New for Fall '98 . . .

in a General Access Lab Near You

Compiled by Wil Clark, ACS General Access Lab Manager

With a new academic year comes upgrades and new equipment in the General Access Computer Labs. The following is a quick run down of upgrades recently completed or scheduled for the fall.

Music General Access Lab - Music 238

The Music Lab has purchased new workstation tables for every machine. The workstations combined with the new paint on the wall makes the lab more inviting. Special lighting and additional computer space will be configured in the near future.

The lab is now truly cross-platform with an equal number of Macs and PCs. Eight new Pentium II 300 MHz machines have been added -- all with internal Zip drives. A second scanner has been added as well as two additional CD-ROM burners. Planned Macintosh upgrades for next year include the acquisition of at least six Macintosh G3 ' s.

A digital audio/video studio has been installed in the lab. This $25,000 studio includes:

• Pentium II 300 MHz machine,
• Umax SuperMac which will be soon upgraded to a G3 mini-tower,
• Media 100 analog video cards,
• Radius MotoDV and EditDV digital video Fireware cards,
• Audiomedia III and Event Electronics’ Gina digital/analog sound cards,
• Sony digital camcorder,
• Mackie 1604 VLZ mixer and Mackie studio monitors, and
• DAT and cassette recorders.

Software purchased to complement this studio includes Macromedia Authorware, Director, and Dreamweaver as well as Cakewalk and Opcode StudioVision Pro sequencing software. ProTools digital audio processing software has also been purchased. Individual and group multimedia projects can be burned to a dedicated CD-ROM recorder at the studio. The full line of Adobe multimedia products is also available for use. Prospective users will be thoroughly trained by lab personnel before utilizing this special studio. The MIDI studio in the lab has also been upgraded and re-configured to complement this new facility. Elizabeth Hinkle-Turner is the new Music General Access Lab Manager as well as the Computer Operations Manager for the College of Music.

Art General Access Lab - Art 232

The School of Visual Arts now has a 50%/50% Mac/PC split, A new film scanner that handles slides, standard 35mm film negatives and the new Kodak Advantix film.

Education General Access Lab - Matthews 309

The College of Education General Access Lab has made the following changes for fall 1998:

• Increased the number of Windows PCs available in the lab.
• Set up a color printing facility (contact a lab employee for printing policy).
• Three adjustable-height tables to accommodate the needs of some students.
• Installed two E-mail stations that only have E-mail software plus a CBT program to teach users how to use GroupWise and Simeon.
• Over half of the stations in room 309 have either Zip or Jaz drives.

Library General Access Lab - Willis 134

The Library General Access Lab has made the following changes for fall 1998:

• Increased the number of Windows PCs available in the lab.
• Installed three E-mail Terminals.
• Installed Zip drives on the 2 Windows PC scanner workstations.
• Printing is now self serve.

Academic Computing Services Lab - ISB 110

The ACS General Access Lab will be upgrading later this semester. The following equipment has been ordered:

• 15 Pentium II 300Mhz PCs.
• One HP LaserJet 4000N printer.

The new Pentiums will be running Windows 98. The bubble jet draft printers will be removed when the new printer arrives.

Other General Access Labs

The other General Access Labs anticipate hardware and software upgrades throughout the coming semester and winter break. We will report on those upgrades after they occur.n