The site formerly operated as the Nebraska Bookstore, located across from the Johnny Carson of Theatre and Film at 13th & Q Streets on the UNL campus will house the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts and provide the instructional space and equipment needed to teach film and virtual production. The facility will include teaching and production sound stages, a performance capture lab, classrooms, design and editing labs, computer labs, a seminar and screening room and other specialized spaces. These capabilities will be unique to the campus.

The Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts facility will open in the fall of 2019 on the UNL campus. It will house the instructional spaces and equipment needed to teach film, emerging media, virtual production and design—including teaching and production sound stages, a performance capture lab, classrooms, design and editing labs, computer labs, a seminar and screening room and other specialized spaces. Every effort will be made to use these spaces as both production and teaching facilities. This facility will be unique on campus and will be available to students enrolled in classes and programs in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film and the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, as well as faculty engaged in collaborative research.

A preliminary analysis done by Raymond Kahl, the architect for the film facilities at USC, estimates that the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts will require approximately 31,000 gross square feet. A more detailed program statement will need to be developed under the supervision of the incoming director. The challenge at this time is to determine costs and programming needs and to reserve space on campus in a way that provides flexibility for the incoming director and possible expansion of undergraduate and graduate programs in the future.

The former Nebraska Bookstore site best meets the needs for the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts, and the university is currently in the process of purchasing that facility. The facility would accommodate the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts on the north side (directly across the street from the Johnny Carson of Theatre and Film) as well as a retail store on the south side.

In addition, the Studio Theatre in the Temple Building will be redesigned to double as a performance capture stage and a performance venue that can accommodate data controlled imagery and sound, projections and augmented reality performances. Existing film and new media facilities adjacent to the Temple Building will be repurposed to accommodate future growth needs or other programming needs of the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts. Current faculty teaching film and new media in the Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film will move to the Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts as well. The Carson Center for Emerging Media Arts will be wired for a 100GB network for the fastest possible transmission of data between the building’s servers and the university’s supercomputer in the Holland Computing Center, which provides connections to the Internet II network backbone. This will enhance high-speed data transfer to collaborators at other universities. The building will have controlled access for students taking classes in film and in the Virtual Production Certificate courses.