Summit Sessions Live: A chaotic learning experience


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Cameras film rapper K$tg performing on Summit Sessions Live Sept. 27 at Moore Hall.

A snake cable slithers more than 50 feet from a control room, through five doors and into a TV studio on the first floor of Moore Hall. The bundle of 12 wires gives life to monitors and microphones. Numbers on a digital clock climb as students grip the handles on three TV cameras. Nervous twitching and the humming of busybodies ceases.

Silhouetted fingers begin the countdown: “3, 2, 1.”

After more than five hours of rehearsal and weeks of preparation, a dormant sign on the south wall is awoken and blushes, which, for the eight students on set means, “We’re live.”

After cameras start rolling and theme music plays, host Carrie Brewer introduces the first of two live artists to those watching or listening.

Summit Sessions Live (SSL) is produced by student recording studio Moore Media Records, Moore Hall Television and radio station WMHW-FM. The collaborative effort airs live at 8 p.m. every other Friday. Each episode showcases two local artists.

About 400 people tune into the biweekly show, production manager Jason Peets said. Streamed episodes remain on YouTube and continue to receive traffic.

“People are interested in the show because of both the musical aspect and the interviews,” the Wixom junior said. “They get a grasp of different college-aged artists in the area.” 

While the crew must keep their audience in mind, Peets said the show is just as important for students, who are provided real-world experience. 

“It is really important to connect the three RSO’s on one show,” Peets said. “Students learn to tie everything together, and that’s what makes this special.”

SSL has a team of 25 students, which is the largest group to work on the show, said Peets, who has worked on the show from the beginning. 

The first episode of Season Four aired Sept. 27. The next episode will stream live on YouTube and broadcast on MHTV at 8 p.m. Oct. 11.

“Anything you do in live production — news or game shows — is going to have some level of stress,” floor manager Anna Brown said. “SSL teaches time management and how to work on the spot. It is everything you need to know in a chaotic atmosphere that will help in the long-run.”

The birth of an idea

SSL was born out of a series of conversations between audio facilities manager Jim Bollella and video facilities manager Aaron Jones. The goal was to create something unlike anything else.

“We wanted to create something new that was more collaborative, so we could involve more students and force them to work together as a team,” Bollella said.

Out of Bollella and Jones' conversation sprang the idea to start a live music show. Instinctively, the two knew how to combine the school’s record label, radio station and TV station together. They knew it would be complicated, Bollella said, but that was their reason to offer it to students.

“After we finally got the courage to offer the idea to students, they bit almost immediately,” Bollella said. “The enthusiasm was immediate.”

Students work on Summit Sessions Live Sept. 27 in Moore Hall.

Bollella described SSL as a “labor of love” and said the pressure of a live show is hard to recreate outside hands-on experience.

“SSL is something that can't be faked in a classroom. It’s real,” Bollella said. “We go on at 8 o’clock. There is no 8:01. If you’re not ready, there is no show.”

“(Faculty) teach students at this university how to do things but can’t teach them how to work around reality.” Bollella said.

Bollella and Jones have taken a step back from being front and center. Bollella said the goal of SSL was always to have students take over and do their own problem solving.

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