resources Inc. was later enlisted for
the project's AV equipment selection and installation.
The resulting AV system includes four automated cameras located
in the theater's large professional kitchen and adjoining display
and service area. To provide the college with easy-to-use production
capabilities, Media Resources equipped the system with wireless
mics, DVD recording equipment and an AMX control system. Four plasma
displays –two 42-inch Zenith P42W34/34H models and two 50-inch Samsung
PPM50HS units– mounted in the dining room allow guests to watch
student chefs prepare meals.
"What we tried to do was to show people the behind-the-scenes stuff
that you wouldn't see on the Emeril show, because here you have
an actual working kitchen," says Brian Maksa, vice president of
sales and rental at Media Resources.
Automated
cameras
Because the large
kitchen needed to accommodate constant use, airborne grease
became a major concern in selecting the appropriate AV equipment
for the project. "You can't be sure what's going to happen in
there, so we used a domed Panasonic WV-CS854A camera where everything
is enclosed and sealed," Maksa says. "If we have any issues,
we can just pop off the dome and replace it."
The camera offers pan, tilt and zoom with 360-degree rotation.
"You might not think this type of camera would give us the quality
we need, but you'd be surprised," he adds. "The nice thing about
it is that we're able to set up presets on the control system
to focus it on various workstations around the room, whether
that's salads, meat preparation or pastries."
Maksa also mounted three Sony DXC-390 three-chip cameras on
AMX Positrack camera controllers on a soffit above the service
pantry adjoining the dining room, which is used for lectures
and demonstrations as well as meal assembly and buffet service
during public meals. For production use, the video system includes
three computer inputs to accommodate instructors' presentation
needs as well as VHS and DVD recording and playback capability.
One use in particular stands out. "The students each learn to
create a signature meal,” says Macht. “Now the school will be
able to record them and give the students a DVD they can take
to prospective employers."
"Because the college has a full-blown broadcast department,
we set it up so they can bring handheld cameras in, genlock
them and live switch them," Maksa says. The theater's AV rack
also includes three preview monitors and a character generator.
"They can't do dissolves or fades, but they can put a TV director
in the AV room and do a very professional production," Maksa
says.
For the theater's audio, Maksa built a sound system with Crown
CTS600 and Biamp AudiaFLEX 1 amplifiers, Atlas FAP62T ceiling
speakers and Audio Technica ESW-T211 wireless lavaliere microphones.
A Sony CDPCE275 5-CD changer supplies background music for
the theater. Maksa says the system has ducking audio so they
can make announcements and there's also feedback control.
To provide the college with automated control of the new system,
Maksa installed a password-protected, 17-inch AMX Modero control
panel and an Extron Crosspoint matrix switcher, which enables
users to easily display four images simultaneously. "The large
control panel makes the buttons easier to see and easier to
understand," he says. "It allows the department to have a very
basic operator in there doing very sophisticated things." |
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A
future ready system
Media Resources also ensured
that the AV system would allow the college to expand its capabilities
in the future. The cameras and plasma displays installed in the
theater help make the demonstrations visible to a large audience,
and the video recording system enables the school to archive them
for future use.
Macht says the college has more ideas for using the facility than
it has time to implement. The school plans to eventually rent the
facility to companies for demonstrating food product preparation
to Chicago-area customers. "We even have the capability of broadcasting
live on the Internet, either for distance learning or in conjunction
with the rental program," he says.
At the culinary theater's grand opening in February, the college
held a dinner that featured cooking demonstrations from guest chefs
from chic Le Francais in Wheeling, Illinois and Opera in Chicago.
Other special events have been a big success as well. Catherine
Leveille, supervisor of the Foodservice Academic Lab, says the public
response has been so strong that guests must buy tickets several
months in advance.
Behind
the stage set design
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In planning the design for the new Escoffier Culinary Theater
in Chicago's College of DuPage, the project's design team was
charged with creating a serving area that could double as a
stage set and with selecting materials that would reproduce
well in digital video.
Architect Bob Suennen of Evanston, Illinois-based OTA Partnership
says the preliminary research was frustrating. "We came to the
startling conclusion that in a lot of the video presentations
the food was actually put on a butcher block cutting surface,
rather than the hard surface designed for the space," he says.
After talking to other culinary schools and watching various
programs on the Food Network, he determined that there weren't
any successful prototypes to work from. "Emeril Lagasse has
a copper-tone counter top and I wondered if the copper would
just distract from what they were trying to show," Suennen says.
"I toured another presentation kitchen where they used a black
top. It looked great live, but they said the reflections off
of that black are really annoying when they're doing tape."
Suennen's challenge was to find a low maintenance, sanitary
surface that would look great with the food on video as well
as with the dark cherry paneling he wanted to use in the dining
room. After researching cooking shows, he thought a medium shade
of stone might work well, but he wasn't sure if the colors would
shift or if glare would be an issue on camera. Suennen's solution
was to pick five stone colors and bring 2 by 2-foot samples
to |
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the college. To test the different choices, Suennen put a plate
and a food presentation on each and then shot them with a digital
video camera. After reviewing the results, Suennen determined
the best solution: "Kona Beige" Silestone from Cosentino, which
is a synthetic quartz material that meets NSF food-industry
standards for sanitation.
To light the area, Suennen chose Brightline's T-Series fixtures,
which are ceiling-mounted positionable fluorescent softlights
designed for studios and videoconferencing rooms. Suennen says
he used the daylight-colored fixtures because they can be matched
to 5600K fluorescent tubes with very little color shifting.
Finally, Suennen added a soffit about six feet in front of the
counter to separate the serving area from the dining room. "We
wanted to block the light fixtures and cameras hanging off the
ceiling," he says. "But it also sets up a line that makes a
proscenium opening that helps direct people in the dining room
away from that area." |
From
Pro AV Magazine, October, 2004. Copyright 2004, Ascend Media, Inc.
Used by permission.
Click for printable copy
of this article.
Equipment list, COD Escoffier
Culinary Theater
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Cameras and video system
• Panasonic WV-CS854A color dome camera
• 3 Sony DXC-390 3-CCD color video cameras
• TecNec BG50 Genlock generator
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Extron BBG-6A blackburst generator (1)
• 9 Kramer and Extron video distribution amps
• Panasonic DMR-E60S DVD Recorder
• Sony SLV-D300P DVD/VHS combo unit
• Panorama 4 screen LCD monitor
• Sony PVM9L2 9" monitor (1)
• Videonics TM3000 video title maker (1)
• Extron computer-to-video scan converter
Display
• 2 Zenith P42W34/34H 42" plasma (2)
• 2 Samsung PPM50HS 50" plasma
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Control
• AMX NI-4000 Net Link system with
• 17" AMX Modero Touch Panel and (3)
• 3 AMX AXB-PT15 Positrack Camera Controllers
Audio
• Bi Amp Audia Flex amplifier (1)
• Crown CTS600 amplifier (1)
• Sony CD Player (1)
• Audio Technica ESW-R220 wireless mic
• 2 Audio Technica ESW-T211 wireless mics
• 2 Audio Technica ES943CWC mics
• 2 Shure SM 58 Microphone (1)
• 8 Atlas FAP62T ceiling speakers
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