The sounds of hammers, drills and country radio filled Weimer Hall's basement Monday afternoon as workers remodel for a million-dollar multimedia lab.
The lab is funded by $1.5 million in project money allocated over two years by UF to Dr. John Wright II, the College of Journalism and Communications' dean, when he took his post.
Scheduled to open in August, the lab will be used by journalism and telecommunications students.
New courses, which are expected to be created specifically for the lab, will bring together students from the two majors, according to David Carlson, director of the Center for Media Innovation and Research and manager of the project.
"It's gonna be cool, I wish we could have done it 10 years ago," he said.
The lab will contain a 3-D projector, a "whisper room" for recording audio without interference and a wall of about eight 56-inch flat-screen monitors which can be controlled to display a single image or dozens of videos, among other configurations.
Carlson believes that while the upgrade is expensive, learning to combine old and new media is necessary to prepare students for the evolving field of communication and for UF to remain a top journalism college, he said.
"People are catching up and it's time for us to take another leap forward," he said.
The additional $500,000 of the dean's project money is expected to go toward a similar collaboration center for advertising and public relations majors, Carlson said.
