Yale's Center for Media Initiatives Premieres Its First High Definition TV Production

Yale’s Center for Media Initiatives (CMI) will preview Yale’s first high definition television (HDTV) production on December 11, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Rosenfeld Hall, 109 Grove Street.

The production, “History and Memory,” is a series of video vignettes featuring history professor Jay Winter as he explores how individuals, families and nations mourn and remember loved ones lost in tragedy and war.

High definition technology was able to capture the intricate details and presence of Winter’s pilgrimage to Ground Zero, the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, where he reflects on commemoration through the construction of memorials and the creation of narratives in language and in art.

“When I sit down and watch the results of our work, I see how the HD format captured the fine dust particles at Ground Zero and the incredibly detailed engravings on the wall of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial in Washington-details that would otherwise be lost with conventional video technology. These details immerse the viewer in Professor Winter’s story of memorial, memory and experience,” says Paul Lawrence, the CMI’s director.

At a resolution almost four times that of television and with surround sound, HDTV significantly enhances conventional television and cinema viewing. As theaters can now project HD digitally, Hollywood is moving to producing and releasing projects such as “Star Wars” entirely in this digital format.

“More than HD technology, I believe this project is about high-definition content. Part of the CMI’s core mission is to investigate new tools in media production that could benefit teaching at Yale. It was paramount that this technology enhance Professor Winter’s narrative,” says Lawrence.

ResearchChannel, the Seattle-based education cable network and CMI partner, will be on hand to answer questions about this new technology. ResearchChannel is a consortium of research universities and corporate research divisions dedicated to broadening the access to ideas and opportunities in basic and applied research. Next year, Yale and ResearchChannel will broadcast “History and Memory” in HDTV and standard definition using a variety of methods from Internet streaming to a national satellite and cable broadcast.

For more information on “History and Memory” or the CMI’s HDTV initiative, contact Tammy McCausland at 432-3419 or e-mail tammy.mccausland@yale.edu. The preview of the production is part of an open house being held by Academic Media and Technology at Yale. To learn more about the open house, contact Judith Schwartz at 432-5967 or judith.schwartz@yale.edu.