Grass Valley Live Production solutions were on hand in and around the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans.
The Super Bowl is the premiere showcase for mobile production companies hired to cover various events for their broadcast clients. This year, broadcasters relied on NEP, F&F Productions and Game Creek Video to provide coverage, and they, in turn, relied on Grass Valley.
NEP, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Providing the world feed for NFL Films was NEP’s SS25, using a 4.5 M/E Grass Valley Kayenne Video Production Center switcher, with 96 inputs, 48 outputs, and 6 keyers per M/E. The Kayenne also has a 4-channel ClipStore, based on the Grass Valley K2 Summit media server. SS25 is also equipped with a 192x160 Grass Valley Trinix NXT high-end routing switcher.
SS25 was supported by Super B, which provided additional space and capacity with a Trinix 128x192 routing switcher as well as a variety of Grass Valley frame synchronizers, upconverters, and crossconverters.
NEP’s multiformat SS24 was chosen as the game truck for CBS's coverage of Super Bowl XLVII. At the heart of SS24 is a Trinix 224x256 routing switcher. Accompanying SS24 was the ESU support truck with Grass Valley routing, upconverters and downconverters.
NEP’s SS22 handled tape release coverage for CBS with a 4.5 M/E Kayenne switcher, while its Silver rig covered all Super Bowl halftime entertainment — headlining Beyoncé — using a 90 input Grass Valley Kalypso Video Production Center 4 M/E switcher with internal still store and DVEs. Silver was equipped with a Grass Valley Trinix 256x352 routing switcher.
NEP, with its Chromium production truck, also provided game coverage of the 2013 DirecTV Celebrity Beach Bowl in New Orleans on Super Bowl Saturday — with over 30 celebrities and professional athletes in a no-holds-barred flag football game. For the game, a 96 input Kayenne switched the action. NEP's California covered halftime with a 90-input Kalypso with internal still store and DVE, and an assist from a 256x448 Trinix routing switcher.
Game Creek Video, Hudson, N.H.
Game Creek Video was tasked by ESPN, the NFL Network and CBS Entertainment to capture the excitement surrounding the game.
ESPN had Game Creek Video’s Freedom A & B (4 M/E Kalypso Video Production Center switcher with 90 inputs, 48 outputs,16 internal and 4 external DPMs, 6 transform engines, and internal still store with animation), Larkspur (4.5 M/E Kayenne Video Production Center switcher with 96 inputs, 48 outputs, 16 internal and 4 external DPMs, and internal still store with animation), and Justice with the GCV-B1 graphics truck (4 M/E Kayenne with 96 inputs, 48 outputs, 16 internal and 4 external DPMs and internal still store with animation) for its coverage.
The NFL Network used a large number of Game Creek Video’s trucks for its coverage of Super Bowl XLVII. These include: Clipper A & B (4 M/E Kalypso with 90 inputs, 48 outputs, 16 internal and 4 external DPMs, 6 transform engines, advanced effects, and internal still store with animation), Glory A & B (4.5 M/E Kayenne with 96 inputs, 48 outputs, and 16 internal and 4 external DPMs), Northstar (4.5 M/E Kayenne with 96 inputs, 48 outputs, 16 internal and 4 external DPMs , and internal still store with animation), and Pride A & B (4.5 M/E Kayenne with 96 inputs, 48 outputs, and 16 internal and 4 external DPMs).
CBS Entertainment’s “The Talk” and “The Craig Ferguson Super Bowl Special” were on-site in New Orleans as well, with Game Creek’s Victory A & B featuring a 4.5 M/E Kayenne switcher.
F&F Productions, Clearwater, Fla.
F&F Productions was on hand with two of its 53ft double expandos. F&F’s GTX-16 & B6 were parked onsite alongside the others at the Superdome. This unit sported a 4 M/E Kayenne Video Production Center switcher with 96 inputs, 48 outputs, and 20 DPMs and provided coverage of the Super Bowl pre, post, and halftime shows.
The GTX-15, also equipped with a 4 M/E Kayenne Video Production Center switcher with 96 inputs, 48 outputs and 20 DPMs, broadcasted daily network coverage live from New Orleans’ historic Jackson Square, showing all festivities throughout the week that led up to Super Bowl XLVII.
