Super Bowl XL1 telecast on CBS in HD

Veteran mobile production company NEP Supershooters used its latest HD-capable truck, SS-24, to cover Super Bowl XLI from Miami, live with Sony HD cameras and production switchers. On-air HD graphics were generated with a full complement of graphics software from Vizrt.

The Sony technology on NEP's truck was used to support the main game broadcast, as well as pre- and post-game shows and tape release. NEP's Supershooter rig, actually a combination of an A and B unit with its support unit SS-24C, used 18 HDC-1500 multiformat cameras, six HDC-3300 super-motion camera systems — which perform 3X speed slow-motion effects in full HD resolution — and an MVS-8000A multiformat HD production switcher. In addition, a range of Sony HD VTRs, displays, a Calrec Alpha audio console and numerous EVS servers were also used to deliver the game.

This is the second time NEP has produced a Super Bowl telecast for CBS with the Sony MVS switcher. This season, the company upgraded to the MVS-8000A platform, which provided the capability to integrate a high level of graphics that NFL fans have grown accustomed to while still producing a clean feed for other broadcasters.

Meanwhile, Vizrt's HD graphic software was used for the network's coverage of Super Bowl XLI, where the network deployed Vizrt's HD nonlinear editing plug-in for its Viz|Trio CG system during the live broadcast.

With the NLE plug-in, graphics templates from a Viz|Trio system were used within an Avid NLE system without modification. All standard Viz|Trio controls and features which allow the user to change text, images, 3-D objects, scaling and positioning were readily available to the crew within the NLE's timeline.

The HD NLE plug-in supports Avid's editing software using AVX (Avid Visual Extensions). The plug-in also features Vizrt's look ahead transition logic. Users can stack arbitrary pages and automatically create seamless transitions, using just one video output channel.

The NFL Network also purchased several Vizrt HD graphics systems for broadcasts from its Los Angeles studio throughout Super Bowl week.