Lighting designer Nick Whitehouse used Robe SVOPATT multisource LED luminaires for NBC Sports’ 2026 Sunday Night Baseball show open, starring Zac Brown Band. The inventive lighting created the scale and energy of an epic stadium performance.
Filmed at American Family Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers, the show open features Zac Brown Band performing a reimagined rock classic. Nick needed high-impact sources that could evoke the power of stadium lighting across multiple camera angles.
Eleven SVOPATT units, supplied by lighting rental vendor Clearwing, were rigged vertically on five self-climbing towers behind the band. Nick worked closely with DP Jordan McMonagle and production designer Evan Rohde to create the specific look and feel required by director Tripp Dixon.
“The SVOPATTs worked brilliantly for the effect we all wanted,” commented Nick, who has also lit other NBC Sports show opens and interstitials.
Each SVOPATT contains nine individual light-source modules, each fitted with seven 40W RGBW multichip LEDs. The center module also incorporates a 200W white LED strobe. The fixture generates more than 75,000 lumens in an integrating sphere, offering an aesthetic inspired by the look of classic 20th-century tungsten beam / flood lighting.
“The SVOPATTs were ideal for the job. They were extremely bright and versatile, providing excellent eye candy and back-of-camera fill, which was exactly what I needed,” Whitehouse said.
With limited time to make the band look great and deliver the scale envisioned by the director, Whitehouse needed fixtures he could trust. The production also had to capture material that the visual-effects team could extend into a packed stadium. The SVOPATTs delivered the required impact while running at only 20 to 30 percent intensity.
The promo was captured on large-sensor cinema cameras, supporting both image quality and the production’s distinctive color treatments.
Nick recalled using original Svoboda fixtures while designing Kylie Minogue’s tours with the late Bryan Leitch of UK-based Art of Darkness in the late 2000s and early 2010s. He had always appreciated their distinctive styling.
“The SVOPATTs did exactly what I wanted for this project. They looked great and offered a wide range of useful features,” he added.
Nick also deployed 12 Robe MegaPointes at the back of the field, a long distance from the stage, to create powerful back beams.
The creative producer for the 2026 Sunday Night Baseball show open was Ellie Wright, with Matt Van Buren as executive producer and Jon Goldberg as producer. Jordan McMonagle was director of photography, Scott Quimby was gaffer, Kenny Somerville was key grip, and Sam McKeown led the lighting crew.
The show open debuted on April 12, 2026, ahead of the Cleveland Guardians–Atlanta Braves game on NBC and Peacock, and continues to open Sunday Night Baseball throughout the season.
Nick also recently lit NBC’s Sunday Night Football show open with Carrie Underwood, using Robe FOOTSIE2s among other luminaires.
Photos by Evan Rohde