Capturing campus, the old-fashioned way
Matko directs AV equipment from his "submarine" for quarter century
Joy Pavelski
Issue date: 4/10/08 Section: Features
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"He knows a lot about the school," Rentschler said. "Since he's been working at the school this long, he's seen how it has changed."
Since her internship with Matko began this semester, Rentschler said she has heard him tell many Hillsdale stories during the hours spent editing tape in the Knorr Student Center audio-visual studio. Mostly, she said, they illustrate how the school has become less boisterous and more socially conservative.
Capturing audio and video for Hillsdale happenings, from football games to visiting speakers to traveling with President Larry Arnn, has been Matko's priority as long as he has worked here.
Currently, the entire department works on analog equipment the school purchased in the early 1990s. Walk into the AV studio, and you'll confront six-foot-high panels of screens and large grey knobs that look like props from the old "Star Trek." An Apple computer glistens among the machinery like a new hubcap on an old car.
"It's like living in a submarine," Matko said of the room, his main workspace.
But it's a submarine that often pops him up for air, as he must respond immediately to professor and student complaints about malfunctioning projectors, missing flash bulbs and tangled equipment cords.
Matko is the only permanent staff member in his department, supervising about 15 students who run cameras and recorders that eventually stock the college's roughly 7,000-count A/V file library.
"You live for Ted saying, 'That's a good shot,'" said sophomore Will Boyington, student manager for the department.
Boyington said Matko runs the department quietly, training students and then trusting them to know their work. During the stop-and-go of editing sessions, Boyington said, Matko converses easily on science-fiction and pop culture.
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