Husson Students Put Live Sound Knowledge Into Action on ShipRocked Cruise

Published on: February 11, 2026

Eight Husson University live sound students spent a week at sea gaining hands-on industry experience in late January on the ShipRocked cruise.

The cruise has served as a unique learning experience by giving students an opportunity to work on large scale professional productions, in environments they wouldn’t be able to on campus. More than 40 heavy metal and rock bands performed across multiple venues aboard the Carnival Horizon ship from Jan. 25 to 31. 

Working on the cruise is a massive undertaking. On day one, the crew loaded roughly 1,800 road cases onto the cruise ship, each weighing between 50 and 200 pounds. But it’s not only physically demanding, it’s also logistically demanding.

“When you have a concert at the Bangor Waterfront Pavillion venue, you don’t tie the extra cases to the wall during the show. On the cruise ship you have to because the ship moves and you don’t want a case rolling across that stage,” said Assistant Professor Eric Ferguson, who has supervised and worked with the interning students on the cruise since 2012.

For graduating seniors, the cruise opens employment pathways in an industry with consistent seasonal work from October through March. Several recent Husson graduates now work with ASK4 Entertainment, thanks to the relationships made on the cruise. 

"There's all kinds of interesting specific things to cruises. Once you learn about how to put on shows on cruises, that becomes part of your skill set," Ferguson said.

Two students, Adam Cunha and Max Mason who participated in the cruise the previous year as juniors, used their connections to stay on the ship after ShipRocked ended. The two worked on Soul Train, another charter cruise the week after ShipRocked, as paid employees.

Liam Daly, another senior in the live sound program, approached the cruise as an opportunity to experience professional production at a scale he wouldn't have encountered on campus.

“I also get to see a different side of live event production, something that's super untraditional compared to our typical paths we take," Daly said. "We get the opportunities on campus, with sports and different events that happen throughout, but opportunities like this where we get flown out, everything's paid for, and we get that experience is not only great for networking but we get to build in-person relationships that carry on past Husson."

Gillian Nichols arrived on the cruise with four years of NESCom coursework that had prepared her to engage with professional engineers as a peer, asking questions, rather than simply following orders.

"The live sound program does a good job of giving you this wide range of skills and knowledge. You're working the shows on campus but also you have the knowledge of the gear and how it works from a technical standpoint. So even if we were just stage hands and kind of helping out on stage, I was able to have conversations with the engineers because I had at least some background knowledge on how their consoles work and this is how shows work," Gillian said.

The cruise changed how students saw themselves and their future careers. By leaving the campus environment, it exposed them to the actuality of the professional world they will be entering.

"As much as I love NESCom, it is easy to feel like you're in this bubble. So it was cool to be in this huge production that you're helping out on, and it pushed you into the real world a little bit. I am actually a little bit more comfortable with the idea of graduating now and working shows on a more consistent basis, or even the idea of going on tour is less scary now," Gillian said.

Ferguson sees the trip as evidence of Husson's educational model working. Students don’t just learn about live sound production from textbooks, but by working alongside professionals on real shows.

"Husson prides itself on its experiential education. This is the ultimate experiential experience. They're in their senior years, they spend a week working on a massive high budget big event, and they're doing what they've learned to do and it has an immediate connection to employment," Ferguson said. "It is fantastic for them to see that what they've been learning about for four years has a career associated with it, that they immediately work with a whole bunch of people that are getting paid to do their work professionally, and they make those connections, they shake those hands, they get those email addresses, and they are often hired. It just validates their whole Husson experience."

For seniors in their final semester, the cruise is a chance to bridge the gap between the classroom and the live sound industry. ShipRocked provides experiences where students can apply their four years of learning while also taking the first step into the professional world before they graduate in May.

“This is a moment to crossfade and transition into their professional lives. It's a reinforcement of the career path they've chosen," Ferguson said.

— Calvin White