July 13, 2026

Classrooms to Careers: Ferris State student's IT internship keeps network behind Stranger Things, Black Panther productions running

When the internet went out at Cinespace Atlanta's Stage 6 this summer, Riley Deloach didn't wait for someone else to find the problem. He traced it to a dead power distribution unit, re-plugged the affected cords and moved the switches onto a working uninterruptible power supply, bringing the studio's only occupied space back online.

"After looking around for a while, I found out the power distribution unit had died," said Deloach, a Ferris State Computer Information Technology major.

That kind of troubleshooting is routine this summer for Deloach at Cinespace Atlanta, a soundstage campus that has hosted Netflix's "Stranger Things," Marvel's "Black Panther" and Lionsgate's "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1."

The 360,000-square-foot campus has 13 sound stages south of downtown Atlanta and is one of six Cinespace locations spanning the United States, Canada and Germany. Deloach, a Big Rapids native expected to graduate in 2029, works alongside Cinespace's in-house crew and NexusTek, an outside IT firm the studio contracts for additional support. The team includes a lead engineer based in Lithuania, who works nights to stay aligned with the Atlanta schedule.

"IT for a production company is way different from what I learned in class," Deloach said. "I mostly worked with Wi-Fi, cable management and making documents like guides and maps."

Ferris State's Computer Information Technology program, in the College of Business, prepares students for network administration, IT infrastructure and cybersecurity careers through hands-on coursework and internships like Deloach's. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports network and computer systems administrators earned a median annual salary of $96,800 in May 2024.

Most of Deloach’s job is standard upkeep — swapping aging hardware and patching rooms to wall jacks across a campus where some racks serve more than one stage; stages 7 and 8, for instance, share a single switch. This summer, that work also included new equipment installed around the studio.

"I was surprised by how underdeveloped the sets look compared to how they come out in the movie or show," Deloach said. "From the server room, it's not our business how it's run. We provide the sound stages and offices, and they provide the rest."

Off the clock, Deloach also competes for Ferris State's Overwatch Esports team.