On Sunday, February 13th one of the most watched events on television —Super Bowl LVI—was seen by 112.3 million people on the various networks of NBC Universal. Although a bit less than the 118.2 million who watched the last Super Bowl NBC Sports covered in 2018; viewership was up 16% from last year's game. The broadcast coverage of both NBC events was lit by the Lighting Design Group.
The game was played at the brand new SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, CA ... the home of the L.A. Rams, who also competed against the Cincinnati Bengals—and won. Many people tune in to the Super Bowl to see the huge musical Halftime show— which this year included Dr. Dre, Eminem, Snoop Dogg, Mary J. Blige, and Kendrick Lamar.
What many people do not realize, is that over and above the actual football game—and the Halftime Show—there was a week of "pre-game" activities broadcast at various venues all around the City of Angels. Those pre-game events are planned a year before the game with advance teams (including our LDG lighting team) scouting locations that would need to be lit for broadcast.
NBC Sports Pre-Game director, Pierre Moossa called upon NBC's go-to design collaborators, Chris Runnells of ISD (Innovative Show Design) and Steve Brill and Dennis Size of LDG (Lighting Design Group), to create the look of all broadcast stages/studios -- and to make sure its on camera talent looked fabulous (despite the brutal sun of Southern California). Another dozen broadcast positions were scattered not only in and around the SoFi Stadium, but all over L.A., where a few dozen anchors and correspondents would be dispatched to and broadcasting from throughout the week, and especially on game day.
Since Steve Brill was taking the lighting lead on the NBC Sports coverage of the Beijing Olympics, Dennis Size took over as the senior lighting designer for the Super Bowl. Working with Dennis was Senior Coordinating Gaffer, Chris Hibbard of Creative Technology (who also provided all the lighting equipment), and LDG's senior production manager, David Cook.
A massive undertaking of this magnitude doesn't happen with one or two people. After Size designed all the lighting for the various stages, and Hibbard planned out the rigging and fixture package, a highly skilled team of designers, gaffers, programmers and electricians were brought in to create LDG's lighting Dream Team. It truly "takes a village" ... and a host of IATSE Local 33 electricians.
Below are the light plots and stage elevations from several of the major broadcast stages/"studios" that were major show anchor positions. Be sure to click the images, there are multiple plots to see:
PLATES 1 and 1A depict the lighting design for the 2 studios overlooking the playing field inside the SoFi Stadium ... the MAIN STAGE and the adjacent CLICKER Studio -- where the execution of the lighting design was supervised by L.D. Geoff Amoral, Gaffer: Chris Hibbard, and Max Rose playing the Grand MA.
PLATE 3 was also at the LA CCONVENTION CENTER—in the West Hall, which was set up as a Media Center (the home of "Radio Row"). LD Karim Badwan supervised this broadcast site.
PLATE 2 is the design for the stage at the entrance to the NFL Experience at the south entrance of the L.A. Convention Center. At this broadcast 'studio', L.D. Dave Mann and his gaffer, Ryan Anderson had to wear earplugs—the decibel level of this "mini-theme park" was so loud.
PLATE 6 is the drawing for the broadcast stage at the Santa Monica Pier—stretching out into the Pacific Ocean—and 15 miles from the SoFi Stadium...where L.D. Justyn Davis fought a difficult morning battle with the sun.
PLATE 1B shows the structure and lighting design of the stadium broadcast booth for the Telemundo Network coverage—built right into seating section 211.
PLATE 7 is the Tailgate Stage, situated in the "owners" parking lot way outside the stadium. In between lighting celebrity broadcast interviews at this studio, LD Jeff Ravitz read excerpts from his book ("Lighting For Televised Live Events") to gaffer/programmer Thomas Schneider.
PLATES 4, 4A, 5, 5A, and 5B are the designs for the busiest of the broadcast studios...the Lakeside stages with the SoFi Stadium in the background. Shows were broadcast from these 2 stages (and the adjacent ENG stand-up positions) for the entire week -- often from early in the morning through late into the evening. The hardest working L.D. in television, Mike Grabowski, lit these stages (repeatedly) with Teddy Sosna programming, and Marty Langley and Jesse Kelston gaffing.
At night, Lake Stage #1 was taken over for Olympic coverage with Steve Brill guiding his associate designer/programme Billy Albertelli, and gaffer Brian Renoni.
There were many other locations both inside and outside the stadium where Alex Kyle-Dipietropaolo, Andrew Oosterbrook (on-field LDs), Paul Lohr (Anchor Booth LD), gaffer Greg Capp and Dennis Size himself made "the magic" happen. The most illuminating fun however, was had by LD John Reynolds and his trusty gaffer Leon Virgo, who rode all around L.A. in their Piper grip truck lighting with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rutledge Wood (and a dinosaur) on their "SoCal Adventures".
Live Design's coverage of this year's Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show is sponsored by All Access.