PRG takes the field at Super Bowl Halftime in Miami
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The Solution
When the legendary rock band The Who took the stage at the Sun Life Stadium in Miami, FL for the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show, it was the culmination of months of hard work and collaboration. Lighting Designer Al Gurdon knew there was only one chance to get it right so he turned to PRG to provided the lighting system and production crew for the most intense twelve minutes in live entertainment.
Gurdon, Production Designer Bruce Rodgers and Screens/Graphics Producer Lee Lodge collaborated on the NFL Network Production with executive producer Ricky Kirshner and director Hamish Hamilton, translating The Who’s iconic visual vocabulary into an integrated, cutting-edge design. “I wanted to develop the visual impact of the stage floor itself, and extend that out into the audience in a three-dimensional way,” Gurdon explained.
Gurdon’s lighting programmer was industry veteran Michael “Oz” Owen. Due to the severely limited rehearsal time on-site, Gurdon and Owen spent five days at PRG Essential Lighting’s pre-visualization studio in London, programming the show. Owen worked with Video Content Programmer Jason Rudolph to insure that the lighting and the LEDs in the stage floor were completely synchronized. Owen and Rudolph both used PRG’s Virtuoso® control consoles. “I always prefer using a Virtuoso,” Owen said. “With PRG, I feel really comfortable because there is always plenty of support.”
Rudolph added, “I used the Virtuoso because it made it so easy for Oz and I to sync our cue lists. He could export his cue timings, and I could import them directly into my show and edit them as needed.” PRG also engineered a HTP (Highest Takes Precedence) data merge for the lighting and the video systems. “The merge,” explained Rudolph, “was there so that we could control the color blocks either via the media server doing pixel-mapping, or from Oz’s Virtuoso console. It gave us more programming options.”
Gurdon was very pleased with the results. “We had a very good rig, with no reliability problems at all. PRG was great; I work with them all the time and I find they provide great service and great crews. I always know PRG will deliver; I couldn’t ask for more from them.”