
Live From Super Bowl LIX: Van Wagner Super-Sizes Setup With Auxiliary Control Room for Expanded Videoboard Show NFL packs pregame with live performance; PRG supplies additional tech By Kristian Hern ndez, Senior Editor
Thursday, February 6, 2025 - 12:52 pm
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
Van Wagner begins its 2025 calendar of in-venue productions with the biggest show of the year: Super Bowl LIX in Caesars Superdome in New Orleans. Despite producing a videoboard show in the venue for the second time in less than three years - the NCAA Men's Final Four was in the building in April 2022 - being back in a city known for throwing a party is an ideal location for having some fun.
This game is a celebration of 18 weeks of the NFL season, says Bob Becker, president, productions, Van Wagner. It's the world's biggest single-day sporting event, so everything we do has to feel that way.
Crescent City Content: Return of Pregame Music, New Team-Related Material The main control room at Caesars Superdome will tell the story of the football game.
Of course, there's the local cuisine, rich history, and overall great vibes that New Orleans is famous for. But add in the Super Bowl, and it's a perfect marriage of the joy in attending the Big Game and the eclectic culture of the surrounding city. Van Wagner's job has been to infuse this into an unforgettable run of show. Through months of planning with the league's game-presentation and events department - including SVP, Global Event Production and Operations, Jon Barker; EVP, Club Business, International and League Events, Peter O'Reilly; and Director, Event Presentation and Content, Tim Tubito and his team - the script evolved with notable moments throughout the night. To showcase the city's jazz history, the league is bringing back a tentpole activation in previous Super Bowls: a pregame musical performance on the field.
Van Wagner's Bob Becker will work his 30th Super Bowl on Sunday.
We still have a very aggressive show, with hosts live on the field, halftime, postgame, and intertwining everything with the broadcast on FOX, says Becker, but we will have an expanded pregame show.
Since Van Wagner's schedule is packed, the team travels to a few cities more than once, visiting New Orleans several times over the years. Not only that, the team was at Arizona's State Farm Stadium when the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles squared off in Super Bowl LVII in 2023. Becker and company may be producing another marquee show in New Orleans with a championship rematch, but the content at its core is new.
With new players and storylines, it's a different show every year, says Becker. That's what drives our game presentation.
Secondary Space: Auxiliary Control Room Handles B Show Over recent years, Van Wagner has produced Super Bowls from newer sports venues around the nation - including SoFi Stadium in 2022 and Allegiant Stadium last year - many of them originally constructed with two control rooms. Caesars Superdome, however, has only one permanent control room. For this weekend's production, Van Wagner is using space that had been occupied by the original control room, turning it into an auxiliary control room with brought-in equipment.
[The space] being used was home to the original SD control room. explains Nate McCoart, senior director, technical operations, productions, Van Wagner. The ASM Production team was able to fully clear it out for us to build this secondary control-room space. Our A show [in the main control room] will focus on telling the story of the football game while the B show [in the auxiliary control room] will take on coverage of the host hits, celeb shots, and other elements pregame and during in-game commercial breaks.
The auxiliary control room will take on coverage of host hits, celebrity shots, and other elements before the game and during in-game commercial breaks.
The dual-control-room setup isn't new to the crew. The trend became prevalent for handling a growing, increasingly robust show for the fans in the stands. This production will leverage numerous workflows, including 10 Sony HDC-4300 wired cameras, two wireless handheld cameras, and one wireless Steadicam.
In the control room, the team will drive the full stadium LED canvas with two Ross XPression Tessera SLE flypacks (each fitted with nine XPressions, an Ultrix FR5, and a Carbonite Ultra); seven Evertz DreamCatcher replay servers (36 ingest channels, 16 playout channels); three Riedel Artist 1024 frames connecting 100 panels and 145 Bolero packs; and two Grass Valley K-Frame switchers (Kayenne 4ME in the main control room, Karrera 3ME in the auxiliary control room). The production is supported by key tech vendors: PRG (flypack and camera), AVS of NEP Specialty Capture (RF camera), Bexel of NEP Rentals (more than 14 miles of fiber), THUMBWAR (postproduction workflow), ATK/Clair Global (audio and intercom), and Professional Wireless (wireless audio).
From left: Van Wagner's Dan Roy, Nate McCoart, Cameron Epperson, and Jeremy Havens lead the operations in the control room.
I am proud of the hard work our technical team has put in to enable production to be successful on game day. says McCoart. The Super Bowl is the biggest show of the year, and it truly takes an army. Hats off to our tech-ops team lead by Jeremy Havens, Cameron Epperson, and Toby Valadie for doing an amazing job through months of planning, site visits, and meetings, culminating in a month-long buildout and, ultimately, a great game day on Sunday. It's amazing to see what the game-presentation team has developed to entertain the fans on game day, and we are proud to support the technology that brings an unforgettable experience to the fans.
Longstanding Relationship: Van Wagner, AS
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
15/09/2025
Steve Zahn, Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, and Janeane Garofalo star in Ben Stiller&...
15/09/2025
Global K-Pop sensation aespa is redefining what it means to be rich with the r...
15/09/2025
Every day, millions of people around the world turn to Spotify to enjoy the audi...
15/09/2025
After months of intensive planning and implementation, Brembo SGL Carbon Ceramic...
15/09/2025
A U.S. Marine launches a Javelin shoulder-fired anti-tank missile during a training exercise. (Photo credit: U.S. Marine Corps)...
15/09/2025
AMSTERDAM TV Tech has named its Best of Show Awards winners for IBC2025, which wraps up today. Entrants were judged by a panel of industry experts on the criter...
15/09/2025
Unique sports content orchestration platform builds momentum among SES's cus...
15/09/2025
Paris, France - September 15, 2025 -- Space42 (ADX: SPACE42), the UAE-based AI-p...
15/09/2025
Back to All News
The Great Flood' Teaser Trailer Previews A Gripping Struggle for Survival
Entertainment
15 September 2025
GlobalSouth Korea
Link copi...
15/09/2025
Back to All News
From Hardship to Hope: Typhoon Family' Presents a Tale of...
15/09/2025
Back to All News
Gloom Goes Global as Wednesday's' The Doom Tour Hit...
15/09/2025
-- Opens door to growth in renewable energy New Delhi, India - 15th September -- Global business and industry leaders from around the world are joining technol...
14/09/2025
Partnership to address business and technical challenges of DMF adoption
he Advanced Media Workflow Association (AMWA) and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU...
14/09/2025
WARNER BROS. TELEVISION'S THE PITT (HBO MAX) WINS FIVE EMMY AWARDS, INCLU...
14/09/2025
Back to All News
Mantis' Trailer Previews High-Stakes Rivalries to Be No. ...
13/09/2025
ATLANTA Cox Media Group has announced that the company's vice president of news, Misty Turnbull has been inducted into the National Academy of Television Ar...
13/09/2025
AMSTERDAM Shotoku Broadcast Systems, a major developer of robotic systems, has announced plans to take studio robotics to the next level at IBC2025 by debuting ...
13/09/2025
At IBC2025 in Amsterdam, Riedel Communications unveiled Bolero Mini, the company's lightest and flattest wireless intercom beltpack to date. Designed to del...
13/09/2025
Shotoku Broadcast Systems, the international developer of dependable, userfriendly robotic systems, is taking studio robotics to the next level at IBC 2025 with...
13/09/2025
Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming solutions, today released the 9th annual Video Developer Report 2025/26, offering an in-depth look at the evolvi...
13/09/2025
Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with StreamShark, the trusted video platform for enterprise...
13/09/2025
Ikegami has chosen IBC 2025 in Amsterdam as the launch venue for a major addition to its range of viewfinders. The new VFE-P711AD is a 7-inch high resolution OL...
13/09/2025
Founder-led Merger to Fast Track R&D, Asset Library Upgrades, Tools and More; No Disruption to Pricing or Support for Users
Today, KitBash3D, a pioneer in 3D a...
13/09/2025
With NDI certification, Atomos integration, Grass Valley collaboration, and a new Monitor app, at this year's IBC, Mavis is showcasing a series of powerful...
13/09/2025
Creamsource, maker of artisan LED lighting for film and television, has unveiled the Vortex24 Soft (V24S), a 1950W native soft light and the largest soft source...
13/09/2025
When international sports streaming service DAZN secured the global rights to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup football tournament, it set out to deliver an unmatch...
13/09/2025
Riedel Communications today announced the acquisition of hi human interface from Broadcast Solutions, bringing a powerful, vendor-agnostic control system to it...
13/09/2025
Building on its long-term relationship with audio metering specialist RTW, Calrec has integrated the company's brand new TMxCore metering platform across it...
13/09/2025
Calrec is expanding its family of future-ready self-contained Argo M control surfaces at IBC2025, with the addition of a brand new powerful 48-fader console. Co...
13/09/2025
Celtic languages - including Cornish, Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Welsh - are the U.K.'s oldest living languages. To empower their speakers, the UK-LLM sover...
13/09/2025
Harmonic's Software-Based XOS Advanced Media Processor Provides Unparalleled Efficiency and Unlocks New Business Models SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sept. 13, 2025 -...
13/09/2025
Researchers find brain region that fuels compulsive drinking Study by Scripps Research scientists shows how the brain learns to seek alcohol for relief, not jus...
12/09/2025
College Football Kickoff 2025: Fox Sports Ups Look as Canon, Sony Power Shallow ...
12/09/2025
ABC/ESPN Excited For WNBA Postseason Coverage In Revamped FormatThe Finals moves to a best-of-seven series in 2025By Mark J Burns, SVG Contributor
Friday, Sep...
12/09/2025
(L-R) Jade Croot, Rosy McEwen, and Bryn Chainey attend the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Rabbit Trap at Eccles Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park ...
12/09/2025
For fans, we know how important it is to stay plugged into music culture and dis...
12/09/2025
Link ping, Sweden and Shipley, United Kingdom, September 12, 2025 - Agama, the expert in video observability and analytics for service quality and customer expe...
12/09/2025
IBC2025 began on Sept. 12, with exhibits and conferences running through Sept. 15 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center. Explore the full TV Tech coverage of t...
12/09/2025
The Best Fictional Bands (and the Artists Who Make Them Great) With Spinal Tap II: The End Continues hitting theaters and songs from KPop Demon Hunters ruling...
12/09/2025
Industry veteran Tom Baldassare has joined Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media creatives and content owners, as a Se...
12/09/2025
Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects, and more, today announced a...
12/09/2025
PlayBox Neo, a leading provider of media playout solutions, has partnered with AI-Media, pioneering developers of AI-powered captioning technology, to integrate...
12/09/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
12/09/2025
New alliance strengthens the IT channel in Germany and Switzerland in protecting business-critical SaaS data.
Keepit, the world s only independent, cloud-nativ...
12/09/2025
Fincons Group, an international IT business consultancy and systems integrator company with more than 40 years of experience in the market, is proud to announce...
12/09/2025
Following its acquisition of Telemetrics, EVS continues its push into robotics with an announcement at IBC2025 that it is acquiring XD motion....
12/09/2025
TORONTO The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) has announced the appointment of Eduardo Ruiz Sanchez, deputy director, broadcast operations at Telev...
12/09/2025
Ed Miller, a longtime broadcast engineer in Ohio and a former national president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, has died....