This year’s Super Bowl Halftime show was (based on a composite of TV, digital, and social media viewing) the ‘most-watched musical event of all time’. Incredibly, the Lady Gaga-headlined ‘musical interlude’ also garnered higher average viewership than the actual American football game. And Green Hippo’s technology again worked its magic, controlling an incredible video display.
Utilising a LED systems from VER, including a record 5000 stage-embedded LEDs, the show’s lighting straddled two towers, a main platform, three star-shaped side stages, a piano dome and a stage lift. Lighting designer Bob Barnhart of 22 Degrees worked on the show’s production, along with Bruce Rogers of Tribe Inc. and LeRoy Bennet, and Production Resource Group supplied lighting. The Halftime show Media Server Operator was Jason Rudolph, a man who knows Green Hippo technology more than well from the likes of his work on Academy Award shows, as well as previous Super Bowls.
Key here was Green Hippo’s Hippotizer software, running in its latest 4.2 version, and its integrated PixelMapper tool. Capable of easily and effectively mapping many thousand light points, PixelMapper’s massive output capacity, coupled with its intuitive interface and live streaming previews makes it a hugely powerful visual tool.
The live event saw a mighty performance from one of the globe’s leading performers – Time described Gaga’s performance as ‘among the very best in the history of the form’ – with potent real-time video, harnessed by Green Hippo technology, providing an impressive addition to the Super Bowl LI Halftime show.