Northwestern University in Qatar

Media Production Facilities/Locations

How to reserve a media production facility

A reservation is required to access production facilities. Production facilities include:

• Edit Suites (video, audio, color grading)
• Studios A, B, C, D, Black Box
• Audio Recording Suite (Podcast suite)
• Whisper Rooms

Studios:

Minimum lead time to reserve: 30 min

Minimum reservation duration: 1 hr

Maximum reservation duration: 8 hr

How to reserve: WebCheckout (https://webcheckout.qatar.northwestern.edu/patron/)

Available hours: 7AM – 2AM, daily

The maximum reservation time for studios is eight (8) hours. Reservations can be made online via WebCheckout. Log in using your NetID and password and select ‘Production Studio Space’ for reserving studios A,B,C,D, and the Black Box.

If you require more than eight hours, you must submit a Special Request Form at the time of reservation to request a longer duration. Please indicate the duration and specific need for the extended time. Please note, a request does not guarantee approval beyond your eight hours.

Edit Suites:

Minimum lead time to reserve: 15 min

Minimum reservation duration: 1 hr

Maximum reservation duration: 4 hr

How to reserve: WebCheckout (https://webcheckout.qatar.northwestern.edu/patron/)

Available hours: 7AM – 2AM, daily

If authorized, students can make edit suite reservations on WebCheckout – ‘Post Production Facility’ with as little as 15 minutes of lead time. The maximum duration of a reservation is four (4) hours, with a one (1) hour minimum.

 Audio Recording Studio (Podcast studio):

 Minimum lead time to reserve: 24 hours

Minimum reservation duration: 1 hr

Maximum reservation duration: 4 hr

How to reserve: email Production and Digital Media Services at production@qatar.northwestern.edu

Available hours: 9AM – 5PM, Sunday to Thursday

To reserve the Audio Recording Studio (Podcast studio), please email Production and Digital Media Services at production@qatar.northwestern.edu, indicating the purpose, date, time, and duration of use. Your reservation is not finalized until you receive a confirmation email from Production confirming the date and time. Access to the Audio Recording Studio is limited to students who have received in-class training and been granted authorization for use.

Whisper Rooms:

 Minimum lead time to reserve: 15 min

Minimum reservation duration: 1 hr

Maximum reservation duration: 4 hr

How to reserve: WebCheckout (https://webcheckout.qatar.northwestern.edu/patron/)

Available hours: 7AM – 2AM, daily

 If authorized, students can make whisper room reservations on WebCheckout – ‘Post Production Facility’ with as little as 15 minutes' notice. The maximum duration of a reservation is four (4) hours, with a one (1) hour minimum.

Extensions: An individual may reserve only one production facility at a time. A reservation may be extended if no other booking is scheduled after the current booking. To extend, you must wait at least 30 minutes after your current reservation ends, then create a new reservation in WebCheckout for the same facility.

A reservation will only be held for 30 minutes after the start time. If you do not pick up the Access Card in that time, your reservation will be cancelled, and the room will be made available to others.

If non-NU-Q community members will be present in any production facility, the requester must list all names under the ‘notes’ section of the reservation. All visitors must sign in at the security desk and exchange a valid government-issued ID for a visitor badge. Visitor badge must be clearly visible at all times in NU-Q building.

Security Guards are not permitted to open any production Facilities even if you have a reservation. A Reservation Access Card must be checked out from the Equipment Cage during opening hours or from the Security Desk beyond those times and during weekends.

Access a reserved room

During Equipment Cage opening hours, go to the Equipment Cage in G-207 to check out a Reservation Access Card and turn in a valid NU-Q ID/Wildcat ID.

Outside of Equipment Cage operating hours (evening/weekends/term breaks), report to the VIP entrance Security Desk to check out a Reservation Access Card and turn in a valid NU-Q ID.

Please note, that only valid NU-Q IDs are acceptable, and proof of reservation is required. Proof of reservation can be done only through the VIP Security Desk iPad or by showing a copy of the reservation confirmation email from Webcheckout and Production.

Reservation Access Card for post-production facilities must be returned at the end of the reserved time. After 30 minutes of wait time, you can make a new reservation and collect the Reservation Access Card again.

Reservation Access Card for studios must be returned at the end of the reserved time.

Usage guidelines & training

For authorization to use Production facilities, students must first attend an Edit Suite, Voice-Over Booth, or Audio Recording Studio Orientation training during in-class instruction. Production Facility training is limited to in-class delivery as part of the syllabus or curriculum only.

Outside-of-class facilities training will only be conducted in the case of extenuating circumstances, where a student cannot attend the in-class training provided by a Production and Digital Media Services department member. In these cases, at the discretion of the faculty, faculty members may request training on behalf of the student by emailing a request to the Production Department at production@qatar.northwestern.edu before training can be scheduled. Once a training request has been received, the Production Department will schedule the training based on the availability of the facility and training staff. In all cases, Webcheckout authorization will be available to the trained individual(s) within 24 hours.

Students cannot request individual/group training.

Students must follow the prescribed workflow outlined in the Production and Digital Media Workflow document. Failure to adhere to the workflow will result in a penalty or loss of reservation privileges.

Preventative maintenance of production facilities will occur over the semester, resulting in facilities being taken offline for short periods.

No files should be saved on the desktop or the local storage of the production computers. Machines are regularly erased of all external data. Only files saved on the ISILON storage will be kept. We recommend that everyone keeps a backup of all their data on a personal hard drive.

Production facility rules

• Faculty, staff, and students must clearly display their NU-Q ID at all times.
• All visitors must sign in at one of the security desks and turn in a valid government-issued ID.
• No food or drink is allowed in any of the production facilities (bottled water is the only exception and must be kept on the floor.)
• Edit suites and studios must be kept clean and left at the completion of their use in the same condition they were in before the use. No trash or personal properties should be left in these spaces.
• Report any damaged or non-functioning items to a member of the Production and Digital Media Services staff or email production@qatar.northwestern.edu
• During Equipment Cage opening hours, go to the Equipment Cage in G-207 to check out a Reservation Access Card and turn in a valid NU-Q ID/Wildcat ID.
• Outside of Equipment Cage operating hours (evening/weekends/term breaks), report to the VIP entrance Security Desk to check out a Reservation Access Card and turn in a valid NU-Q ID.
• Only one production room per person can be reserved/checked out at any given time.
• Reservations will only be held for 30 Minutes after the start If no one picks up a Reservation Access Card, the room will be made available to other users.
• The person who reserved an editing suite should use their NetID to log into the When working in groups, a shared projects folder can be requested by email to production@qatar.northwestern.edu.
• Reserving production facilities on behalf of other NU-Q students or non-NU-Q community members is not permitted.
• Reservation Access Card must be returned at the end of your reserved time. For post-production facilities, a new reservation is required to continue to use the facility.
• No files should be saved on the desktop or on the local storage of the machine. Machines are regularly erased of all external data. Only files saved on the ISILON storage will be kept.
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  Failure to adhere to any of the above rules will result in a penalty/fine, suspension, permanent loss of production equipment and facility usage privileges, and/or the requirement to repeat the Orientation training session(s).