Broadcasting Students Go Mobile With Olympic Reports

Two Fanshawe College students will be leaving shortly to attend the Olympics. In partnership with British Columbia based software developer VeriCorder Technology, Nick Wynja and Ashley Rowe will report from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games with an innovative experiment in mobile journalism technology.

Ashley Rowe (left) and Nick Wynja are getting ready for the Vancouver Olympics

VeriCorder, a Canadian company with its headquarters and R&D labs in Kelowna, specializes in integrating mobile software into newsroom systems, allowing reporters to create a television, radio, or web news story, and post it instantly using mobile technology.

The high-tech company will be equipping journalism students and professional reporters from all over the world with its newly released ShowCase multimedia software. The enterprise software suite, designed for smart phones, allows reporters in the field to record, edit and send their reports - with studio sound - at the touch of a few buttons.

The two broadcasting students will be working with this new application, called Poddio iPoddio, to journalists, podcasters and other multimedia professionals covering both the sporting events and the affairs surrounding one of the greatest events of the decade.

"I'm getting the experience of a lifetime," says Rowe, a fourth-year student in the Media Theory and Production program, a collaboration between Fanshawe College and The University of Western Ontario. "Seeing how the media works in such a major, international event, is any journalism student's dream come true. I'm extremely grateful to the VeriCorder team for selecting me, and am thankful for the support I have received from my peers and mentors."

Along with Fanshawe College, journalism students from the University of Missouri, BCIT and Langara have been trained in the use of VeriCorder's four new software programs, all of which will be released to the public on the iPhone App Store. The applications are designed to make it extremely simple to record, edit, and send fully crafted stories from the field in to the newsroom ... using only iPhones.

"I'll be breaking new ground with the latest in mobile technologies to capture and share information instantly," says Wynja, a second-year student in Fanshawe's Radio Broadcasting program. "It's going to be an unforgettable experience and one that would never have happened if it weren't for the opportunities and industry connections that I've gained through Fanshawe College and the Radio Broadcasting program."

Broadcast Journalism Professor Jim Van Horne agrees. "It's too bad we could only pick two students, as there were others deserving," he says. "However it's an example of the kind of opportunities this wonderful career provides."

Radio Broadcasting & Broadcast Journalism program co-ordinator, Robert Collins says, "These two students work hard every day and it's a tribute to them that they were selected. I can't wait to hear their stories from Vancouver using VeriCorder. The technology just blows me away."

In addition to demonstrating VeriCorder's revolutionary technology, Wynja and Rowe will also produce and present a daily report from the Olympics World Media Centre in Vancouver. Their reports will be broadcast internationally on the Mojo network (VeriCorder's internet sports service with streaming video on the web) and here at home on Fanshawe's own 106.9 X-FM.