Westminster partnered with FORTÉ to bring its vision for the Blake Center to life, creating a flexible learning environment anchored by a state-of-the-art broadcast studio. The result is a future-ready space that empowers students, enhances teaching, and expands opportunities for digital storytelling, collaboration, and creative learning across campus.
For more than 70 years, Westminster Schools has been recognized as one of Atlanta’s premier independent Christian schools, providing an innovative, student-centered education for nearly 1,900 students from pre-first through 12th grade. As part of a campus-wide master plan focused on collaboration, creativity, and future-ready learning, Westminster opened the Blake Center in January of 2026 — a state-of-the-art facility designed to bring together arts, engineering, technology, and digital storytelling under one roof.
At the heart of the Blake Center is WCAT, Westminster’s nationally recognized student-run broadcast program. What began as a small extracurricular club has evolved into an award-winning operation that produces live sports broadcasts, school news, concerts, ceremonies, and special events while giving students hands-on experience with professional broadcast production.
To help bring this vision to life, Westminster partnered with FORTÉ to design and integrate technology solutions throughout the Blake Center, including flexible learning environments, collaborative classrooms, and a next-generation broadcast studio that empowers students, supports educators, and inspires creativity for years to come.
The Challenge
As Westminster Schools invested in the next phase of its campus master plan, it sought to create spaces that would inspire innovation and prepare students for the future. The new Blake Center facility was designed to become the home for innovation, creativity, engineering, visual arts, and digital storytelling, bringing disciplines together under one roof while preparing students for post-secondary education and future careers.
One of the building’s cornerstone programs is WCAT, Westminster’s nationally recognized student-run broadcast organization.
For years, WCAT had earned awards for producing live sports broadcasts, school news, concerts, and special events despite operating from makeshift studio spaces that had been relocated multiple times during campus construction. Students consistently produced professional-quality content, but their facilities no longer reflected the caliber of their work.
“The studio or equipment space had always just been in a closet,” said William Turton, IT Services Event and Performance A/V Coordinator and WCAT Technical Director. “The kids really made the most of that space, but we were limited because it was really just a classroom.”
Westminster envisioned a more flexible broadcast production environment.
Rather than designing a traditional broadcast studio reserved for a single program, the school envisioned a flexible environment that supported student broadcasts, podcasts, documentaries, classroom presentations, theatrical productions, and future forms of digital storytelling.
The challenge was creating a space sophisticated enough to mirror professional broadcast environments while remaining intuitive for students and teachers from every discipline to use.
The Solution
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| SNA Displays LED video wall, supporting dynamic content and immersive production across the studio. |
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| Quicklink scene-based production switcher—the central control system powering Westminster’s flexible broadcast studio. |
FORTÉ partnered closely with Westminster throughout the design process to create an adaptable production environment centered around flexibility instead of fixed workflows.
Working alongside school leadership, the design evolved from a traditional studio concept into a multi-purpose creative space capable of supporting countless educational experiences.
The centerpiece of the studio is a nearly 30-foot L-shaped LED video wall from SNA Displays, complemented by a motorized green screen that gives students the flexibility to create immersive productions for everything from live news broadcasts and sports analysis to documentaries and virtual productions.
“We asked FORTÉ, ‘Is something like this possible within our budget?’” Turton explained. “They worked through the design with us, and it’s been awesome having that flexibility.”
To simplify production, FORTÉ introduced one of the first deployments of Quicklink’s scene-based production switcher. Unlike traditional broadcast switchers that require operators to trigger multiple actions independently, Quicklink enables students to recall complete production scenes, including camera angles, graphics, media, and layouts with a single selection.
After evaluating Quicklink, William quickly recognized its advantages. “I thought, ‘This would actually be perfect for our space.’ It was a lot more flexible than the switcher I had originally picked out,” he said. “It’s incredibly flexible with our video wall, allowing us to do live switching, live studio recording, send content to the video wall, bring in remote guests, and so much more. It’s really become the brains of the studio, which has been awesome.”
The system also supports live remote guests, dynamic content on the LED wall, and effortless transitions between production styles, allowing students to focus more on storytelling than technical complexity.
The innovation extended beyond the control room.
FORTÉ also recommended the use of Power-over-Ethernet studio lighting — an emerging technology that delivers both power and control through a single Ethernet connection, reducing infrastructure complexity while creating a highly flexible lighting environment for future studio configurations.
Beyond the broadcast studio, FORTÉ integrated technology throughout the Blake Center to support classrooms, collaborative learning environments, and shared gathering spaces. Interactive projection systems, Apple TV-enabled classrooms, and audio systems for the Learning Stair help create intuitive learning experiences while allowing technology to remain in the background and education to stay at the forefront.
The result is an environment where professional-grade technology supports creativity without becoming a barrier to it.
The Results & Human Impact
Since opening, the Blake Center has expanded opportunities for student storytelling and project-based learning.
With a permanent, purpose-built studio, WCAT students can begin recording almost immediately instead of spending valuable class time assembling temporary production spaces.
IT Services Event and Performance A/V Coordinator and WCAT Technical Director.
“Now that we have a dedicated studio, students simply walk into the studio, hit record, and they’re creating,” Turton said. An unexpected side benefit is that the studio quickly became a shared resource across campus.
Teachers are now incorporating video projects, documentaries, podcasts, and multimedia presentations into coursework because students have easy access to professional broadcast production tools.
“If they’re doing a project on the Alps, we can put that behind them on the video wall with no editing later,” Turton said. “They basically have a finished video by the time they’re done.”
Student enthusiasm has exceeded expectations.
Teachers quickly identified the broadcast studio as one of the most requested learning spaces inside the Blake Center, while alumni returning to campus have been amazed by how dramatically the program has evolved.
“The students were just like, ‘Wow, this is unbelievable,’” Turton said. “Teachers immediately started asking how they could use the studio in their classes.”
Today, WCAT continues to produce award-winning broadcasts while serving as a gateway for students exploring careers in journalism, filmmaking, sports broadcasting, communications, and digital media.
What was once an extracurricular program operating from a converted classroom now serves as a centerpiece of Westminster’s innovation strategy, equipping students with the creative, technical, and communication skills they’ll carry into college, careers, and beyond.