Sports Video Group | SuperBowl Coverage

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.

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.

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’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.

You run into all kinds of people in a Super Bowl compound, including people and friends who aren’t necessarily involved with the event. Here Ken Aaagaard, SVG Chairman and CBS Sports, EVP, Operations and Production Services (left), catches up with Rich Eilers, Canon USA, Regional Sales Manager. Of course, Canon’s team was actually more than busy at the Super Bowl with dozens of lenses in use not only by NBC Sports but also the NFL Network, local news crews, ESPN, and a host of international broadcasters. As for Mr. Aaagaard’s presence? He’s always one to see what’s going on in the field but he’s also already thinking about next year’s Super Bowl, to be broadcast in Miami.

Glenn Adamo relaxing in his office in one of the NFL Super Bowl trailers.

While NBC Sports is focused on the domestic production Glenn Adamo, NFL VP, Media Operations and Broadcasting, is focused on the needs of international broadcasters as well as the NFL Network. NEP’s SS25 is on hand for the World Feed while ESPN SS20 is handling transmission and SS19 pulls duty for SS19 (yes, it’s a very busy Super Bowl for NEP staffers!). “SS25 is the same truck used by ESPN for Monday Night Football,” says Adamo of a truck that will deliver the Super Bowl to 61 international partners in 230 countries. Jeff Howard, NFL Media Group, senior executive, engineering and broadcast technologies, begins laying out what will be needed for the Super Bowl 11 months out. That gives Howard and the team time to recover from the exhausting Super Bowl run up and also figure out how the Super Bowl gumbo needs to be tweaked. But I’ll tell you more about that on Sunday….

John Roche (seated) and Ken Goss of NBC Sports discussing the production of Super Bowl XLIII

John Roche, NBC Sports, senior technical manager, says that 72 HD cameras will be used during NBC’s pre-game and game coverage of Super Bowl XLIII. Camera feeds will be pumped into NEP’s ND3 and ND4 trucks for the game production and NEP’s Denali for the pre-game. The vast majority of those cameras will be Sony HDC-1000 and HDC-1500 units coupled with Canon lenses.
Raymond James Stadium is one of the older stadiums in the NFL and, as such, required NBC to lay down cabling to handle the HD signals. “We laid down about 50 miles worth of cable,” says Roche. The NFL laid down its own 50 miles of cable so if there are any freaks who love the smell of cabling reading head down to Tampa and get freaky.

Four key members of the Super Bowl production team (l-to-r): John Roche of NEP, Ken Goss and Tim DeKime of NBC Sports, and Joe Puthoff of NEP

By Friday afternoon the NBC Sports technical team was in fine shape but, of course, that doesn’t mean they’ll be able to breath a sigh of relief. But they were able to spend a few minutes discussing this year’s production with me.
This is the first Super Bowl on NBC since 1998, a lifetime ago in terms of sports technology. And NBC Sports won’t be scrimping on resources. More than 142 production personnel will work on the game broadcast with another 98 crewers handling pre-game duties and all told more than 500 people are on site for NBC Sports. “We’re putting our best foot forward and won’t be skimping on facilities and resources,” says Tim DeKime, Tim DeKime, NBC Sports, director, NFL Operations.