SJET to broadcast online for 2004-2005 school year

By Yasha Ber
Magis staff writer

A plan to make every SJET Morning Show available for viewing on the Internet is currently in the works.
“Everything would be instant,” says SJET moderator Mr. Gilbert. “An SJET crew member would convert and upload every show [to the Internet] directly after it airs.”
Fr. Lahart proposed the project last summer, and Mr. Gilbert in conjunction with Mr. Bazin have been diligently seeing it through.
“We’ve finished conceptualizing the project. We are currently deciding what format to use for the footage and how to compress and host the files,” says Alex Cortelyou, who is helping Mr. Bazin with the project. One of the biggest problems so far has been finding a way to compress ten minutes of footage, a sizeable amount of data.
“My only requirements,” says Mr. Gilbert, “are at minimum a 90% success rate in uploading the footage and simplicity in doing so for the SJET crew.”
Having every SJET Morning Show instantly available for anyone to see over the Internet has several definite advantages. Students that are sick can watch important announcements they missed, parents can see what their sons are doing as part of SJET, announcers or crew members can review good material, and prospective Jesuit students can see what SJET has to offer.
However, this would also mean that anyone with access to the Internet would be able to see mistakes made during broadcasts. This would require crew and announcers to “step up their game”. Mr. Gilbert believes, “since more people will see it, standards for announcers and crew should go up also.” Mr. Bazin expects to be able to put the plan into action roughly the third week of September.
SJET started in 1970 as “TGIF News”, a weekly show during Friday homerooms, consisting of mostly stories and reports on sports. It was only in 1980 that the SJET Morning Show took on the form we know today.