[266] MTSU mass comm students lend skills to C-USA volleyball broadcasts

MURFREESBORO — The 2013 Conference USA Volleyball Championship showcased more than just the top C-USA teams and players at MTSU’s Alumni Memorial Gym last weekend.

The four-day, 12-team event was also an opportunity to give fans around Conference USA a look at broadcasts put together by the university’s College of Mass Communication.

A team of 50-plus students, under the direction of Bob Gordon, an assistant professor of electronic media communication at MTSU, produced and broadcast the first 10 matches of the Conference USA Volleyball Championship on the C-USA Digital Network.

The weekend of broadcasts was nothing new to the students, who have produced 27 volleyball and women's soccer matches on the Middle Tennessee campus so far this fall. MTSU crews work regularly with ESPN3 and Sinclair Broadcasting Corp. to produce sports and other events and have gained a strong reputation for their work on projects with PBS affiliates.

“I couldn't be more proud of the hard work and dedication invested by the students and the opportunity offered by Middle Tennessee,” Gordon said. “We produced these events the same way a broadcast network would, and it shows.

“This has been invaluable experience for the students and will be a great addition to their portfolio. We are also happy that the productions benefited from the hard work of the teams.”

Production for the Conference USA Volleyball Championship involved 56 students and an eight-camera shoot at Alumni Memorial Gym, orchestrated from the university's on-site Mobile Production Lab.

The crew also used an on-campus studio in the Bragg Mass Communication Building to produce and broadcast an intermission report that aired between the second and third sets of each match.

Gordon’s Advanced Video Production class handled the game coverage, while the intermission shows were produced by EMC assistant professor Rob Jasso’s Advanced Multimedia Journalism class.

Game audio was produced by students in the Live Audio Production class taught by Matt Foglia, an associate professor in the Department of Recording Industry.

CBS Sports Network produced and broadcast Sunday's championship match, but it had help from MTSU students who put together highlights from the tournament’s early rounds.

Some of those students also had the opportunity to shadow their professional counterparts on Sunday and gain more real-world experience to accompany the hands-on work in class and on-site for the productions.

In addition, after their volleyball championship duties ended Saturday, many of the students moved next door to Murphy Center for Sunday's inaugural HD production for Sinclair Broadcasting of the Blue Raiders' women's basketball game against nationally ranked Kentucky.

For a photo gallery of the Conference USA Volleyball Championship production team at work, visit http://www.goblueraiders.com/content.cfm/id/71967.