Edwin Barnes

Edwin Barnes
Years Active	2016 – 2019
Positions Held	Production Director Station Director
Hometown	Anwick, Northumberland
Current Location	London

Edwin was Station Director from 2018 to 2019, being one of the most active and influential members of his generation. Throughout his three years with the station, he multiplied its membership, improved YSTV's relationship to YUSU, pushed the creative and technical boundaries of YSTV content, improved the visual quality of its videos and led the team to win Best Broadcaster at NaSTA 2019.

Edwin joined in 2016 as a fresher, and got stuck in quickly with his first producing credit being an episode of Tea Time Chat with Katherine Bell, which they produced together after the original producer dropped out 4 hours before the time of broadcast.

From then on, Edwin stayed busy working particularly on filming, producing and editing, and focusing on increasing the visual quality of YSTV's content, through better use of lighting and in particular the use of better cameras. This led to Edwin successfully pitching the £2000+ purchase of a Canon C100 at the end of the 2016/17 academic year, soon after he became Production Director.

As well as being keen to improve visual quality, Edwin was keen to increase viewership and reach and thus led a push for YSTV to release the majority of its content on Social Media (mostly facebook) alongside its website. This practice was successful and has brought YSTV to a larger audience as a result.

Notable productions Edwin worked on include YSTV's Freshers' Guide to York, a comprehensive guide for new students released prominently on A-Level results day 2017 through YSTV's and the University's social media channels, subsequently reaching over 30,000 views.

Edwin's other main project in his first year was Roes 2017, which he Production Managed alongside Executive Producer Katherine Bell. This Roses was one of the most successful in history, reached a peak of 6 simultaneous livestreams, and brought YSTV together with not just LA1TV but also member from Forge TV, LSTV, LSUTV and NaSTA.

Over Freshers 2017 he prioritised recruitment and visibility, and it was this push that saw many notable members join, including his successors as Station Director, Stephanie Shires and Thomas Schubert.

At YSTV's 2018 Elections, Edwin ran unnoposed for Station Director and subsequently led a newly expanded elected team, up from 16 to 18 roles.

Notable productions Edwin worked on in his second year include YUSU Elections 2018, Roses 2018 and helping Tom Lee with Unibrass 2018.

He was recognized for his work at the Love York Awards 2018, where he won Best Contribution to Student Media.

In his final year, Edwin once again pushed recruitment at Freshers 2018, bringing in more notable and soon-to-be-notable members. A massive prescence at Freshers Fair saw YSTV set up live on Greg's Place, with the feed on the then-newly installed LED screen.

Through the year, Edwin worked on many productions, and helped secured record funding for YSTV, covering the costs of new equipment and notably a new 27TB fileserver, McKellan.

Throughout the year, YSTV Sport became his pet project, for which he took on the role as executive producer. The series of sport live streams was designed to test the station's technical capabilities and train its members for Roses 2019. Other notable productions included YSTV does Hunted, the trip to Malham Cove and Summer Ball 2019 - for all of which he took on the role of editor.

Edwin's time as Station Director ended with a bang, as YSTV won Best Technical Achievement and Best Broadcaster at NaSTA 2019, and the week after he lead his second home Roses, with Roses 2019 finally coming together after 4 months of Project Group meetings. At the Love York Awards 2019, Edwin accepted the Best Committee Award and at the YUMAs 2019 the Best Media Group on behalf of all of YSTV.

During NaSTA 2019, Edwin was also elected NaSTA Chair, and will therefore stay connected with student tv.

A few days after, Edwin chaired YSTV's 2019 Elections, and made an emotional goodbye to his committee, along with fellow leavers Tom Lee, Sam Hance and Kenric Yuen.