In this captivating episode of "Laying the Foundation," host Skyler engages in a dynamic conversation with architect David Brockshus from CMBA Architects, alongside Alexis Patterson, the Chief Engineer, and Keith Bliven, the Director of Station Operations at KTIV (Siouxland News Station). Together, they delve into the intricacies of the transformative project undertaken by our team for KTIV, which included the addition of a new TMP Control Room and surrounding facilities. Tune in as they share their firsthand experiences navigating the challenges of maintaining seamless operations amidst construction, offering valuable insights into the intersection of architectural innovation and media production.
Skyler: Welcome to another episode of Laying the Foundation.
Skyler: Welcome everybody to another episode of the Laying the Foundation podcast. My name is Skylar. I'm your host from CMBA Architects. And today, uh, joining with me, we have Keith. Keith, uh, do you want to give us a rundown of what you do here at KTIV?
Keith: Yeah. Uh, name's Keith Bliven. I'm director of station operations at, uh, KTIV, which, uh, is a fancy title for, um, I kind of, Fill in gaps where it's needed to, needed to be filled in, I guess, is the best way to say it.
Keith: It's always nice having
Skyler: somebody that does it. Right. So it's
Keith: like, well, we don't know who, who can, who does that? Well, Keith can do it. It's kind of like Mikey, Mikey will eat it, you know, that kind of thing. So Mikey likes it. Um, so that's kind of my role. I kind of fill in where it needs to be. So whether that's helping out engineering, um, you know, I run the production department is technically what I do, but I do, you know, interact with news, interact with sales.
Keith: So it's, it's kind of, the position was kind of created when we decided to do this project. Um, and so since then it's kind of expanded. Uh, so each day it's kind of like, Oh, well, yeah, well I can do some of this and do some of that. So it's been an interesting journey so far.
Skyler: Plenty to do and plenty to go around.
Skyler: I'm sure. So fantastic. And then additionally, we have a Lexus. Alexis, feel free to introduce yourself.
Alexis: Yes, hi, I'm Alexis Patterson, um, and my title here at KTIV is the Chief Engineer. Um, short and simple, I make sure everything runs so we stay on air. Keith and I work really, really closely together, um, as he says, he helps out, um, with some engineering stuff.
Alexis: He's, he's really taken on a lot. Uh, but as far as what I do, um, me and my team, uh, make sure that everything stays running. If there's updates that need to be done, we make sure that the updates are done. Um, I mean, that don't even like goes to Um, so, uh, if we need to call a plumber, that's on us. If we need to get an electrician out here, that's on us.
Sure.
Alexis: Um, so just really making sure that the, the backbone of the station is, you know, Strong.
Skyler: Absolutely.
Keith: She's the chief of the smart people as I call them. Yes. I'm like, we need the smart people. Hades the smart people. That's right. Somebody get a hold of the smart people. Right. If things aren't working, they need to be.
Keith: It's like, I don't know how they do what, I mean, the amount of work that they do on a daily basis to keep us on the air. Um, while also expanding stuff and bringing new stuff in and installing stuff is, is, is amazing to watch them do it. And, and, you know, it's, it's, I know it's hard for them not to brag on them at all, but I'm going to brag on it because I'm very proud of them.
Keith: But, um, you know, the, they never get finished, you know, and it's gotta be tough because, you know, the way I work is I'm working towards a goal. I got the goal. I'm done. I'm putting that up. I'll put that over. Okay. And time for the next goal. Exactly. Um, you know, Alexis and her department, They will, they never get completed because there's always something else to install or repair or, you know, or expand or update or whatever.
Keith: So, um, you know, they, if it wasn't for them, this project would have, would have never happened. So, you know, we're proud to have the Alexis and her team as, as part of it. Cause yeah, it wouldn't have happened without them. So. Yeah, absolutely.
Alexis: We just have an ever evolving checklist. Yeah, exactly. Always adding more to it.
Alexis: It's the same checklist, it's just different items.
Skyler: We're on page 375 at this point. Yes, correct. You know, that makes sense. Uh, for those of you that are not familiar, uh, we're talking about KTIV, which is the local Siouxland TV station. And, uh, David Brokshus, who's also with me today, and I'll let him introduce himself as well, is, uh, the architect from CMBA architects that, uh, worked a lot on this project.
Skyler: So David, go ahead.
David: I'm David Brokshus, an architect with CMBA architects. I was the project architect for, uh, the KTIV renovation. Uh, we worked with them over what ended up being a multi phase project as they kind of shuffled through the, um, the space of the building. Um, one of the goals that we had for the project was to, uh, take some of the departments that they had that were.
David: In filling the kind of different corners of the building and we're split up. We wanted to try and or their goals try and have them all kind of come together. So to bring all of their engineering department together, bring all their creative services department together. And then the highlight of the project was to change over to a new TMP production control room, and that was one thing that they did on the fly but I'll let Keith and Alexis kind of describe.
David: What they use that room for, and then what the, um, what issues they had during construction and how they did the transition to the new space.
Keith: Yeah, I guess what started the whole thing was Ray, our, our corporate, our corporate company has a model for our production control room, which they call TMP was a technical media producer.
Keith: Um, and it's a certain way of the workflow. Uh, and it's, it's a really great. Workflow. It really works very well. So that's what started it was that conversation was, Hey, we'd like to move you guys to TMP, which meant we need to do a new control room, which meant, okay, we got to build a new control room, which means we got to move this.
Keith: So everything kind of started stacking up after that point. Um, but the main focus when we started this was we have to build a new control room because for the TMP model to work correctly. You've got to have certain equipment and our control room was, was, it served its purpose. It did well for what it did, uh, but it was outdated.
Keith: Um, and the TMP workflow would not work, um, with what we had. So part of that was replacing what, you know, we call our switcher with an overdrive system. Uh, and, uh, Alexis jumped in right at the beginning and we kind of locked brains and we're like, if we, if we're going to do this, let's do it right. Um, let's not, you know, Half it.
Keith: Let's let's, let's do it full on, you know, because we've got the company support on this is like, let's, let's make this place look like the number one station that we are. Oh, absolutely. And, um, and so, you know, that's how it started. Um, uh, and I still remember the day. Um, I don't know if CMBA was there. I don't think CMBA was there.
Keith: It was, it was, I think me, you. Uh, a couple of our engineer folks, Brendan, maybe Brady from corporate were here. And so the challenge was where are we going to put this? Cause it's the building was built in the seventies. There's not a lot of places to expand. And so we're walking through the building, trying to figure out where are we going to put this room that we want to build?
Keith: And every. Bit of the building is taken with something, um, you know, because this building has been redesigned over the years. It's like I said, it was built in the 70s. So that was in the age of film. So there used to be other rooms that were used as have now been repurposed as offices and all that. Uh, and I still remember, I think it was Brendan who we were walking through is like, why don't you take these three rooms and combine them into one?
Keith: And we were like, that's, I was like, that's a brilliant idea. I never thought I was just looking at the rooms we had. I didn't think, Oh, we could knock down a wall. Holy moly. And so that's how it started was just walking through there. And that's that room, which is our TMP room was the first one that this is where we're going to put this.
Keith: Uh, unfortunately, one of those. So what
Alexis: everything kind of fell into place. Unfortunately, one of those, one of those
Keith: rooms was Alexis's office. So, um, we had to find her a new spot. Um,
Alexis: not to mention I had very briefly moved in there. Cause in 2021, we, we, we redid the entire HVAC, um, in the building, which meant I had to move out of my office about, started.
Alexis: Um, and so then that project got finished. I moved back into my office, got comfy, and then this project started. So I had to move out again. So
Keith: we took Alexis's office, our old audio booth, the gear room for the news department, which as you're doing that, okay, now we've taken those three. So now we've, Okay.
Keith: We're going to put TMP here. All right. That's great. So now we've got to find a new place for Alexis. We've got to find a new gear room. Yup. Uh, we've got to find a new audio booth. You know, we got to, we can't do without those like Alexis, you know, I'm sure she'd love to work from home, but it's kind of hard for an engineer to do that.
Keith: So it's like, okay, now we get it. So that started starting the dominoes rolling. Okay. So, and then that expanded, okay, this project for us to do this, we've got to find other places. So that's. And then it kind of expanded to the entire core of the building, because, um, as you were saying, you know, earlier is, you know, engineering was one of the most.
Keith: Um, scattered departments and of all the departments that need to be talking to each other and in the same room, it's engineering so that they know, Hey, I'm working on this. You're working on that. Right? Um, I mean, you had the director of engineering in one office and then you had an engineer in another office.
Keith: Like, they were nowhere together. So, yeah. We decided let's put them in creative services. Well, that means now we got to move creative services where they are. Um, and so it just kind of spiraled from there, but as you were saying, when we did this, okay, we can figure out how to put them all together. Let's put all engineering together.
Keith: Okay. We found them a place. Okay. Now we've dislocated creative services. They were across the hall from their supervisor. So let's, we said, well, why don't we move them next to their supervisor so that they're kind of in a pod together. So it all kind of worked out. Um, uh, like I've said before, it was like changing the tires on a car going down the interstate.
Keith: As Alexis says, it's 70 miles an hour, so make sure that you're not coasting, you're really flying. Um, that's what it was because we had to stay on the air the entire time. We couldn't just say, okay, for three months, everybody, we're just not going to do news and we're just going to go black for three months.
David: We had to keep doing it. So can you describe for listeners that might not be as familiar with KTAV, how many newscasts do you guys produce a day? How many other. Like Alexis had mentioned in our tour that we had prior to this, as you have other online content, how many, how many different types of content do you guys produce here?
David: And what, what mediums are you putting on, on air?
Keith: I'm trying to count the newscasts a day in my head. We have a morning newscast, noon five, six, and 10. So that's about five newscasts. If I'm counting correctly, uh, during the week, five days a week, we decided when we started this project, we only had Saturday and Sunday, uh, Evenings, two newscasts on Saturday and Sunday evenings.
Keith: And right before we launched with the new product, we decided let's launch a weekend morning, uh, newscast, which we had dreamed about doing for years. Um, so we launched that about three weeks before we launched the new TMP. So we did that on the old one and the new one. So not
Alexis: to mention that we extended our noon, half an hour to an hour.
Alexis: All that
Keith: happened right before we launched as well. So. Um, we've always wanted to expand our products. Um, our newscasts, the ones we have, there's still plans. We want to do more. Um, and this will allow that to happen. But on top of that as well, you know, we've been really Pushing digital, um, and social, uh, the weather folks, news folks, and that kind of thing.
Keith: Um, so one of the things, uh, we had received from gray is what we call our CTV desk, um, which controls our app, our smart TV app and other attributes like that. Uh, we didn't have a place to put it. So we figured out a. Corner to stick it in as we trying to learn it. Um, and so we were doing things with that.
Keith: So that was another thing that we had to establish a home for, uh, with the construction. So with this construction, we've been able to dramatically increase our digital presence, um, as well. Um, and then as well as doing special, you know, specials, 30 minute specials from time to time. Um, there's a lot of those that are planned in the works that we do as well, that we're now able to do much easier than we were able to do before.
Keith: So, as you're
David: producing all of these, um. Different news shows throughout the day. Construction's obviously going on cheek by jaw with you guys. Loud, loud construction.
Yeah, so we found
David: out our walls are really solid.
Alexis: Yes, there was concrete poured in the brick. Yeah,
David: there you had some beefy walls for this.
David: Yeah, it's a lot of manual labor to knock some of those down. Can you go through some of the difficulties there? I know on the construction side and talking with their site superintendent, the general contractor, one of the difficulties is it's usually it's fast, you can get things done faster. If you don't have to stop production throughout the day, but you guys are producing literally nonstop in here.
David: Oftentimes the general contractor would be stopping in any of the loud noise they're making, which demolition wise, knocking those walls out, obviously is going to be very loud. And then just the amount of dust that gets you some of the spaces. What are some other construction pains that you guys have kind of seen literally living in a construction site and producing in a construction site?
Alexis: I guess I'll start off by saying Lance, uh, who was our foreman, our construction foreman, um, was really good and very detail oriented about making sure that the spaces they were working in were properly ventilated and had the correct air filters to make sure that they were capturing as much dust as they could.
Alexis: Um, and the dust that they did not capture, he was very particular about going through and cleaning that and making sure that Everything stayed presentable. Um, so I will give that round of applause to him. Um, so that made it a lot easier to work with them and and all of that. But the other thing that I will say is that we were in constant communication.
Alexis: If we had. Spots like Thursday and Friday mornings. Um, we do, um, special segments called business spotlight and around Zooland, um, where people come in for interviews, um, and to talk about their business or talk about, you know, events going on around around the area. Um, and so. In those situations, we were just in communication with Lance of here's the times that we're scheduled to be recording.
Alexis: We need you to be quiet around that time. Um, and so they would either take a break around that time, or they would, um, work on something that wasn't as noise producing, um, and, you know, just really made the best out of, out of everything that we had coming at us.
Keith: And, and they were really good at, I mean, being a news station, there's a lot of unexpected things that are going to happen, like you don't, you know, severe weather that happens and we need to go on the air for a while.
Keith: We have to run out and go, I'm sorry, guys. I know you're trying to, but we got to go on the air for an hour or two or breaking news that would happen. Um, They were very understanding, and so we were able to work really well together, you know, and I kind of felt bad for them a lot of times because, you know, I'm sure they could have got things done a lot quicker.
Keith: They accept, you know, we're like, okay, we got to do this. We need to, you know, they worked around our schedule because 90 percent of this construction was adjacent to the studio. So, you know, it's not like they could go someplace else in the building and do something. It was, you know, they, they, they were right next to where we needed to be, so.
Alexis: They were very patient with us. Yeah, very patient. Very, like you said, very understanding of. What we were trying to accomplish. Yeah. And I'd like to,
Keith: again, I thought Lance did an amazing job at dust patrol. I've never seen anybody so focused on making sure dust did not get out of the room that they were working on would have scrubbers going the whole time.
Keith: Cause you know, I, I don't know that much about the equipment as much as Alexis does, but I would think dust and some of this electronic equipment would be bad, so, um, you know, he was, they were very, very. Attentive to making sure nothing got out. We should ask him
Alexis: how many boxes of Swiffers he went through.
Alexis: Yeah, right. Dozens, dozens, dozens.
David: Right. So I know on this, uh, on this project the, um, on the healthcare side of construction they call that infection control.
Keith: Yeah,
David: so that's instead of, or they have that same level of cleanliness that's expected on a job site, primarily to keep people healthy within a hospital, that's a similar aspect.
David: What you guys have, but instead of people, it's to keep your equipment healthy.
Keith: And we had, um, I learned a lot on this project about construction that I didn't know, like we had. The type of walls that they would put up inside of if they were doing a medical type situation. There's this plastic, I don't know what it is, but it's solid wall kind of things that they would put up that have a door in it like that.
Keith: And they were saying, Oh, we use these in hospitals and stuff. And so they actually use that, that type of equipment here to separate certain areas while they were
David: working on it with the sticky mats on the floor and everything. So people don't track dust as well. Yeah, it's,
Keith: um, it was very impressive. The attention that they paid to, to make sure that We kept stuff contained to where it was being done at.
Keith: And, and again, like you said, we have some very beefy walls and that stirs up a lot of dust when they're trying to just cut a hole in a, in a wall, much less take part of that wall down.
Alexis: Not to mention dust where you would least expect it. Like you could be trying to cut out a wall in one area and you've got dust due to the ceiling in a completely separate room that you're not even touching.
Alexis: Yeah. Um, and so. And he was very receptive. They were very receptive to like, if we brought something to their attention, he was like, they like stopped what they were doing to go like, take care of what was happening in the other room. And they would block it off and make sure that, you know, they would, you know, control it as much as they could.
Alexis: So, that was really, really nice to see.
Skyler: So, um, David, I know you kind of said that as far as like things go, the project itself. Very interesting for how it's being used the process of, of kind of designing it and every in the layout of it and everything like that, not super different from a lot of other ways that we would do projects, but how did you kind of get involved with the project and what was kind of the process or what kind of things did you experience along the way?
Skyler: Given that this project was a little bit different than what a lot of CMBA has worked on previously.
David: I actually came into the project partway Keith and Alexis and their team had worked with Brian Crichton, our CEO to go through some of the space planning and then organizational concepts. Um, and then I worked on putting together the final construction drawings, working through some of the nuts and bolts of, um, how the, how the building was to be built.
David: Um, there's some interesting kind of surprises that we found as to how we were going to deal with the, um, computer floor, uh, to provide then a acoustically quiet space after that, that proved to be a little challenging. And then just kind of working through the, the finishes just to try and provide like a nice clean.
David: Um, modern appearance for them as well as one that provides some of the acoustic separation that they're looking for throughout the space. Uh, the interesting kind of space that we did create for the TMP room was we don't do a lot of like black rooms very often, purely black spaces, but that was kind of one where it's just a really unique space in there.
David: It's really hard to, to check when construction is done, because it's hard to see unless things are dusty. We did find lots of dusty ceiling tiles,
but it was
David: very difficult to see like, Hey, if there's a. Dirt or a black smudge on something. Well, it's hard to see a black smudge on black paint, unless there's something there, but
Keith: it was kind of the running joke through the whole project, at least here at the station was, you know, can I have black on black on black on black on black in the control room?
Keith: And that was the running joke. Cause that's what I wanted. They were like, what color do you want black? And like, have I not, everything's black in the control room, like everything. So, but we did do some great, we did do some great. Seats for the chairs. So there's a little bit of color,
AD: right? A little splash there.
David: Just you lighten it up. Just the tiniest, right? Yeah.
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David: But what's the, I think what's kind of a unique thing is you have the, in the control room itself, it's black. And then we're sit, we're, we're sitting adjacent to that. There's a glass door between us and then the control room. Um, it turns into just kind of a more regular conference room at that point.
David: When you, it's kind of interesting to see that stark, that stark comparison, uh, or especially as you, and you exit from the control room into the, you're either in the conference room rat or into the, um, the, the newsroom, you get quite a jarring kind of unique kind of change of, you leave a black space and you go into one that's just filled with light and color, and you can see the view on the Hill as you walk out.
David: So it's, it's kind of a unique transition, just kind of architecturally Wasn't planned, but is kind of a fun little space. Well, I mean, a little bit
Keith: of that was bouncing around in my head because what I'm thinking about this room, we have a lot of tour groups that come through a lot of school groups and that kind of thing.
Keith: And we had visualized this area as the tour group would come in here and would look through the glass at the control room. And so you would want that difference of that's a darker space, almost like a mission control for like space travel kind of thing, like that's what we wanted that to look at. So you'd want to have a brighter space.
Keith: looking into a darker space. You wouldn't want to have it the other way around. So there was a little bit of insane thought, at least, you know, on my part of why I wanted it to look the way it did, because I was trying to visualize it from in here looking at, I was trying to visualize it as a kid walking through.
Keith: I wanted that wow factor. And we really do get that. Like, I, I don't think I've had anybody walk in previous employees included that have walked in and not gone woke.
Yeah, that's
Keith: usually the first words out of their mouth when they walk in and see this. Um, we had some college students walking through here and the professor asked us, where do you launch the rocket?
Keith: So I was just like, like mission accomplished. We got what we got. So I was like, I was like, that's, you know, KTIB is a legacy station. It's, you know, it's, it's of course known and loved in Sioux land. Um, but I mean, it's known across the country and across the company. And this is the control room, in my opinion, that's fitting of, you know, KTFE's legacy and the service that we give to our customers, which are our viewers, um, you know, this is, this shows, this is us.
Keith: Um, and, uh, it's, it's nice that we, we have this now.
Alexis: I think the coolest thing that I can remember, um, from the project is we, we hired an integrator that came in and helped us, uh, install all of the new equipment and. This is a guy who works at hundreds of different TV stations every year, every month. I mean, he's in a different station just helping them, you know, put in equipment and get things working.
Alexis: And when he walked in, this was before we had the equipment put in, we just had the TVs on the wall, we just had the desk, um, installed. He walked in and looked at everything and went, This is the most impressive control room I've seen in a very long time. So getting that compliment from him was like, okay, cool.
Alexis: Yeah. We did something right here. Um, so it was just really cool to see, you know, the, the ideas and the thoughts that we initially had in our head actually came to life. Um, and it's just been really rewarding seeing how it's all kind of come together.
Keith: Took a huge team effort. I mean, between CBA, between Clinger, between, um, you know, the experts at gray, you know, who, You know, said, here's how this works, you know, and here's the equipment that you need.
Keith: Um, our local engineers, I mean, everybody just everybody had an idea, like, a different idea that contributed to this project or, you know, along the way of thinking of, you know, Well, this is what we wanted to do, but we're going to have to figure out a different way or whatever. Um, you know, it wasn't just one person.
Keith: It was, it really was an entire team of people of, um, I mean, we had, was it every week or was it every two weeks we had a meeting, uh, you know, with corporate, where are we in the status? Okay. This is what we run into. And there's like, oh, well, here's a fix, you know, because they were doing probably three or four at the same time, um, of these projects.
Keith: And so we'd run into an issue, they would be like. Okay, and then some other station may have a fix for that and then or they have a fix for an issue that we're running into. So, I mean, you know, you talk about team efforts. This really was, um, was a team effort. I'm laying on every level of how do we get where we want to be in this project.
Keith: So it was, it was very impressive, um, how everybody worked together. And I
Alexis: will say it was very beneficial that there were. Three or four of us going through it around the same time. It was kind of like we were all staggered. And so some stations had started before others. And so if that station ran into a problem, they would be like, Hey, you're doing the same thing that we are.
Alexis: Look out for this when you get to that point,
Skyler: heads up.
Alexis: Yeah. Um, and so then we were able to do the same thing cause we had a couple of stations after us. Um, so it was just that relay of information, um, of things to kind of look out for, um, as you get To certain points in the project
Skyler: and ways that you can kind of even evolve on those ideas and those concepts that they've done, which is probably what helped contribute to, you know, coming into the studio.
Skyler: And the guy was like, wow, this is the best one that I've ever seen. You know, you're like taking the information you've gotten from others that are going through the same process. And I like what you guys both said about. You know, all the ideas that were kind of coming together from the staff of like, here's things that we look for, and that allowed for all these kind of layers to kind of go into it, you know, even just as much as like, what about tours?
Skyler: What about when we have, you know, school classes and whatnot here? Like, how are we going to make it really cool for them to experience what we do? And then, right,
Alexis: well, I think it makes it, it makes it really stand out to, um, Um, because it's not a normal room, so you wouldn't want it to look like a normal room.
Alexis: No,
Skyler: absolutely.
Alexis: Um, so I think having that stark contrast between light and dark is very important to show like what we do in there is entirely different and unique to what we do in the rest of the building.
David: That was kind of the unique challenge on my side was architecturally in, in the TMP space or control room space, It is just a bunch of what I would see as quote, unquote, regular materials, um, where it's, it's carpet, it's paint on the walls.
David: It's a new ceiling tile, but trying to like define that space for you guys. And then what you fill, what you fill it with and what you do in it is truly special. And that's one of the reasons why we're having this discussion today is there's, there's not a, there's not too much unique in that space. Maybe besides like the room we're sitting in, how you can, how you then present it to the public or present it to other visitors to the station.
David: What you do in that space every day is, is what's special and what's unique about kind of the renovation that took place here.
Alexis: And I think that that's really, it's interesting that you bring that up because if you go into that room and you look at the equipment that we're using, you're going to see some desktops like normal run of the mill desktops.
Alexis: You're going to see regular monitors. You're going to see regular TVs. Um, but we've just been very fortunate to have a company that supports us and gives us the equipment that we need to make it special and, Really expand upon everything that we need to do and just make it a wow factor. I mean,
Keith: um, I think it's a good, like you were talking about the, you know, the, the materials that went into the room is nothing extraordinary.
Keith: I mean, it really is that when you think about it, we took simple materials to build the room. Um, it's the space that was done. I think it's the ideas of the presentation that engineering came up with, with how are we going to put the TVs on the wall to show everything we need to show? How do we build that?
Keith: Um, and then I think it also goes into the people that work in the space. Um, I mean, I'm sitting here kind of looking as we're talking and, you know, people are working around, people are doing things like, um, you know, and they had a big say of, uh, in the room as well, because they work in it every day. And, um, I wish you could see the space they came from and the space they're in now, um, it's night and day.
Keith: Um, and so I know they're very happy, but they were part of, they were part of the input as well as what would you like to see in a new. Control room. Like, how do you think it should function? You're going to be the one using it every day. Like, you know, I'm going to be in my office kind of, you know, jumping in if you have, if there's a problem, but I, that's not my office.
Keith: I'm not working in it every day. And so, um, I think that helped as well. Like they had it, they had some input on how they feel it should function. It should work and how it should, should move.
Alexis: And I think, I think that really helped with the, with the buy-in Mm-Hmm. .
David: Yeah. People create their own, create their own space with you instead of it Right.
David: Being dictated to them, Hey, this is what you're going to get, this is what you're getting. Yeah. Get the, their input as well.
Alexis: Their input. And I will say, like, I'll start off by saying our employees are most of the time very happy. Mm-Hmm. , um, here. Yeah. Um, but I can definitely tell you. And this is coming from me and I don't work with them every day.
Alexis: So Keith, you might have more input, but them just moving from the old control room where it was dated and kind of like, not really, it was just another room that you walked into. Like you were all kind of sitting on top of each other. Um, their moods have improved consistently. Like obviously everyone's going to have a bad day or tough day.
Alexis: Um, but just from, from my perspective, when I walk through. I have more people tell me hi, um, and then before, um, and I just think that really goes to show like when you build a space as special as what we were allowed to build, it can really change people's days and their moods and make them excited to come to work.
David: So when we're talking through like what you guys do with that space, I think one of the. An email that we received as the design team kind of from you guys, as we're still working through some of the changes that we had, you guys had requested in that area to change, I think, primarily some of the finish colors, one of the ones he sent through a cut sheet for kind of the bones of the command center desk, if you will, that you guys sent through.
David: And we had shown previously just kind of some standard office furniture and it's like, Oh, I'm drum.
Keith: I've still got those rendering somewhere.
David: They send those through and like the interior designer and I were working on the project go, Oh wow. Like this is, I don't really know what I was expecting, but this is way more impressive than that.
David: Like, it was just kind of cool to see something that was kind of high tech and almost like, it almost looks like a Star Trek kind of command center, NASA, NASA mission control. It's like, Oh wow. Like the, we've been kind of creating this space for them. Like this is. I think that's kind of when it set in with Hillary and I, like, hey, this is, this is a truly kind of special area.
Keith: And, and when we were designing it, the thing that we kept thinking of was, and we couldn't get away from, because we were still working at it, is the small space we had before, which, which served the station very well for several years. Um, you know, as, as we're expanding newscasts, as we're expanding into digital platforms and stuff.
Keith: Area had outlived its time, uh, and it was time for us to, to move forward. Uh, one of the things, you know, being a news operation, we were looking at is, um, how do we operate in what I would call a worst case scenario and, and, you know, a really big breaking news day or a big severe weather day when there's tornadoes everywhere.
Keith: And in our old control room, we were all on top of each other. Like if. You know, you had an executive producer and director and the director and everybody, it did not, it was not conducive. So we kind of approached this room as that. So on a normal day, it may not look as full, but we planned for, and we've divided up like, this is news's area.
Keith: This is productions area. This is, and so we designed it so that in case of a worst case scenario, that we would be able to staff it with the people that need to be in there to be able to give the product to, to our viewers. As quickly and as easily and as fast as possible, which was a little bit slower in our old place, just because of the number of computers we had and just the space that we had.
Keith: And now we've been able to expand, um, now, so that we can, and I think probably caucus night was probably 1 of the 1st times that they use that. I was, I was in Des Moines, so I didn't get to see it, but where you had more news people in there, more production people in there, and there was a, A big pile of people.
Keith: So that was kind of the first big test of, and it seemed to do very well. So, you know, there's, well, there's a lot of thought that went into it. A lot of sleepless nights. I know for several of us of, you know, is this the right thing? Am I, what have I forgotten? Cause once it's built, it's built, you know, and you get one shot at this, uh, to make sure that you get it right.
Keith: And there's some things that, you know, I know that. I didn't think of, you know, but other people would think of, and there's things that they didn't think of that I would think of. So then again, it goes back to the whole team. And there were changes that we had to make along the way. Like I know we had originally wanted the walls to go with square out and we learned, okay, we need to bring the corners out and little small things to make it better.
Keith: And that a lot of that would come from the construction company as well of like going, Hey, this isn't going to fit. Like, let's, what, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? Uh, and then from, you know, the architects as well. Okay. We need to make some new drawings to make all this work.
Keith: And, Okay, here's what we're going to do at the beginning and it's done and it proceeds that way. I was kind of surprised at the number of changes that, that we would run into. Um, that we hadn't thought about or somebody else hadn't thought about, so. So as
Skyler: kind of a final question for this, what are we looking forward to, uh, to seeing as far as the, you know, ongoing, you know, phase two or whatever the case for, for KTIB, what's, what's next, I guess, hopefully no more office changes for Alexis.
Keith: Well, yeah. So the first thing is we're going to move Alexis. So, um, no, I'll just be outside. I mean, there's other plans. So this was, Technically kind of what we call the core of the building that was redesigned and repurposed. Um, you know, we'd like to do more of that, uh, uh, expand our newsroom, give them more space.
Keith: Again, we're very restricted on our building size. Right. So, you know, there's, you've got these walls, so you got to try to figure out how to maximize the space you have. Um, and I think that's what our focus is now is how do we take the space that we have in our building footprint. And better use it, um, to, you know, so that we can, cause we've expanded our newsroom over the last year dramatically.
Keith: Um, you know, TMP, when we moved in that new room, you know, I hired more people for that. Um, you know, so we've increased the staff in this building a lot. Yeah. We got to find a place to put everybody. So, so they're not, you know, sitting on top of each other. So that's the next step is, you know, we want, we want to give the, the, you know, we hope to give the viewers when they come visit us a nice.
Keith: Welcoming lobby area, you know, that, you know, looks as good as, you know, TMP, we want to, uh, expand the newsroom. We want to treat ourselves, people, you know, expand their area. Cause we love the salespeople cause they make sure we can pay, um, you know, and they do a great job. So, you know, there's, there's that kind of the outlying area of the core is our next focus.
Keith: And, you know, we're working on that now, you know, we've got drawings on that. We're trying to move forward on that. And so when that will happen. We don't know, but that's our next focus is now we've got the center part done. Let's get, you know, the rest of the building updated. Kind of an inward out. Yeah.
Keith: And like I said, it all started, it started in the core just because of, okay, we're going to do TMP. And the question was, okay, where are we going to put it? Right. And that's what started the entire conversation. And I'm sure there was a
Skyler: nice sigh of relief at the end of that. Cause. Being done with the core means that it'll be a hopefully a lot easier to work with.
Skyler: Yeah, yeah, and we're
Keith: right on the cusp of finish. I think we probably got two or three weeks of just some minor things to finish up. But perfect. But yeah, it's it's been nice being able to take a breath for a second. Yes, I know. Alexis is happy to at least get one thing off of her. Listen, she doesn't have to focus on.
Keith: I'm just
Alexis: happy to be in my office. Right.
Skyler: So awesome. Well, fantastic. Thank you both so much for taking the time to sit down with us and talk with us through the project. I know, like David said, you know, he came in kind of partway through, so I'm sure there was a lot that you got to learn about, and obviously I'm learning about the whole project and I'm really excited to be able to sit here and also be able to look into through the window doors and see this epic command center that you guys have set up.
Skyler: I
Keith: mean, a big thank you to CMBA because I've never been through a construction project like this. I mean, she went through the AC craziness right after she started. She's like, it was like, welcome Alexis. Oh, by the way, we were doing our entire AC. So have fun with that. What an orientation. I'm pretty sure
Alexis: I was part of HVAC calls before I started.
Keith: So I hadn't been through anything like this. So I really appreciate CMBA has been very patient, very helpful along the entire process. So. Explaining, okay, what am I, okay, what am I looking at? I have no idea what this is. Right. Explaining, okay, this is what this is. Oh, okay. You know. It's nice to
Alexis: know what a lentil is.
Alexis: Yes. That's not a bean. Yes.
Keith: So it's been very helpful. They explained everything as we went through it of this is what we have to do or, you know, making sure code is done and all that kind of thing. So it's, it's, it's been very helpful to have a partner that's kind of, Helped us through that and not just said, here you go.
Keith: And then walked away. Like they've always been available for questions or emails or panic phone calls for me or whatever. So what's happening. Right. I
Skyler: totally get it. Yeah, no. Well, we love working with you guys. And like I said, it's, it's really cool to. You know, have a project like this. That's not necessarily part of the sort of normal stuff that we've worked on, but having this really cool, um, very different project that we've gotten to be a part of.
Skyler: And I know that's, I get excited as the marketing department because I, you know, I have a lot of background in media and production and stuff like that. So it's really exciting to be able to kind of see this sort of thing. And I'm like, Oh, I, I know what they're talking about. Finally, it's not a hospital or a surgery.
Skyler: And I'm like, okay, give me a little bit more rundown on that. It's like, oh yeah, newsroom. Okay. Yeah. I've been in those before. That's always appreciate. So, but seriously, thank you both so much for, for taking time out of your busy schedules and sitting down with us and talking. So no problem. Thank you. If you'd like to find out more about the laying the foundation podcast, you can head over to any podcast streaming platform, such as Spotify, iTunes, Google podcasts, and others.
Skyler: You can also find out more about CMBA architects through social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram. Additionally, you can head over to the CBA website@cbaarchitects.com. If you're an architecture or design professional or an intern looking for an internship within those fields, please be sure to check out our website and click on the careers tab to find out more about what opportunities we offer.
Skyler: This has been another episode of The Laying The Foundation Podcast. We'll see you next time.