Recent app allows students to book gear at Red River College’s Exchange District campus.

By Taylor Fenn

The interface of the RRC Creative Arts Services app allows students to quickly book camera gear online. TAYLOR FENN / THE PROJECTOR

A recently developed app has doubled the operations of the camera equipment room at Red River College’s (RRC) Exchange District Campus.

The RRC Creative Arts Services app is accessible through Facebook and allows to book out the gear they need. Andrew McCrea launched the app in September and said it has made the booking process quicker and easier for students.

“We used to have to do everything by paper so it was a longer process,” said McCrea. “Since its launch, we’ve done more rentals in the last semester than we did in an entire year.”

The app is paired to an online database that tracks each piece of rented equipment. Since September, over 3000 individual pieces of equipment have been rented out by students at RRC’s Exchange District campus.

McCrea has a background in web development and graduated from both the Creative Communications and Business Administration programs at RRC.

“I came to Red River as a student because I wanted to get a job that would let me use my creative side,” said McCrea. “I’ve been out of school for four years now but I’m happy to still be a part of Red River College.”

McCrea said he remembers the camera equipment room from when he was a student and is excited to see the changes being made to it.

“There’s so much more equipment for students to use and the room itself has been renovated to make space for our growing inventory,” said McCrea.

Over the last few years, the camera equipment room has grown from just 16 camera kits to over 200 pieces of individual gear, with everything from specialized lenses to green screens to audio kits.

Dylan Mathew Queen, a 22-year-old student in RRC’s Digital Media Design program, said he spent a lot of time in the camera equipment room during his first year in the program and was happy to hear about the app.

“I think the Facebook app is a complete game-changer too because it saves a lot of time,” said Queen. “It’s easy to use, and if you need help they’ll show you exactly how to use it.”

Shayna Plett is a first-year student in RRC’s Graphic Design program and said she was excited to hear that the school had a camera equipment room.

“Equipment gets expensive so being able to rent saves us from having to buy our own,” she said. “It’s also a real life-saver if you ever forget your equipment.”

McCrea said they are planning on ordering even more equipment for the camera room, including another Sony 4K camera and 10 new zoom lenses, so they can stay up to date with the needs of the students at RRC.

Find the app and book gear at https://www.facebook.com/RRCCreativeArtsServices/