Bonnaroo Organizer Calls MTSU ‘The Gold Standard’ in Video Production
As professors in the College of Media and Entertainment at Middle Tennessee State University, Bob Gordon and Michael Fleming usually grade the work of their students on classroom assignments.
This past weekend, however, MTSU’s classroom was the 2024 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. And it was Daniel Gibbs, director of broadcast and content at C3, the company tasked with staging the annual Bonnaroo experience, who graded MTSU’s production work at the event. Don’t worry: True Blue’s work at the four-day event passed with flying colors.
“I do these festivals all over the country and I’ve never seen another MTSU operation,” Gibbs said. “I’ve never seen another school that has such a program. I think the access to the equipment and tech that MTSU has … is top notch.”
“A lot of the people I work with over the years went to MTSU, learned at MTSU, so it does seem like it is the gold standard for live video production. There’s nothing like that in Austin where we do (Austin City Limits). There’s nothing like that in Chicago where we do Lollapalooza.”
Gordon, interim chair of the Department of Media Arts and lead faculty member of “The Truck,” MTSU’s almost $2 million mobile production lab, was pleased but not surprised with the grade. The MTSU team this year did 40% of the livestreaming video and audio production work from the This and That tent stages, aired worldwide on Hulu’s streaming platform.
“No other university in the country does a production like this,” Gordon said. “Thirty-two students from two classes, filling all the television production roles, including director, camera operator and audio engineer. We had two control rooms, including 10 cameras for both stages. And we fed the large video screens at both stages for the on-site audience.”
That’s not luck, said MTSU President Sidney A. McPhee. He said it represents major strategic investments by the university in faculty, equipment and experiences like Bonnaroo to give students the real-world experience that will position them for jobs in the music and video production industries.
“We don’t come to Bonnaroo and just talk to students about the business,” he said. “We come to Bonnaroo every year to give our students opportunities that will get them in the business.”
MTSU’s earned the trust of Bonnaroo’s management by doing the work, every year since 2015, when Media Arts and Recording Industry first brought The Truck to the Farm. Gibbs said MTSU started with work on The Who stage, set aside for emerging artists, and showed it could produce at a professional level.
“When we (C3 Presents) came on board, we repeated their usual approach, you know, video production at the Who Stage,” Gibbs said. “And through that process, we really had a great rapport. We were very impressed with the video production, the kids are enthusiastic, and we really just enjoyed working with them.
“We really enjoyed the program and saw that not only do they have the tech and the personnel, but also a great roster of students with a lot of talent,” he said. “This year, they’re doing This Stage and That Stage — for sure, two pretty big stages here — so over the years they’ve kind of evolved and we’ve pushed them to take on bigger challenges.”
Fleming, who teaches audio production at MTSU, said “the experience is valuable on so many levels.”
“Students are collaborating with tour professionals, so they are seeing behind the scenes in terms of the actual presentation of a live event,” he said. “And they are seeing how the sausage is made in terms of live and post-produced TV programming for music performance.”
Gibbs credited Gordon and Fleming, saying that the “program directors I’ve worked with over the years are just nice, helpful, inspiring and really let people shine.”
He added, “The students especially are always enthusiastic, excited to be here and really want to excel. From the camera work to the audio to the directing to all the tech positions, it’s as good as you see on a lot of the standard production, which is why we love working with them.”
Students from MTSU’s School of Journalism and Strategic Media and Photography sequence in Media Arts also got opportunities at Bonnaroo. As part of MTSU’s partnership with C3 Presents, the students were afforded full media access to the grounds and filed stories and photos on deadline on Bonnaroo for several media organizations in Tennessee.
