The Apple Music Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show, produced by Roc Nation and DPS, featured Usher with special guests Alicia Keys, H.E.R., Ludacris, Jermaine Dupri, will.i.am, and Lil Jon. The show was led by Creative Director Aakomon Jones working closely with Show Designer/Producer Baz Halpin of Silent House. The Production Design team of Tribe, Inc., led by Bruce Rodgers, returned once again, as did Lighting Designer Al Gurdon, to transform the field at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas for the performance. The stage and field carts were built by All Access Staging and Productions, the LED floor was supplied by Fuse Technical Group and the lighting was provided by PRG. Special Effects and pyro were provided by PyrotecnicoFX, and PixMob handled the crowd immersive solutions. It is the incredible support of this team of top vendors collectively realized the Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show and PLSN wanted to look at the project from their Vendor View.
ALL ACCESS STAGING & PRODUCTIONS
Erik Eastland, Owner and Chief Engineer
On working on the Super Bowl LVIII Halftime Show:
This is the 14th year that All Access has provided support for the Halftime Show. In addition to the field set carts, we also provided the scenic carts and elements for the player introductions, the opening night ceremony that took place earlier in the week, and the award stage post-game. In terms of the field carts, they’re pretty much totally custom these days. Weight has become an issue primarily on the tray fields—Phoenix and Las Vegas where the grass is on a tray. We need to be as light as possible, so we custom build everything to create less structure, plus we use 500 of our specially designed turf tires to protect the field. We had 20 stage carts, plus the throne cart and six lighting carts. One of the challenges was that the access tunnel was extremely tight at 11’ wide; we’re normally 14’ at minimum, but we made it work.
On integrating the YesTech LED floor onto the stage carts:
We worked closely with Fuse [Technical Group] who supplied the massive LED floor for the stage carts. Fuse is great. We’re like family with most video suppliers. This was a great product for it—the YesTech 3.9mm floor with its 500 x 500mm tiles. It’s a very simple one to work with; it’s like playing with LEGOs. We had full and half tiles, as well as triangle custom pieces, plus we made some dummy pieces. The dimensions of the LED floor tiles drive the dimensions for my carts. We made an eight-inch black aluminum plate to dress out the edge of the cart. We then wrapped the outside edges of the carts with five 400’ runs of Environmental Lights’ RGB LED tape for a total run of 2,000’. We paired the LED tape with Elation’s LED power supplies. For the throne cart, the throne was built by Dave Mendoza at ShowFX. Both ShowFX and we used the same Pixel Tape from Environmental Lights on the throne and its cart.
On expanding All Access’ services to other parts of the Super Bowl week:
This was the first year for the NFL to have an opening night, which happened on the previous Monday evening. We worked with Michael Fiur of Fiur Productions, as well as Jennifer Bretschneider for the opening night and post-game. We made one large stage cart with runways for opening night, and then afterwards we pulled off the runways and rebranded everything to only use the central section for the post-game trophy award ceremony stage. We also did the National Anthem stage, the in-stadium DJ booth for Kaskade.
On why All Access was the right vendor for the Halftime Show:
Because we haven’t f*cked it up! And you can quote me. It’s one of those things that if it’s not broke, don’t fix it. We had been there for about 10 years with RK Productions, then when Roc Nation came in in 2020, we’ve been vendors for Roc Nation since their inception. We understand what they need done and we do it. We love doing it.
The team from All Access included Manufacturing Designer Erik Eastland; Lead Project Coordinator Tommy Rose; Head Carpenter Roger Cabot; Lead Scenic Technician Talus Jarvis; Special Operations Fidel Garza; Stage Technicians/Fabricators Arturo Martinez, Julio Rocha; Stage Technicians Rene Avila, Micky Dymond, Ryan Trebon, Kendall Williams.
FUSE TECHNICAL GROUP
Michael Spencer, LED Project Manager, Crew Chief
On working on the Halftime Show and supporting the design and production team:
Our team from Fuse have been working on most of the Halftime Shows dating back to 2010 and The Who, with a couple of exceptions when LED video wasn’t involved in the show. We have a pretty good relationship with Erik Eastland and Bruce Rodgers. As Bruce starts designing, he starts hitting up All Access or me because there’s always a limitation that has to be dealt with. He has ideas of what he wants to do and needs to figure out how we can work around limitations, a lot of them is getting carts to a certain size. They want to get a stage to look a certain way and need to figure out how to get it out on the field and how to fit. Then Erik, Bruce, and I will try to come up with solutions that’ll hit some of these requirements and then that will start turning into a bigger, more serious design on Bruce’s part once he knows what he can do and what he can work with. This year, All Access was trying to get these carts to fit through the narrower tunnels. We talked about what technology would work best. We needed a 500mm tile that would give the maximum width he could get through the tunnels. This is the first year we’ve done an LED floor that was seamless.
On the product selection for the LED floor:
So, we went with the Yes Tech MG7S P3.9 product, with a 3.9mm pixel pitch that we had just used for the turntable floor for U2:UV Achtung Baby Live at Sphere. It was because it was the same product used for that custom stage, that gave people at the NFL and Super Bowl a lot of confidence in the product selection. Yes Tech makes an off-the-shelf, standard selection of shapes that are based on the same 500mm square tile. We went with their shapes, so we didn’t have to build custom tiles, which can be very expensive. We used half tiles, full tiles, and triangle tiles to get the shape. The half tiles were there mostly to get the width out of the carts so we could get the width to clear the tunnels. The triangles were used to give a cleaner circle and to have a thinner mask around the edges. We had over 800 tiles for the whole set. We also used the NovaStar MX40 LED video processors for this show. Again, the same product as we used for U2 at The Sphere.
On why the Yes Tech MG7S and the NovaStar MX40 Processors were the right products for this project:
Resolution and durability, and the size. The resolution is 3.9mm, which is the highest resolution that we’ve used on a Halftime Show for the Super Bowl. What drove the choice of the Yes Tech product was the size that would work best with the All Access field carts for the stage. In terms of the NovaStar MX 40 processors, they’re new, and the company has made huge leaps and bounds from their earlier processors. They’re a lot more user friendly, a lot more live events friendly, and provide a lot more live control. Their whole new processor line, the MX series is very much more live events-centric than they have been in the past. And NovaStar came out and supported us with NovaStar engineers on site, both during the build and on site to make sure we weren’t hitting any bugs. This is a new product and we did hit some bugs, but they helped us solve them quickly and efficiently. The support that NovaStar provided made sure we didn’t have any mapping or color issues.
On why Fuse Technical Group was the right vendor for the Halftime Show:
We have a long relationship with them; we’re the team that’s been around for a long time. They try to have familiar faces on board as much as they can. This LED Team has been working through multiple company iterations as a group on the Super Bowl Halftime Shows. I also want to credit the Fuse office and shop here in Las Vegas for all their support. They worked around the clock to make sure our little show got off the ground and supported our team for what we needed to do. The support that Fuse has in the Vegas shop, and all the other shops, is just tremendous. The amount of other work that Fuse Vegas had going on around the Super Bowl, and to deal with us at the same time. They really had their hands full and did a great job.
The team from Fuse included Account Executive Graham Buttrey; LED Project Manager & Crew Chief Michael Spencer; LED Lead Engineers Luke Pilato, John Bowman; LED Engineers David Imlau, Trace Deroy, Rod Sihanouk, Brandon Oosterhoff; and LED Staffing Lead Susan Conner.
PIXMOB
Jean-Olivier Dalphond, Partner and Chief Commercial Officer
Pauline Rosen, Vice President of Brand and Marketing
On what PixMob USA, based in Nashville,TN, provided for the Halftime Show:
Every person in the audience received an LED laminate badge. It’s super bright, like 10 times brighter than the normal wristband. We originally invented the product for the Super Bowl in Los Angeles because it was going to be the earliest Halftime Show, an afternoon event. It worked out really well there and now in Las Vegas. We think a LED badge is a very universal thing to wear for a sports event like the Super Bowl; it really fits the vibe of this. If you go to an EDM concert the badge won’t fit as well but here it was the right choice. It’s important to find the right product for the right use. So with all the badges, there were like 60,000 people in the LED cloud. Also, there were a few hundred people as the field cast. They each had four X4 wristbands [2,000] plus the LED badges. And the marching band had NOVA’s [300] on their instruments and also LED badges.
On some of the challenges of this project:
We always want to be sure that we make everything be as bright as possible because the start of the Halftime Show is a bit unknown, in relation to sunset. The other small challenge is getting the right artwork and getting it all made within the timeframe of delivering for the Super Bowl. We are the designers and the manufacturers so we’re able to go really fast. And then finally we also we want to make sure that we fit correctly the vision of the show design team. We work with Eric Marchwinski from Earlybird Visual, because the lighting controls it all, that makes sure our effects match with the overall design happening. He is a master of the technology at this point but we always want to make sure he has what he needs. And, of course, he did masterful work. Also this is the first time that we actually did something outside of the Halftime Show. During the second half of the game we lit up the LED badges at key moments, like for touchdowns, it would light up in the team’s color. That was fun.
On why PixMob was the right vendor for the Halftime Show:
There is a sense of trust from having delivered in the past and a uniqueness to the quality of effects. Only PixMob is able to spatialize effects and create these stadium wide waves. Also, the advantage that we don’t use radio frequency in this case. We do have an RF product, but for the Super Bowl we use infrared light, which has no interference to or from anything. And overall, it goes back to the people that work here, the people from our team that go onsite, the technical and production team over-delivering and we think it’s appreciated. We don’t take anything for granted.
On the final results of the project:
Overall, from our point of view, it was the best use of PixMob because even the camera angles were well selected because it was sort of a low and wide. There was a lot of the PixMob seen in the backdrop a lot. You could see that it’s not a show filmed in a rehearsal studio. The camera director was so good at showing the crowd of people; at showing them during the the show. It visually brought this idea of collectivity that we all need to be reminded of more and more in our lives. We were very happy with every choice that the creative team made. They are the best in the world and it shows.
The team from PixMob included Executive producer Sophie Blondeau; On-site Integrator & Video Specialist Nikolas Sigouin; Project manager Mathieu Couture; PixMob Technician Sébastien Beaulieu; Technician Kian Wong; Technical Director Jacques Vanier; PixMob Partners Vincent Leclerc & Jean-Olivier Dalphond.
PRG
Tony Ward, Account Representative
Patrick Osuna, Project Manager
On supporting the lighting needs for the Halftime Show:
Well, first we got to prep the show out of our Las Vegas shop, which was pretty darn nice, because our shop is less than a half mile away from Allegiant Stadium. It was very convenient. We certainly took advantage of that proximity. We provided all the lighting equipment including fixtures, cable, mounting hardware, control and networking, all the followspots, etc. We’ve been doing the Halftime Show for a long time now. This was the first year that all the followspots were the PRG GroundControl Remote Followspot system paired with PRG Best Boy LT Long Throw fixtures. We had 18 of the Best Boy LTs that replaced all the traditional discharge followspots we had used in the past. The trick is that the [Lighting Director] Harry Forster had to pick his followspot positions before anyone knew what the set design, or show would be. You can always give space back to the NFL; but it’s almost impossible to get it if you didn’t ask first.
On working in the new Allegiant Stadium:
The difference this year is it was the first time that we’ve used the fiber infrastructure from the facility to run our control signal around the building. We previously, and for many, many years, laid out our own discrete fiber runs that oftentimes got pretty intricate in and out of the infrastructure of the building to get fiber where we needed it. Both going all the way up to where the hanging trusses are, to getting the front of house position, wherever that may be, and then getting your signal all the way down to the field level so that you can then run the fiber around the field. This year was the first year that we actually used the infrastructure of the building, and it was tricky, but we managed. We had to buy some new switches and equipment to allow us to do that, but ultimately it was a success. We also worked closely with All Access who helped us out with a custom bracket for one of the seating levels. They designed and fabricated these custom brackets for the GLP impression X4 Bar 20s.
On working with Lighting Designer, Al Gurdon and Lighting Director, Ben Green:
We’ve known and worked with Al for a long time. This year we spoke quite a bit with his assistant, Ben Green. On this project, Al’s teamed up with Ben Green from the lighting design firm, 22 Degrees, who is still managing the project from a lighting design and management standpoint. PRG loves working with Al; he’s a very nice gentleman, and we have a really good relationship with him. Ben is also great and we’ve worked together on many shows. He’s really very decisive on what he’s looking for and gives us a great opportunity to see how we can help him on projects.
On why PRG is the right vendor for the Halftime Show:
At PRG we have a depth of experience working to support these size shows. That obviously helps us a bit, but honestly people have choices and we’re just blessed and thankful for being able to help these guys do what they do. We try not to take that for granted because so many things rest upon trust between us and the people that we’re providing gear and services for that we just want to try to be there when they need us; when they come calling. Also, we need to point out the lighting crew that’s there at the stadium. It was a pleasure to work with them and support what they do.
The Lighting team working with PRG included PRG Account Managers Tony Ward, Patrick Osuna; Chief Tech Robb Minnotte; Best Boys /Followspots Adam Hagin, Mike Smallman; PRG Lead Techs Meg Flanagan, Janos Bode; Fiber/Stadium Cable Management Larry Ganson; IATSE Local 720 Heads Chris Thorne, Johnny Espinoza, Joe Roybal; Field Team Karlo Barajas, Brandon Espinoza, Randy Giron, Freddy Gomez, Daniel Leal, Laddawan McQuade, Nick Ortiz, Mohamed Saleh, Lorenzo Wolfe; Spot Operators & Stadium Team Miguel Ultreas, Carl Tiderman, Jose Gomez, Justin Jones, Eric Johnson, Arjay Sevilla, Josiah Pieper, Jacob Chaidez, Natalie Robins, Justin Heinrich, Chad Brook, Breann Larkin, Priscilla Mullin, Michael Demaree, Ryan Jaunzemis, Jerry Helmuth, Izzy Arreola, Arturo Aranza, Rochelle Gallegos
PYROTECNICOFX
Rocco Vitale, Executive VP of Special FX
Bob Ross, Account Executive
On supporting the Super Bowl Halftime Show:
For the Halftime Show, we had 20 35W high powered lasers, KVANT with BeamBrush that were placed between the 100 and 200 level as well as on the field. There were two locations, since the show started with Usher sitting on the throne. We used two lasers at the base of the throne at the feet and one laser behind the throne. It was mounted behind the goalpost and elevated to create a ceiling look over the artist. The rest were mounted essentially upstage of the main performance stage. We used Pangolin’s BEYOND software for control of the lasers, which were then coordinated with the lighting team. Their grandMA console triggered the looks that we provided. They were synched to timecode for the Halftime Show. Then we provided 20 Atlas Upshot Advanced LED fog generators that are manufactured by Master FX and mounted them on the All Access stage. Those were used for the reveal of H.E.R.
On making it rain ‘Usher Bucks’ confetti:
In the catwalks we had 24 MTFX Stadium Shot confetti cannons that shot ‘Usher Bucks’ confetti for the song, “Yeah”. We made it rain [confetti] in Allegiant Stadium. What was fun was that our requirement from the NFL was to do a confetti-type element in the Halftime Show but in a way that ensured that no confetti Usher Bucks would fall on the field. We did a series of testing for that in December to get the right force to still hit the 100, 200, 300, and 400 level seats. At the test, one Usher Buck landed in the southwest sideline. At the actual show, we had one Usher Buck land on the southwest sideline, which quickly got picked up! We knew precisely that the Usher Bucks took approximately—from the catwalk—1:20 to fall down to the 100 level. We had to time it to get it right when we wanted the reaction from the crowd being ‘rained’ on.
On why they used the KVANT lasers with BeamBrush:
We were looking for something high power and wanted to be able to play with BeamBrush in this environment. Also, during one of the sequences, we did what’s called ‘laser banding’, which was done by Adam LaBay on Saturday Night Live for a performance by Childish Gambino. The technique was refined by Adam. Our programmers spent three days in the studio with cameras and figured out the technology behind that so we could recreate it for the Halftime Show. It works with the camera’s shutter angle in conjunction with manipulating the scan rate of the laser through BEYOND software.
On why they used the Master FX Atlas Upshots:
We really like the packaging of the Atlas Upshot unit; it’s low profile. We find it has a fairly responsive heat up time. One of the big things for us, is it maintains its heat. So, when we them heated up outside, before we even get to push into the building, they maintain their temperature. We have about a 20-30 minute holding pattern before we roll onto the field and power back up. They only drop to about 90% after 20 minutes of sitting unpowered. That is a factor for us, knowing that we need them to be responsive within seven minutes of the plugging them back in. Also, we used Master FX’s quick dissipating fluid because it really does dissolve and vanishes into the air, which addressed a concern of the NFL and Allegiant Stadium.
On other solutions from PyrotecnicoFX:
We had three PyrotecnicoFX teams in Allegiant Stadium. We had the Halftime Show team. We had the team on the roof for the pyrotechnics, where we used Pyro Digital for the national anthem. Then we had a team on the field supporting the players introduction carts, on which we worked with Production Club and the NFL. For that we deployed 36 Cryo Jets and two Freeze Fog units. We also handled the CO 2—with four Quad Jets—for the DJ Stage where Kaskade performed that All Access built. It’s a real testament to the folks we have here as we were dealing with different departments and different companies. It’s a logistical lift and we’re very proud of the way the PyrotecnicoFX team executed it.
On why PyrotecnicoFX was the right vendor for the Super Bowl:
I’d say our people. We have the right people with the right skills to be able to execute it flawlessly. We continue to work and refine our processes so we are always operating at high standards. We’ve worked on the three previous Super Bowls, and we’re super excited that a lot of this year’s focus was on lasers. That is another side of what we can do, as opposed to just doing pyro off the roof of the stadium, which, of course, we do very well.
