Super Bowl 15 - A Technological Feat of Super Proportions
February 6th 2015 - 01:00 PM
What broadcast engineer, video or audio technician or camera person hasn’t wanted to work the Super Bowl? Being part of the broadcast team for the most high-profile event in U.S. television is considered by many to be a career-crowning achievement. For those who do work the Super Bowl, it may be just another weekend football game—albeit one with an intensity that is off the chart!
However, what most of us don’t fully understand is that these crew members collectively spend thousands of hours, long days and nights of hard work to install and connect the mountains of technology that is required to produce America’s premiere sports broadcast. If that’s not enough pressure, Super Bowl XLIX was also aired in 128 countries in 25 languages.
The Broadcast Bridge took on the challenge to pull back the curtain on this massive technology feat to provide some deserved visibility to a few of the dedicated people who help make the Super Bowl broadcasts possible. We also wanted to highlight some of the technology used to produce this international broadcast event.
What follows in this Special Report is an inside look at the dozens of trucks, a hundred channels of still-store and instant replay, remote editing and production systems, 4K cameras, 200 X 100, nine M/E production switchers, massive audio consoles, more than a hundred channels of intercom, and thousands of other pieces of gear— all needed to create this year’s 110-million viewers sports extravaganza. Want to peak behind the Super Bowl technology curtain? Read on.
