While most football fans will be at home watching the Broncos and the Seahawks battling in the Super Bowl, two lucky and accomplished Kent State electronic media production students will be at the game helping broadcast it. 

Sophomore Mike Donelan and senior Chris Nyman were chosen to attend Super Bowl XLVIII with the TeleProductions satellite truck to broadcast the game for Fox Mexico. 

“They’re our two best students,” engineering manager Dan Tonelli said. “They’ve both been involved with our sports productions in the past couple of years, so it was pretty obvious when we had to pick two students we picked our two best.”

Kent State’s TeleProductions department was chosen for this broadcast through their relationship with a company called PMTV that contacted TeleProductions last year to broadcast the Super Bowl for BBC, British Broadcasting Corporation. That, coupled with other smaller shoots, built a strong reputation for TeleProductions and ultimately gave them the chance to cover the Super Bowl again for Fox Mexico.

Both students say they have a good amount of experience working with the satellite truck. Nyman is in his fourth year working for TeleProductions and Donelan is in his second year. They both say they’re more than thrilled to have the opportunity to broadcast the Super Bowl.

“It’s the Super Bowl. You’re talking about one of the largest events of the year and we’re going to be there,” Nyman said.

Details on their specific assignments weren’t set in stone as of Thursday, but TeleProductions will have cameras located on the field, in the announcing booth and outside the stadium. However, Nyman said they have pretty good ideas as to who will be doing what: Nyman could possibly be in the booth and Donelan may get to be on the field.

Tonelli said he credits the student employees to the departments success and said that they couldn’t do what they do without them. Being selected to attend the Super Bowl is just another way to exemplify the teamwork that goes into Kent State’s productions. 

“It’s really about the students, it’s not about us,” Tonelli said.

Both Donelan and Nyman accredit their success and position to the guidance and dedication of the TeleProductions department. The program serves to give students practical, real-life learning experiences. It is a part of CCI but lies somewhere between a service unit and academic unit.

“They’ll take people who have never run a camera to the Super Bowl after years of training, and they’ll take people who have had prior experience and allow them to grow and flourish,” Donelan said. “It just shows their dedication to students. It’s also very valuable real-world experience impossible to replicate in a classroom setting. If you’re not out doing it, you’re not going to learn.”

For more information on Kent State’s TeleProductions department go to www.kent.edu/teleproductions.

Contact Heather Inglis at [email protected].