Super Bowl 50 is officially a wrap, but the excitement lingers as 111.9 million viewers who tuned in to catch the big game continue to talk about this year’s greatest highlights – from Lady Gaga’s rendition of the National Anthem to Von Miller’s 2.5 sacks, the impressive ad line-up or half-time spectacle featuring performances by Coldplay, Bruno Mars and Beyonce. Here at RCS we’re still talking about the game, as some of our team members got a front-row seat to the action while helping clients like CBS, NFL and DIRECTV on-site with graphics builds we’d developed before the game.
CBS
CBS began plans to give its graphics package the golden treatment for Super Bowl 50 last summer, turning to Troika for a redesign and us for a rebuild. Ramp up started in July as Troika was tasked with delivering design concepts. Working closely with their team, as well as CBS’ crew, we built several animations and wrote more than 122 interface scripts for the graphics, as well as custom software to run the score bar. By the end of the project, we’d delivered more than 252 custom elements from lineups to fullscreens, lower thirds and more, which appeared on CBS’ live TV broadcast, web and app streams, and world feed. Using an advanced graphics programming interface (GPI) we developed for use in their mobile broadcast truck, CBS was able to deliver clean, seamless graphics transitions and animations unlike anything ever seen before on TV.
NFL Network
Operating out of its own compound in the stadium, NFL debuted a new Super Bowl 50 look across its studio shows leading up to gameday, as well as on its automated stats- driven scoreboard app on NFL Network. Using a studio package we’d developed for them over the summer with designs by Drive, along with 12 of our Bullet mobile graphics workstations and two PPI touchscreens, we worked with their creative services department to update the package ahead of the game with a Super Bowl 50 look and feel. Their international game feed also included graphics powered by software and scripts RCS had previously developed for the network.
DIRECTV
DIRECT TV’s “Dan Patrick” and “Rich Eisen” Super Bowl 50 productions also made use of a handful of special elements RCS delivered just for this year’s big game, in addition to a custom graphics package and graphics hardware.
2016 marked our 14th year collaborating with clients and design partners on the Super Bowl, and one thing remains clear: they never fail to impress us with their commitment to pushing the limits of design and technology to enhance the fan experience. While the Super Bowl 50 may be over, we’re still reveling in our clients’ success and look forward to what else is in store for future championship games.