Robb Montgomery

TBILISI: Finally, I can share some images from a special project that I have been working developing and designing for IREX Georgia since January. The facility will open in December and I am sharing below construction photos and some of our 3D renderings for the concept.

This new media training center is a lifetime in the making. All of my experiences as a journalist, technologist, teacher, and consultant have been rolled into this project.

I am so happy it is turning out to be the kind of place where the next generation of journalists will cut their teeth.

The center’s reporting and editing facilities in Tbilisi are equipped with the very latest visual media tools to allow students for to produce professional caliber, competitive content for print, broadcast, online and mobile consumers.

IREX’s new Multimedia Education Center (funded by USAID) is a multipurpose, multimedia editorial studio and learning environment that embraces mobile media, S.M.A.R.T. newsroom concepts to provide a hub for discussions that intersect across the disciplines of technology, journalism, and governance in the Southern Caucasus.

The S.M.A.R.T. newsroom concept features state-of-the-art thinking about new media, open space architecture, mobile-oriented media labs and has attracted schools like the Georgian Institute for Public Affairs (GIPA), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Ilia State University to program training courses.

The entire space is essentially a large multi-platform stage where every square meter provides a studio-grade environment available for interviewing, editing, producing and hosting multi-platform content. 

The concept of bringing studies out of classrooms and into a studio environment is an innovative and groundbreaking innovation in journalism education. 

The S.M.A.R.T. concept I developed would challenge many traditional solutions to how to organize classrooms, computer labs, studio space, editing space, meeting rooms, technology, security, sound control, lighting to name a few.

S.M.A.R.T. stands for the values assigned to serve users who will occupy the facility.

Scalable
Multi-purpose
Agile
Responsible
Trusted

The SMART newsroom space is designed to be easily reconfigured at will by students working on projects and by administrators to adapt to changes in the learning environment.

The gear and furniture in the facility is non-fixed and can be easily transported to new facilities should they become available.

Examples: Lightweight collapsible portable sound booths, rolling partitions that allow rooms to serve multiple purposes, wheeled desks and modular furniture that can easily be reconfigured and a modern approach to producing streaming video that does not rely on a dedicated control room.

S . . . also stands for Social and Student

M . . . for Multi-media and Manageable

A . . . for Asymmetrical and Active

R . . . for Resourceful and Responsive

T . . . for Technology and Training

As we developed these ideas further with partners and funders it became clear that all of the computers and electronic newsgathering gear had to be mobile.

That meant no dedicated studio, no TV control room, no fixed interior walls, wheels on every piece of furniture and many other unconventional approaches.

Many of our solutions just aren’t commercially available in Georgia so we are hiring teams of local furniture makers and craftspeople to build the environmental furniture, rolling walls, cafe space and equipment lockers.

Working with the architect and these craft folk has been rewarding.
At the start of the project I seeded the prospective architects with ideas and images collected from my travels to the top media centers and world capitals over the last six years. Details and inspiration collected from visits to furniture stores in Europe, a funky mobile phone shop in Mitte, public spaces in Moscow, TV studios from Brussels, and many others.

We were lucky to get a contract with the architect who shared our enthusiasm.

Expect to read much more about this space in the near future.