Rihanna made a truly spectacular entrance to her show at the Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show, broadcast live from State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona on Sunday, February 12, 2023.
TAIT custom-fabricated nine flying platforms—seven were used during the performance and two for rehearsals—with their movement controlled by the TAIT Navigator™ Automation Platform system. Their technical wizardry was written up in Wired: “How Rihanna Pioneered a New Kind of Super Bowl Performance” and as TAIT notes on their website "perfectly encapsulates our goal of doing what’s never been done while realizing the creative vision of Bruce Rodgers and Rihanna’s team including Willo Peron and Parris Goebel." In addition, the TAIT Navigator Camera Systems captured live feeds for the broadcast.
Let's face it, it's not everyday you see a flying set of seven LED-lit platforms suspended between 15' and 60' above a football field, flanked by 80 dancers plus seven band members with superstar Rihanna in the center as she wowed the crowd with her first major performance since 2018. TAIT goes into depth about the design and technology for the flying platforms on their website in their recap of the Apple Music Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show including some backstage photos of the complicated rigging system.
Read Live Design's exclusive Super Bowl LVII Halftime Show coverage here.