The Justice

BTV member Ted Levin '10 laughs with another member while editing footage in BTV's office in Shapiro Campus Center. The club currently has 10 shows in the preproduction and editing process. Julian Agin Liebes/the Justice.

Although the majority of campus may not know what goes on in BTV's office on the third floor of the Shapiro Campus Center, we can all rest assured that the audio-visual club is hard at work. While BTV has faced financial and personnel deficits in the past, the station will soon reap the fruits of Avi Swerdlow's '10 labor. Swerdlow, who joined BTV last fall, took the office of president last year and is re-energizing and restructuring the club, helping train new members and putting in place a new production strategy. Instead of creating one big production, Swerdlow and the other executive board members decided to schedule as many small programs as possible. The 10 winning proposals, currently in the preproduction and editing processes, are set to air later this semester or early next semester. The shows will cover a variety of genres, primarily comedy, cooking and news.

Brandeis TV-watchers may be familiar with the station's current offerings on channel 65 (that is to say, the Windows screensaver interspersed with videos of Jimmy Carter's visit last spring). Don't say goodbye to the Windows logo just yet. BTV's restructuring process includes an overhaul regarding the way the club will deliver content to viewers (which mirrors a growing trend in the TV industry at large).

"We want to make it a YouTube kind of thing," Swerdlow said. "[The BTV Web site] is a combination of social networking and YouTube. It has enormous advantage over a channel, [providing] instantaneous access to our content, on and off campus." The cable channel 65 and IPTV, an online program that simulcasts what airs on channel 65 as well as a few other cable networks, only work on the Brandeis network.

The club hasn't decided what role the channel will play in the future. "We'll use the channel for live events," Swerdlow said.

Vice President Eva Cataldo '10 indicated that the Web site will not preclude the use of the channel. "Once we have content, we'll put it on the TV station," she said.

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