Live From CFP National Championship Game: Mercedes-Benz Stadium's Halo, Mega-Column Boards Shine on Big Stage More than 70,000 sq. ft. of videoboard space drops jaws at cutting-edge new stadium By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital
Monday, January 8, 2018 - 4:27 pm
Print This Story
Story Highlights
When facing one of the biggest challenges of your career, it's good to have friends in the right places.
At the College Football Playoff National Championship Game, Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment (VWSE) annually steps in to produce the in-venue videoboard show. That calls for a collaborative effort between VWSE and the home stadium's video-production team. So, when VWSE was faced with working on the canvas of Mercedes-Benz Stadium's iconic 360-degree Halo videoboard, it helped that VWSE EVP Bob Becker had a long-standing relationship with the man who calls this stadium home, Pete Soto.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium's iconic Halo board measures 1,100 ft. across.
The pair were college roommates and actually worked together in helping launch the first videoboard shows for new franchises Florida Marlins and Carolina Hurricanes.
We have the same cadence when we speak with our staffs; it makes me laugh, says Soto, who is senior director, game presentation, live events, and stadium production, AMB Sports & Entertainment Group, which oversees the stadium and supports the Atlanta Falcons and new MLS club Atlanta United. There's definitely a comfort level, and it's great to be back in the co-pilot's seat with a guy that I've eaten a lot of dirt with.
Mercedes-Benz Stadium steps back into the national spotlight again tonight when Alabama battles Georgia for the College Football Playoff National Championship, and Becker and Soto will find it hard to keep their eyes off the two spectacular videoboard structures that are groundbreaking in their own right.
There's, obviously, the 360-degree Halo board, which wraps around the interior roof of the stadium and features 63,000 sq. ft. of videoboard space. There's also, behind the west end zone, a large tower board called the Mega Column, which provides 6,700 sq. ft. of videoboard space and is 101 ft. high. Those dimensions make the Mega Column larger than the primary videoboards at 19 NFL and 24 MLB venues.
A vertical board called the Mega Column behind the west end zone at Mercedes-Benz Stadium provides 6,700 sq. ft. of videoboard space, is 101 ft. tall, and is used to display everything from stats to social-media integration and player cards.
As sparkling and beautiful as the Halo board is, it's no surprise to anyone who works in this business that it has been a significant challenge for Soto and his team to not only figure out how to program it but to make it work technologically, period. The complexity of the structure led to a stretch in July, August, and September when AMB Sports & Entertainment Group staff plugged away for 77 straight days.
We need to start designing control rooms like firehouses with bunks and kitchens, laughs Becker. I'm not equating what we do, but we certainly are working around the clock.
So is it worth it to work on these one-of-a-kind boards? Soto sure thinks so.
It's been a challenge, but it's been a really fun challenge. It's trying, and it was a very aggressive season, but we've had a lot of great things happen in this building. This is the crown jewel of the season.
Soto and his team have been very creative is using this new canvas over these past few months. They ultimately settled on splitting the videoboard into four quadrants: over each end zone and over each sideline. For live game coverage, the board is split in half and does a flip-side show so that the ball is always going in the direction of the field from which the fan is viewing it. It also offers the opportunity to try things an in-venue video team had never done before.
AMB Sports & Entertainment Group's Pete Soto (left) and Van Wagner Sports and Entertainment's Bob Becker inside the Mercedes-Benz control room prior to the 2018 CFP National Championship Game
It's the largest surface in the world, Soto explains. It gives you a huge canvas to work with and do whatever you want. Anyone who comes in and works here I tell that their imagination is their limitation because we can make something happen. It also gives us a unique immersive experience with fans. It's an experience that's like a Disney attraction. You are almost on a ride.
To technologically pull off programming the Halo board, AMB Sports & Entertainment Group turned to at Ross Video, which came up with its high-powered Tessera system. This one-of-a-kind engine enables AMB to link multiple XPression graphics engines to create a scalable matrix of channels to stitch together the images across the 360-degree canvas.
The rest of the control room is built around a pair of Ross Acuity switchers and Evertz DreamCatchers (for replay), Evertz supports the routing beneath it all, and the cameras on the field are Grass Valley units outfitted with Canon lenses.
Soto acknowledges that designing the control room early in 2017 was difficult given the current state of the industry, but he feels that AMB has set itself up for success.
We hit the perfect storm when designing this control room, says Soto. We were facing IP broadcasting with AIMS vs. ASPEN and having to make the right decision there. There was 4K on the horizon. So we tried to be as forward-thinking as possible.
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...
16/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: FUJIFILM Execs on GFX ETERNA 55 Camera, Importance of Shallow-Dept...
16/10/2025
Squash's Most Ambitious Broadcast Production To Be Deployed at Comcast Busin...
16/10/2025
Main Street Sports Group Inks Deal With Omaha Productions, Launches Original-Con...
16/10/2025
A Historic Precursor? FIFA, HBS, DAZN Offer an Inside Look at Production of FIFA...
16/10/2025
Prime Video Offers Sneak Peak at New NBA on Prime StudioThe massive 13,000-sq-ft, two-story studio features a LED regulation half court and hoopBy Jason Dachman...
16/10/2025
SVG Remote Production Forum Draws Record Crowd for Visit to PGA TOUR Studios, De...
16/10/2025
BitFire's Ben Grafchik on How Growing Cloud Workflows Are Impacting the Live...
16/10/2025
AI technology is advancing quickly, bringing both new creative possibilities and...
16/10/2025
In 2017, Imani Ellis launched CultureCon, a conference that's become a must-attend event for more than 10,000 diverse creatives and Black professionals to c...
16/10/2025
It might still be a little early to break out the tinsel and mistletoe, but Spotify's already queuing up some holiday magic. This year's Spotify Singles...
16/10/2025
Earlier this year, our in-house publishing imprint, Spotify Audiobooks, put out ...
16/10/2025
VAMPIRE has been integrated onto GM Defenses Infantry Squad Vehicle (ISV), providing a mobile solution to effectively and affordably counter small drone threat...
16/10/2025
The AgilePod mounted on the host aircraft....
16/10/2025
60% say infotainment systems are a critical purchasing or leasing consideration,...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK The Broadcasters Foundation of America has launched its 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign, which seeks to raise donations from tax-deductible personal and ...
16/10/2025
Roku has added several new features to its user interface and operating system meant to make it easier to discover and personalize content, the company said....
16/10/2025
NEW YORK CNN has announced that its All Access subscription tier will launch in the U.S. on Oct. 28, providing audiences with a centralized destination for CNN&...
16/10/2025
Student Spotlight: Alan Villanueva The graduate student and saxophonist, who performed on Natalia Lafourcades Latin Grammy-nominated Live at Carnegie Hall alb...
16/10/2025
The XR Sports Alliance (XRSA) has announced the third cohort of members. The new members include Maple Leafs Sports & Entertainment (MLSE), the Vegas Golden Kni...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK The Broadcasters Foundation of America has launched its 2025 Year-End Giving Campaign which seeks to raise donations from tax-deductible personal and c...
16/10/2025
NEW YORK Australia's Nine Network and the NHL today announced a media partnership that will bring the world's premier professional ice hockey league to ...
16/10/2025
Parks Associates has released new data showing that nearly half (45%) of U.S. internet homes watch free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) services and 89% of U.S...
16/10/2025
TROY, Mich. -New data from J.D. Power's 2025 U.S. Residential Internet Service Provider Study shows that residential wireless internet providers are growing...
16/10/2025
TV's most charming detective drama * Shakespeare & Hathaway: Private Investi...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Thailand's Legendary Outlaw Returns: Tee Yai: Born to be ...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Christmas Is Just Around The Corner: Home For Christmas Season...
16/10/2025
Back to All News
Trist n Ulloa Stars in El crimen de Pazos, the New Netflix Ser...
16/10/2025
ABS Completes Redomiciliation to Dubai Development Authority as Part of Strategi...
16/10/2025
This Saturday October 18 Katja Mia will burst onto the radio airwaves for the first time as she joins 2FM. Katja will be standing in for Bl thnaid Treacy on Sat...
16/10/2025
This October, RT is delighted to support Wexford Festival Opera, Babor International Arts Festival for Children, Open House Dublin and 36 other arts and cultu...
16/10/2025
GeForce NOW is more than just a platform to stream fresh games every week - it offers celebrations for the gamers who make it epic, with member rewards to sweet...
15/10/2025
Across the world, early-career reporters are interrogating systems that shape daily life, from mortuaries and classrooms to the corridors of legal education and...
15/10/2025
St. Louis Blues Pay Tribute to Ozzy Osbourne in New Pregame Open VideoThe NHL franchise worked with production firms 2WEI and 4th Floor CreativeBy Mark J Burns,...
15/10/2025
Cobalt Digital, G3DVu, Proxima Vision, and Telos Alliance Renew Premier Sponsors...
15/10/2025
By Paige Bethmann
Before my grandmother passed away in 2019, I went to visit her in the hospital where she'd been for a few weeks. When I arrived, the nurs...
15/10/2025
Two years ago, Spotify set out to grow the entire publishing industry by making ...
15/10/2025
People turn to DJ for a listening experience that feels personal, dynamic, and j...
15/10/2025
Las personas recurren a DJ para vivir una experiencia de escucha personal, din m...
15/10/2025
Rock legend Bruce Springsteen and luminary actor Jeremy Allen White came togethe...
15/10/2025
At Spotify, we're all about supporting rising talent and helping them connec...
15/10/2025
New SBS Documentary Series THE CANCER KILLERS Premieres 4 November on SBS & SBS ...
15/10/2025
SBS celebrates the Festivals of Lights with bold, illuminating stories across th...
15/10/2025
One of humanity's most profound questions continues: Is there any place in our galaxy suitable for life beyond Earth? NASA intends to find out, with the hel...
15/10/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
15/10/2025
Scality, a global leader in cyber-resilient storage software for the AI era, today announced the advancement of its comprehensive AI ecosystem certification pro...
15/10/2025
The Hollywood Professional Association (HPA) today unveiled key highlights of the 2026 HPA Tech Retreat, scheduled for Feb. 15 19 at the Westin Rancho Mirage Go...
15/10/2025
At NAB Show New York 2025 (Stand 244), Interra Systems will showcase the future of media QC, monitoring, and captioning, highlighting its award-winning, AI- and...
15/10/2025
Grass Valley today announced that RMC BFM, part of the CMA-CGM Group and France's third-largest private media group, has chosen Grass Valley's productio...
Live From CFP National Championship Game: Mercedes-Benz Stadium's Halo, Mega-Column Boards Shine on Big Stage More than 70,000 sq. ft. of videoboard space drops jaws at cutting-edge new stadium By Brandon Costa, Director of Digital 
