
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
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/05/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
01/05/2026
LONDON, APRIL 30, 2026 The Post Republic London's Re-recording Mixer and Dialogue Editor Dan Johnson has built a reputation for clean, emotionally resonan...
01/05/2026
Adobe Unveils Powerful New Innovations in Photoshop & Lightroom
Deepa Subramaniam April 30, 2026
0 Comments
Your most tedious creative tasks just got ea...
01/05/2026
Berklee Partners with Santander US to Establish Global Opportunity Fund The $400,000 grant offers students access to experiential learning opportunities withi...
01/05/2026
Student Spotlight: Keziah Thomas The Indian composer, who was named the 2026 student commencement speaker for Berklee College of Music, talks about how shes p...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
30/04/2026
The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) concluded its third regular season on Saturday, reporting growth across attendance, viewership, digital engage...
30/04/2026
NBC Sports will air national MLB coverage on Sundays beginning May 3, with MLB Sunday Leadoff on Peacock and NBCSN at 12:30 p.m. ET, followed by the debut of th...
30/04/2026
Clear-Com has appointed Brian Grahn as Market Outreach Manager of the Americas and Ben Turnwell as Business Development Manager for EMEA live.
Grahn joined Cle...
30/04/2026
ARRI has introduced the cforce MAX, a new lens motor for the Hi-5 lens control system. The cforce MAX is twice as fast as the cforce plus motor it replaces whil...
30/04/2026
Knuerr, Voxtronic, and IHSE will jointly present an integrated control room solu...
30/04/2026
The CW Network and ESPN have announced an agreement to make the ESPN App the exclusive streaming home for all CW Sports live events. CW Sports will continue to ...
30/04/2026
Ed Sheeran's The Loop' tour launched in Auckland in January 2026 before moving on to Australia, with South America and the United States to follow late...
30/04/2026
Audinate has announced Dante Preset Creator, a free online tool for configuring Dante network settings before hardware is available on site. Presets created in ...
30/04/2026
Yahoo Sports has announced the appointment of Jarrod Schwarz as General Manager of Yahoo Sports. Schwarz will oversee product, design, and technology; revenue a...
30/04/2026
Nielsen has released a new report, Get Ready with Media Intelligence: 2026 FIFA World Cup Edition, examining U.S. soccer viewership trends, fan engagement, and ...
30/04/2026
USA Lacrosse and SportsEngine have announced an expanded partnership, naming Spo...
30/04/2026
Telos Alliance will participate in the 2026 Media Production and Technology Show (MPTS), taking place May 13-14 at Olympia London. Rather than exhibiting from a...
30/04/2026
The global streamer buys the U.S. DTC platform solutions provider for a reported...
30/04/2026
Tigo Sports, Paraguay's leading sports broadcaster, has upgraded its video infrastructure with Ateme solutions for live encoding, multiplexing, and signal c...
30/04/2026
World Rugby and IMG have announced a long-term media rights partnership focused on growing rugby in the United States ahead of the Men's and Women's Rug...
30/04/2026
For the second year in a row, Overtime and the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) are teaming up through a renewed content partnership to bring fans even...
30/04/2026
The 22-year ESPN vet's responsibilities will reportedly be taken over by SVP Mike Foss...
30/04/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
30/04/2026
Amazon and Duke University have announced a multiyear agreement for Prime Video to present exclusive coverage of three Duke Blue Devils men's basketball neu...
30/04/2026
Ratings Roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press rel...
30/04/2026
Music is evolving, and so are the ways you discover and connect with artists. In...
30/04/2026
Between April 22-29, the first inaugural Stockholm Music Week brought together thought leaders and partners across industries including music, tech, government,...
30/04/2026
Iconic large-format console upgraded
API's iconic Vision console has just been treated to an overhaul that aims to meet the demands of today's profe...
30/04/2026
Comes complete with miking accessories
The LCT 440 Pure has proven to be a popular member of Lewitt's mic line-up, offering impressive technical perform...
30/04/2026
24 October 2026 at The Octagon, Sheffield
Now in its eighth year, SynthFest UK is the largest event of its kind in the UK, bringing together the top keyboar...
30/04/2026
SBS & NITV LEAD NATIONAL RECONCILIATION WEEK 2026 WITH LANDMARK GULPILIL DOCUMEN...
30/04/2026
Rohde & Schwarz equips new Terminal 3 at Frankfurt Airport with security scanner...
30/04/2026
Rohde & Schwarz expands broadband amplifier portfolio with new power classes up ...
30/04/2026
Jennifer Ehle (Contagion, Zero Dark Thirty) and Alex Hassell (Rivals, Wasteman, ...
30/04/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., April 29, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) today announ...
30/04/2026
MELBOURNE, Fla., April 30, 2026 - L3Harris Technologies (NYSE: LHX) reports first quarter 2026 results.
Highlights
Orders of $7.8 billion; book-to-bill of 1....
30/04/2026
Behind the Broadcast: The Sound of Elite Golf Golf is gaining popularity; the 2025 Ryder Cup achieved record-breaking viewing figures in the UK specifically, wi...
30/04/2026
STA VENERA, MALTA, APRIL 29, 2026 CPI Media, a voluntary organization within the Missionary Society of St Paul (MSSP) and a leading media house dedicated to p...
30/04/2026
New software platform delivers comprehensive timing measurement across production workflows...
30/04/2026
Once again, the UK Pavilion in Hall 5 of BroadcastAsia 2026 will feature the latest and best in technology specifically developed and tailored for modern media ...