Bright lights. The ca-ching of coins. Three miles of pure sin. Las Vegas is this year’s home to the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Broadcast Engineering Conference. Five Quinnipiac media production students were selected to work at the exhibition. Jocelyn Schwartz, Eric Oppegaard, Jeff DeHaan, Melissa Aitchison and Ryan Stevenson were flown out to Vegas on April 21.

The students were accompanied by Pete Sumby, associate director of the Ed McMahon Mass Communications Center, and Mike Bay, media production specialist will join them later this week.

The students were trained for two days. From April 24 to 27, they will represent and demonstrate various Sony broadcast systems and technology to professionals in various realms of the broadcasting field.

In an e-mail that Stevenson received about the process and the show it said, “The electronic media show brings together over 100,000 professionals and 1,400 exhibiting companies from 130 countries around the world. As the NAB states on its Web site: ‘This is the gathering place for comprehensive media education, inspiration and innovation.'”

According to the NAB Web site, the conference “covers broadcast and broadcast-related technologies in depth, focusing on issues relevant to practicing broadcast engineers and others concerned with future technology trends for the broadcast industry.”

Its main target audience is broadcast engineers and technicians, engineering consultants, contract engineers, broadcast equipment manufacturers, distributors, R&D engineers.

Stevenson is excited for his first trip to Las Vegas.

“I’m most excited about just being able to network and talk with people who share similar interests of mine in the media world. That’s what it’s all about for me.”

He also said he was told he would be working about four hours a day at the exhibition, not counting any dinners or extra events that may occur.

“I’ll be demonstrating a high-end Sony High-Definition camera, the HDCF950 at one of the Sony booths. Then during my free time, I plan on venturing out into the city with the others,” Stevenson said.

Students heard about the contest through the School of Communications. For the contest, students had to create an original 30 second video commercial spot. Submissions were judged based on the technical, creativity and originality of the piece. The students selected will have the opportunity to gain experience and make great contacts in their major.