Super Bowl 50 is in the books and with it a massive effort that arguably will reshape the nature of Super Bowl operations for years to come. Why? Simply because of the sheer number of firsts at this year’s big game that might be here to stay.

As Super Bowl fervor crescendos in the Bay Area, the San Francisco 49ers’ production team has been hard at work behind the scenes, prepping the Levi’s Stadium control room to handle the big game. And to ensure that its video workflow is up to the task, the 49ers turned to Evertz to build out an IP infrastructure.

The undisputed biggest game in American sports is the Super Bowl, and this year Fox Sports is preparing a massive live production using a wide array of Vizrt production tools. Preparations began with a multi-year deal for Vizrt to provide Fox Sports with the Viz Libero sports analysis system for both the national and regional networks. Viz Libero enhances play-by-play coverage by providing alternate angles, virtual fly throughs and detailed analysis with telestration tied to the field.

Clay Paky fixtures dominated the lighting rig for Katy Perry’s glittering halftime show at Super Bowl XLIX in the University of Phoenix Stadium in Glendale, Arizona.  Lighting designer Bob Barnhart of LA-based Full Flood chose a large array of Clay Paky Sharpy, Mythos and A.leda B-EYE K20 fixtures for the 12-minute show.

FOX Sports’ broadcast of Super Bowl XLV on January 28, 2011 was the most watched television program in American history. The championship game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Green Bay Packers drew approximately 163 million viewers around the world, and also marked the debut of the Sennheiser MKH 8070 shotgun microphone, which was deployed on eight handheld cameras on the field for the duration of the game.

Football fans around the world will be awed by unbelievable slow motion replay imagery during this Sunday’s telecast of Super Bowl XLVI between the New York Giants and New England Patriots on NBC! Fletcher Chicago will be providing four (4) of the new NAC Hi-Motion II™ Ultra Slow Motion Digital cameras to capture the dramatic field action at this year’s Super Bowl.

After months of designing, planning, and preparing, the Pepsi Super Bowl XLVII Halftime Show took the field in just under eight-minutes, powering up in only four minutes. Then, in just 12-minutes, a full concert quality production with lights, video, and even pyrotechnics was presented to an audience of over 108 million people worldwide. For the high-profile live event, Production Resource Group, L.L.C., supported Lighting Designer Al Gurdon, providing the lighting package and the lead lighting labor for the spectacular Halftime show. This year’s production, executive produced by Ricky Kirshner of RK Productions, featured Beyoncé along with a reunion performance of Destiny’s Child.

Visitors to The Production Show (TPS) 2012 are in for a treat, with a line-up of free seminars that is designed to inspire, inform and educate content production professionals. The event, which runs alongside Broadcast Video Expo 2012 at Earls Court, 14-16 February 2012, is supported by many leading production industry bodies including BAFTA and Directors UK.

NewstarLED, a leading manufacturer for designing, manufacturing and selling all kinds of LED Screens, with 11 years experiences, 10,000sqm factory, 150 employees, highly recommends their hotselling Super Slim "U Series" Fine Pitch Screen-

More than 25 years after they unapologetically catapulted into the UK charts, and 10 since disbanding to produce solo material, much-loved British rockers Supergrass returned to touring with audio rental house Britannia Row in February and March.
 

Lighting designer Willie Bothma once again lit the Kings of Chaos on their latest tour to Sun City and at GrandWest’s Grand Arena in Cape Town with a grandMA2. The full technical was supplied by Gearhouse Group’s Cape Town branch and supported by Gavin Taylor, Sean Caie and the team at the Grand Arena.

At the University of Toledo in Ohio, the Department of Communication provides students with practical, hands-on video production learning experiences while creating live in-venue programming and ESPN3 streaming broadcasts for the school’s Athletics department. The department relies on HDTV cameras from Hitachi Kokusai Electric America, Ltd. (Hitachi Kokusai) to provide high-quality image acquisition for its productions, most recently adding four Z-HD6000 studio and field cameras for the university’s football stadium.
 

One of pop’s biggest singer-songwriters, Gary Barlow, has premiered a one-off open-air show version of his recent ‘Since I Saw You Last’ tour in Dubai. For the special event, lighting designer Tim Routledge specified an array of super bright Clay Paky fixtures, including one of the latest additions to Clay Paky’s product line the SuperSharpy, from leading supplier Eclipse Staging Services.

Led by Managing Director Johan Högfeldt, Swedish enterprise Supersonic Svenska is the latest recruit to the privileged ranks of DYNACORD distributors. DYNACORD has acquired a solid partner known for its experience and expertise in this Stockholm-based enterprise, as Supersonic Svenska has been developing and distributing exceptional sound systems since 1999.

At this year’s NAB Show, leading VR/360° production studio Supersphere will be debuting 12G glass-to-glass flypacks optimized for live VR/360° streaming. These cutting edge multi-geometry (mesh/rectilinear/equirectangular) flypacks can handle 360°, 180°, 4K, or HD production and seamlessly mix and match each geometry, and includes built-in VDN (video distribution network) encoding and delivery for live streaming to any platform or custom player. Supersphere will showcase these flypacks in the Z CAM booth, C 1052, throughout the NAB Show, occurring April 9-12 in Las Vegas.