Home advantage pays off for XTV

XTV stormed to victory on home soil last weekend as Exeter played host to the National Student Television Association (NaSTA) awards.

Our campus TV station took five awards as students from around the country joined industry bigwigs for NaSTA’s 40th annual conference.

Forming the conference’s showpiece, the awards ceremony was held in the Great Hall on Saturday night. The hall was transformed into a glitzy ballroom, complete with red carpet.

The Great Hall in all its fish-eye glory

And Exeter’s XTV proved more prolific than Daniel Day-Lewis at the Oscars as the team claimed an armful of gongs.

The station took the award for best title sequence, and was highly commended in the best animation, best on-screen female and best ident categories, and the Tim Marshall Award for Special Recognition.

XTV took five awards

The sweep of five awards meant XTV was one of the most successful stations at the ceremony.

Judges for the awards included leading figures in TV, including Channel 4 heartthrob Rick Edwards and Sky Sports F1’s Ted Kravitz.

XTV broadcast the event live

Hugh Blackstaffe, host coordinator of NaSTA 40, said: “NasTA 40 was an unequivocal success. Both the conference and awards surpassed all our expectations and the effort of everyone involved was phenomenal.

“If it was not the best NaSTA Conference there has ever been, then it is certainly up there with the best.”

Lawrence Bolton, chair of NaSTA, said: “This weekend was an absolute triumph. The University of Exeter and the Students’ Guild should be extremely proud of the hard work, dedication and excellence shown by their students this weekend.”

XTV broadcast the event live under the supervision of BBC News producer Matthew Sydney. Workshops from TV professionals were laid on before the awards, meaning it wasn’t all fun and games.

XTV produces footage for its YouTube channel. Its SSB 2012 promo video has been viewed almost 220,000 times.