Sports Video Group | Superbowl Coverage

Super Bowl Gumbo…a tradition unlike any other

Jeff Howard shows his gumbo the love hours before the start of Super Bowl XLIII.

When it comes to Super Bowl traditions the NFL Network is in its fourth year of keeping foodie traditionalists happy. Jeff Howard’s Super Bowl Gumbo, prepared in a five gallon batch complete with six pounds of andouille sausage, chicken, and gulf shrimp, has become a mainstay on Super Bowl Sunday for the past four years. For more than a decade, generator services provider Aggreko cooked up a batch of gumbo, in part because it is based in Louisiana and anyone from Lousiana loves making and sharing gumbo. But four years ago the company wasn’t present at Super Bowl XL in Detroit. There was an outcry from the faithful and Howard stepped in to fill the void–with some help from an Emeril Lagasse recepie. This year’s batch hit the stove top on Saturday evening at 5:30, with Howard whipping up the rue and adding some vegetables to build the base. “You know you’re heading in the right direction if it smells like saltine crackers,” says Howard, who spends the rest of his time working as NFL VP of operations and engineering. Another secret to his gumbo success? Using chicken stock and sausage and gulf shrimp straight from Louisiana. Rumor has it Aggreko, back on site at this year’s game, is whipping up its own batch as well. Sounds like Bud Bowl will need to step aside for Gumbo Bowl.

Innovative Show Design scores with pirate ship set

Innovative Show Design swabbed the decks of the Pirate Ship in James Raymond Stadium so it could serve the needs of NBC Sports during the Super Bowl tonight. ISD’s Chris Runnells oversaw a team that was responsible for designing and lighting the set which is an iconic part of the stadium (and taps into the seagoing history of the home team Buccaneers franchise).

“The ship’s sails are just one part of the overall scenic design and lighting project we did for NBC Sports at the game,” says Runnells, “but they are certainly the most noticeable.” The largest sail is 49′x20′ and graced the ship’s main. ISD’s team of lighting experts lit them for nighttime viewing as well, using specially built grids along the masts and decks.

In addition, Show Partners Crewing hired over 250 people for NFL Network’s Total Access programming that ran throughout the week, from Media Day to Game Day and the NFL Experience. The crew were drawn from Show Partners’ database of over 3000 experienced personnel. In addition, Show Partners
Payroll provided all payroll services for crew including camera operators, audio engineers, tape positions, utilities and electricians.

It’s not the first time ISD has helped NBC as the company handles set design and production for NBC Poker After Dark and the National Heads Up Poker Championships.

NFL Films still believes in celluloid heroes

Film is still the best bet when it comes to capturing Super Bowl excitement, like this shot from last year's game of Plaxico Burress of the New York Giants catching the game winning touchdown

On the technology side of the ball Jeff Howard, NFL Media Group, senior executive, engineering and broadcast technologies, will oversee not only the NFL international feed and NFL Network coverage but he also helps out NFL Films. In the age of HD I figured I would ask Jeff the obvious question: why isn’t NFL Films shooting everything on HD videotape? “There is still not a classic TV camera that has the latitude film does,” explains Howard. “If you’re shooting in less than ideal conditions you can put an image captured on film into a telecine and pull the image out of the mud and make great pictures.”But HD does play a role on the sidelines for NFL Films. Any time there are players or coaches wired foraudio an HD camera on the sideline captures 1080p images at 24 frames per second.
And, of course, NFL Films is keeping its eye on HD technology like CMOS sensors that are giving more latitude to HD productions.

NEP front and center for game coverage

The NEP ND3, typically used for NBC Sunday Football Night in America coverage, will be at the center of tonight’s Super Bowl coverage. For John Roche, NEP senior technical manager, tonight’s game is the culmination of three year’s of work. “It’s like the birth of a child and raising a child and watching them get bigger,” he says.
“We built this with NEP for Super Bowls,” adds Tim DeKime, NBC director for NFL operations. “ND4 will work as tape release and all the camea feeds will go through ND3.”
Among the features in ND3 are a vast array of Panasonic flat panels that can be reconfigured via an Evertz multiviewer. That helps when it comes to a show the size of the Super Bowl as it has a wealth of additional sources.
The main production area is centered around a Sony MVX8000A with four mix effects, an eight-channel DVEous unit, and a four-channel EVS with a DNF Controls ShotBox.
Outboard processing gear from Dolby, Rane, NVision digital audio delays and a large audio router from Grass Valley are also on hand, handlings signals from the Calrec 72-channel audio board.

Super Bowl XLIII: End of a production era?

The last time we blogged live from an event it was from the Beijing Olympics and my last post discussed whether the Beijing games were the end of big-buck Olympic production blowouts as networks around the world continue to look at producing much of the programming from thousands of miles away.
Once again a premier sporting event might be facing an end of an era in terms of the production. No, broadcasters next year won’t be producing the Super Bowl from a network facility thousands of miles away. The change next year relates to the Pro Bowl, the yearly equivalent of an All-Star game that has historically been played in Hawaii after the Super Bowl.
Next year the game will be played the week prior to the Super Bowl and in the same stadium as the Super Bowl. That move, for at least next year, will mean that broadcasters and production crew who have typically enjoyed (and required) the ability to set up for the Big Game over the course of at least seven or even eight full working days will have to gear up for the big game in a much tighter window. And because ESPN will air the Pro Bowl and CBS Sports will air the Super Bowl  only seven days later it might require both to share some facilities. And then there is getting all of the international broadcasters and media in place.
One thing is for sure: it will be interesting. And another? Hotels in Miami will enjoy a few extra days of higher rates and higher revenues (not to mention restaurants, airlines, nightclubs, rental cars, and bars). Maybe it will be enough to get Miami on the road to recovery!

Tech to watch for, part one

One of the big new technologies making its Super Bowl debut will be Inertia Unlimited’s super slow-motion system that makes use of Vision Research V12.1 cameras. The advantage, according to Inertia Unlimited’s Jeff Silverman, are two discreet HD-SDI outputs. One output passes live and uninterrupted action to the truck while a second can simultaneously play back slow-motion replays from the camera’s partitioned memory. All functions are in real time and able to used simultaneously.
The advantage is that it allows one camera position to do both live and replays simultaneously. Earlier systems could not deliver a live signal to the truck while in replay mode. Of the three systems only one will be a V12.1 with the other two V10 systems not having the discreet dual output capability. But all will be able to record game action between 300 and 600 frames per second.
Silverman, as always, continues to advance the capabilities of his system although a new feature is so brand spanking new it won’t be here in Tampa. “This week we’re introducing a video remote control panel that has been developed by Total RF and will give full paint control to the video operator in the truck,” says Silverman. “Our goal is to eliminate the need for an on site tech with the system.”

It’s no longer a small world for HD

Jeff Lombardi oversees the Super Bowl international world feed

Three years ago the NFL world feed made its debut in HD and less than a dozen countries took in the HD feed. But this year more than 153 nations and territories will deliver an HD signal to viewers, providing just how quickly HD has become a truly global phenomenon. For Jeffrey D. Lombardi, NFL Films, Director, International Production Operations, is overseeing the effort and making sure 18 broadcasters on site, including RAI, SMG China, France 2, NHK, ARD, and more, get what the need. “Fortunately technology conversations are pretty universal,” says Lombardi of potential communication breakdowns due to things being lost in translation. NBC’s clean feed plus three international feed cameras and NFL Network graphics will give the international show its own look and feel. Neural Audio (now DTS) will once again provide Surround Sound technology.

Super Bowl XLIII has record revenues

It’s official: Super Bowl XLIII on NBC is sold out so anyone planning on picking up a spot can put their millions elsewhere. Of course, just a sell out, to be honest, is an accomplishment given the current economic climate that has no doubt claimed a number of would-be advertisers. But NBC went one step further and st a record with $206 million in ad revenue, according to NBC Universal President and CEO Jeff Zucker. NBC’s $261 million in revenue for the full Super Bowl day also sets a new Super Bowl milestone.
Dick Ebersol, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics, Chairman, credits the plan to aggressively sell the majority of advertising early in the process at the record unit price of $3 million as a key reason for the record. “To finish selling out the Super Bowl in these last two weeks, in this economy and at record levels, is a testament to the dogged determination of Seth Winter [SVP, Sales & Marketing, NBC Sports],” adds Ebersol.

Monsters vs. Aliens is the early favorite for most buzzworthy Super Bowl spot.

A total of 32 advertisers have taken time in Super Bowl XLIII across a broad spectrum of categories but to me the fascinating move by NBC Sports is that fans of the advertisements featured in the gam will be able to view those ads almost immediately after they air, on popular websites NBC.com, Hulu.com and Superbowl.com. In addition, users will be able to post their favorite ads on a blog or webpage through both the NBC.com and Hulu.com widget applications.  Hulu will allow users to vote on their favorite ad, with the winner announced on Tuesday.
The move could give new legs to the advertisements that, for many, are often as much a part of the viewing as the game itself (however in recent years it seems the quality of the ads have slipped). Will this year’s ads show a renewed sense of vitality? The 3D commercial for Monsters vs. Aliens is already promising at least one “must see” ad.

Bruuucceeee!!!!

Super Bowl Sunday will give fans more to look forward to than just NBC’s first Super Bowl since 1998: there’s also a halftime performance by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band that promises to be one of the best halftime shows ever. Bob Muller is overseeing technical operations of the halftime show that will be produced out of NEP’s Denali truck. “We’ll take feeds from 12 Sony HDC-1500 cameras that NBC will use for game coverage plus have another nine cameras of our own,” says Muller. “We’ll have three jib cameras, four handheld cameras, and two robotic cameras on the stage. Getting ready for the big performance required three hours of rehearsals on Friday night and a steady, cold rain provided a challenge for all involved, including thousands of volunteer extras who need to stick around for the entire practice in order to be cleared to take part in the halftime show playing the part of Springsteen faithful.

Bob Muller (center, with hat) not only handles tech ops for the halftime show at Super Bowl XLIII. Here he goes over transmission logistics with one of the Thunderbird pilots who will be taking part in the flyover during the National Anthem.

The halftime show requires it’s own tricky dance as NBC Sports will be on air with a halftime report while the stage is rolled into place. Once the show is about to start signals from the 12 shared cameras will be pumped into Denali and then, following the performance, switched back to ND3 and ND4, the main game trucks. “The biggest challenge of a Super Bowl halftime show is the integration with the network broadcasting the game and the shared resources,” explains Muller.

ESPN Super Bowl coverage stage ready to roll

ESPN’s coverage of the runup to Super Bowl XLIII in Tampa made use of a new approach to the production: a special set that was built by MB Pro Sound, a Tampa, FL-based facility, that is basically a trailer truck that unfolds to form a 40×30 stage. Linda Willhite, ESPN senior coordinating director, says the network wanted to use a local company and ML Pro Sounds approach shave a lot of hours out of the stage set up process. “It makes it a lot easier to put the stage up and tear it down,” says Willhite. Originally designed for a concert tour by country singers Big & Rich, the trailer has two sets of walls: one that folds down to form the floor of the stage while a hydraulic system raises the roof section up 10 feet and it then unfolds outward. Cameras and production gear were rolled onto the stage and have been sending camera signals and audio back to Game Creek Video’s Yankee Clipper that is handling the broadcasts. Willhite says that with the next Super Bowl slated for Miami the stage might make a return to ESPN.