MTPC News - Issue 1

Abstract

[evdate 2020-03-01] MTPC_menu-1HOMEFEATURE SERVICES RESOURCES SHOWCASE PAST ISSUES New MTPC Website After the Publishing Technology Center (PTC) was renamed as the Media Technology and Publishing Center (MTPC) in the summer of 2019, the Center has undertaken a major revamp of its website to reflect its new service strategies, promoting a more proactive partnership with users in their projects and activities and placing greater emphasis on digital media, cross-media design and green publishing to advance the University?s objectives.

Phase I of the revamp will be completed and released in Spring 2020. It will be followed by the Phase II revamp, which involves a consolidation of all other sub-sites to form an accessible, integrated and responsive MTPC website.

New Digital Printing System

To enable smarter and environmental friendly printing at HKUST, MTPC has installed a new colour digital printing system, Fuji Xerox Iridesse, at Printshop. Supporting 5 colour + varnishing and a printing size up to 1200mm x 317mm, the system can provide cost effective printing with fast turnaround and less carbon footprint.

With its quality compatible to offset printing, many printing jobs that had been outsourced to external printers can be handled in-house with much lower cost. It is particularly fit for short-run and on-demand printing like official documents, name card, customized stationery, leaflet, brochure and event banners. It will also support the growing demands for dissertation printing, course notes and exam paper with colour contents. Online Presentation Support MTPC?s Digital Learning Studio is re-configured to support online presentation via Zoom and other platforms. Our setup will reproduce the experiences of physical presentation space. Speakers can present lively with studio lighting, backdrop, PowerPoint, whiteboard or even light-board. Online participants will see the gesture, movement and interactivities of presenters captured by cameraman instead of talking head by webcam. Please contact Anthony HO (ptykho@ust.hk) if you wish to create professional content and engaging online experiences for your audience.

Online Namecard Ordering and Printing To support demands for name card printing due to the change of job titles in the University, and to ride on the new color digital printing system, MTPC has rolled in-house name card printing service for faculty and eligible staff who require name card starting 2020.

The new service supports online ordering, data input, layout preview and approval (for staff below Band 5/lecturer) through MTPC?s Work Request System. It shortens printing time to 2-3 working days and lower printing cost by 20%. It also supports adding QR code and official photo of the name card owner, and is 100% compliance with HKUST name card standard. Colleagues are most welcome to try this speedy name card printing services. See Demo Video

myRVC Web App myRVC is newly developed by MTPC's RVC team. It is a web app optimized for mobile phones which enables users to check real-time status of their RVC recording anytime and anywhere. The status reflects the flow of RVC: 1. ?Scheduled?; 2. ?Recording?; 3. ?Processing?; 4. ?Viewable? or 5. ?Cancelled?. Users can confirm video capturing if status is ?Recording? or view their videos directly via the web app if the status is ?Viewable?. Access myRVC

ID Photo Recently, MTPC rolled out a new ID Photo taking service. It is the fastest and easiest way to take ID photos on campus, which can be used for departmental notice board, publications, website purposes.

The service is a supplement to MTPC?s existing portrait taking services which are offered at the beginning of each semester. The ID Photo taking service is available daily during term time. It is supported by CMZ?s trained student helper using smartphone and pre-set studio lighting. All HKUST staff are entitled to use this free and convenient service to obtain their ID photos. Book ID Photo

Laser Cutter Starting in Spring 2020, MTPC?s Creative Media Zone (CMZ) in Learning Commons will offer laser cutting services. After booking a time slot, students can bring along their drawing files in SVG format to the CMZ counter at their allotted time for checking before using the device for cutting.

The cutter can process a wide range of materials, including paper, corrugated board, wood, acrylic, cloth and leather. Students can select and purchase these materials for their projects and pay via Octopus card at the CMZ counter. More details are available at: https://cmz.ust.hk/services/laser-cutting

HKUST 3D Model MTPC is now offering a new service to support the development of 3D/VR/AR games, computer animations, videos and image rendering using the HKUST campus 3D model. A virtual campus tour is also available in Creative Media Zone to demonstrate the potential of the 3D model for various applications. Please contact mtpc@ust.hk if you are interested in using this new service.

Blockcert Design MTPC has been handling the production of HKUST Diploma for the University. The Center was engaged in designing the graphic template for supporting the HKUST Blockcert project.

A major consideration was to recreate the official look of HKUST?s diploma in the Blockcert while providing a template that can include variable data in both horizontal and vertical display for English and Chinese content. To achieve this, all visual elements in the HKUST Diploma, including English and Chinese fonts, official logo and seal, spacing and margin have been carefully re-designed to ensure proper display of data on multiple devices and platforms. The graphic template has been successfully completed and delivered to ISO and ARO for data placement as well as further processing.

All Digital Diploma With the introduction of a new digital printing system, MTPC Printshop can now produce HKUST diplomas in a SINGLE all-digital print-process, which replaces the offset printing + digital printing + numbering process. It shortens production time by 50%; reduces material costs and paper wastage by 10% and 80% respectively.

The all-digital process streamline record keeping; stock control and diploma replacement. It also enables easy job backup, retrieval and integration with the ?HKUST Blockcert? workflow.