VER at Super Bowl 2018: Top Equipment Rentals
The Minneapolis Super Bowl LII was unlike any previous year, with cold temperatures creating challenges for organizers and a footprint which spanned the entire city. Of course, the Super Bowl did not just take place in the Twin City- major parties were happening across the country- from Las Vegas Casinos to Nashville, Tennessee. The VER team kept busy, supporting 401 equipment orders, transferring 302 gear packages across 52 cities in 20 states.
HERE ARE A FEW VER EQUIPMENT / SERVICES HIGHLIGHTS FROM SUPER BOWL LII:
1) SUPER BOWL BROADCAST
NFL Media had to credential an astounding 700 people to facilitate Super Bowl 2018. The VER team had nearly 100 employees and contractors in attendance providing technical support. VER Flypacks sent feeds to a basement location at the IDS Center Skyscraper, the master control for all major broadcasts going out of the state. Mall of America, Minneapolis Convention Center, Hilton – Press Center and the Excel Center also had VER flypacks, capturing the excitement around the stadium.
This was not an overnight setup. Back at VER, the broadcast and systems team led by Bob Hawkanson, Bruno Brunelle, and Ryan Hatch had been meticulously routing and configuring hundreds of systems, ensuring the broadcast would go live without a hitch. The VER System Integration team were busy building broadcast audio/video flypacks for several weeks! This was a mammoth project, mapping hundreds of audio/video channels in collaboration with multiple television networks.
2) SUPER BOWL LII PEPSI HALFTIME SHOW
Supporting long-time Lighting Director/Media Server Programmer Jason Rudolph of Mobius Productions; Tim Nauss, Engineer with VER Creative Screens Control worked to design and provide on-site support for a system specific to the needs of The Super Bowl LII Pepsi Halftime Show. The Halftime Show team included Ricky Kirshner’s Touchdown Entertainment team, director Hamish Hamilton, production designer Bruce Rodgers, and lighting designer Bob Barnhart.
VER provided (2) Hippotizer Boreal +, the latest in the Hippotizer family and newest addition to VER Media Server Inventory. “Running the latest version of Hippotizer: 4.3; allowed us to utilize the ColorBlocks feature among other software improvements. A big improvement that could be seen during Justin Timberlake’s performance.”
On the LED-side, Mike Spencer, Luke Pilato, Rod Silhanek, and Gary Madura of the VER LED team, with support from Trace Deroy and Brandon Oosterhof, provided on-site production support for a variety of VER LED products. 84 CB5 tiles used on the main Timberlake stage and in the Laser Club in addition to 136 WinVision 9 tiles were provided by VER for screen elements on the field during the Super Bowl Halftime Show, Pre, and Post Game.
VER’s Chris Peterson and Jon Johnson, with support from Nate Fountain and Georges Tourtellotte, projected a tribute to Minneapolis hometown hero Prince on a massive, constantly flowing silkscreen. VER provided (8) Panasonic 31K Laser Projectors to achieve the desired effect and proper brightness on the projection surface.
3) 2018 DIRECTV NOW SUPER SATURDAY NIGHT CONCERT AT NOMADIC LIVE
Jennifer Lopez used VER Media Servers and Media Server Programming Services for her Nomadic Live show to be broadcast as part of the Super Saturday on Direct TV. VER has supported video content designer Nick Militello on this show and JLo’s Las Vegas residency show at Planet Hollywood for the past two years. The show uses (2) Disguise 4×4 VFC Media Servers supplied by VER.
“As always, VER was amazing to work with. We had such little time in the space so we had to work fast and be confident that when we plug in. VER’s Drew Atienza, our programmer, was crucial to every step of pre-production and actually show operation. I love the team of support at VER! Thanks again for the amazing support and dedication!”
– Nick Militello, Content Designer, J-LO Pre-Super Bowl Performance
4) SIRIUSXM RADIO
SiriusXM Radio streamed live from the Super Bowl in seven different languages, from a Minneapolis pop-up. VER is onsite supporting the stream with audio equipment and services.
Equipment included (5x) Yamaha TF1 consoles via Dante, Riedel Artist Series intercom, Riedel Bolero wireless beltpacks, 40×40 Blackmagic video routing for set graphics and set monitoring, supported by Dave Ragains – Communications/ Dante/ Video engineering support.
