After three years of planning and implementation, WOSU and the Center for Science and Industry celebrated the opening of the new Digital Media Center Sept. 29.

WOSU has moved its operation to the COSI location downtown, where visitors are greeted with three exhibits, a digital welcome mat, an interactive U-TV studio and an EffecTV exhibit. Although the exhibits are only half of the new attractions, there are also other features to the new center. There are rooms for workshops, community forums and independent documentaries as well. It is hoped these new attractions will help relieve some of the financial concerns the non-profit organization is going through.

When visitors enter COSI, the digital welcome mat is the first exhibit to see. Patrons can interact with digitized lights and sounds that come in a variety of combinations.

“People really love it,” said Kelli Nowinsky, spokesperson for COSI. “They have a lot of fun when they walk into the space with the digital welcome mat.”

In the U-TV exhibit visitors can watch themselves on television with a background and a foreground.

“You can be in the middle of a tornado,” said Tom Rieland, general manger of WOSU’s public media.

The third exhibit available is EffecTV. Using this exhibit, a picture can be taken and digitally altered in more than 22 different ways, creating a distorted view. The picture creates a psychedelic experience, according to WOSU.“Bringing the two organizations under one roof creates the only science center and public broadcast station combination in the country,” said David Chesebrough, president of COSI.

Students at Ohio State can take advantage of the media literacy component of the WOSU@COSI experience. There is a media lab that shows how to build a podcast, web cast and other digital media. Students can create their own video or audio documentaries as well as other independent works.

The course at OSU, theatre 580, is a broadcast class created by both the Department of Theatre and the School of Communication will move to the new COSI location. Students can gain even more experience than before. A media literacy training lab gives students the opportunity to learn how to manipulate media.

“A lot of people need to think of the effect media has on people,” Rieland said. “Media is all around us. A lot of people read a blog and treat it like gospel.”

Continuing the commitment to the community, WOSU produces live broadcasts centered on local issues. A forum is provided for open discussion and there are offices and suites available for visitors to use. Saturday, WOSU@COSI hosted National Public Radio’s “Talk of a Nation,” a nationally syndicated show through its PBS affiliate. Rieland said he believes this is all a part of OSU’s vision for how it wants to influence the community.

“The vision statement within the academic plan asks Ohio State to ‘Set the standard for creating and disseminating knowledge and service to its communities, state, nation and world’,” Rieland said.

The partnership between WOSU and COSI became necessary around 2004, during which WOSU launched four new digital television stations as well as a new digital radio station. According to WOSU, the Fawcett center location could not keep up with WOSU’s growth. At the same time, COSI was facing financial problems.

According to Business First of Columbus magazine, COSI operates on an annual budget of more than $22 million, attendance is around 500,000 visitors per year and its admissions prices were higher than most major cities, such as Chicago.

According to COSI, an attempt was made to impose a Franklin County property tax to pay for COSI. In exchange for the tax, Franklin County residents would have access to all of COSI free of charge; the property tax failed. Also an attempt to impose a levy in the spring of 2005 failed. With WOSU as a new tenant, COSI wants revenue to increase.

WOSU@COSI’s $5.6 million capital fund to finance the construction of the 12,000 square foot space needed for WOSU was raised with donations from several sources, including the Nationwide Foundation, Battelle and private donors. An endowment fund of $1.5 million is being raised to support the upkeep of the new space.

According to WOSU, about $900,000 is still needed.

“We hope attendance will increase,” Nowinksy said. “Anytime we get a new exhibit, attendance increases. We hope there will be an increase during holiday season when kids let out of school.”