Some of my proudest accomplishments so far this semester happened as part of my Senior Thesis Course, Live Event Production, with Professor Chrissy Guest and Griffin Schultz. In just a month and a half and over the course of two event-focused weekends, I have learned more than I ever thought imaginable about planning and implementation of on-location productions, production management, engineering, multimedia design, and web-based broadcasting. 

Our first event was a 3-hour broadcast providing full coverage of Ithaca’s annual Apple Harvest Festival. For this event, I was tasked with the roles of Studio Engineer and Technical Director. My fellow engineers and I worked many hours over the weekend to build the signal flow for the engineering of the broadcast, an entire control room from the ground up, and three separate studio sets. As technical director, I organized and fed cameras and remote signals to broadcasts, executing real-time switching, video playback coordination, and graphic integration in cooperation with the Director. I had an absolute blast learning more about engineering, signal flow, technical directing, and live broadcast operations. 

After a one-week turnaround, we were back in production for our second live broadcast, partnering with the Village of Owego to provide live on-the-ground coverage of their 5th annual Porchfest! For this production, I took on the role of Assignment Editor. I assisted producers in the preparation of their three separate one-hour broadcasts, ensuring a cohesive understanding of the Porchfest schedule and map, as well as organizing remote crews and respective zones to be deployed around the village. I also contacted and collaborated with multiple local businesses to provide sponsorship for our broadcasts and food for our crew! During the broadcasts, I spoke over comms to our remote crews, made sure they made it to their hits as marked in the rundown, and organized live bonus content for them to capture and include in our show. I am incredibly proud of how our team persisted through all of the challenges thrown our way throughout the day and ended up with three hours of live, original content.