As Mary J Blige says "Don't need no hateration holleration"
Instead, we will experience a relentless flood of innovative technologies at the Big Game this Sunday.
The Stadium
“The 3.1 million-square-foot behemoth in Inglewood is a state-of-the-art technological marvel, featuring a 70,000-square-foot video board (dubbed the “Infinity Screen”), lightning-fast Wi-Fi and a massive LED canopy. SoFi Stadium relies solely on digital displays for everything from advertising to concession stand menus; that also comes in handy since the arena has two NFL tenants, the Rams and the Chargers, and can easily rotate their branding according to who’s playing that day.
With a whopping $5.5 billion price tag, the stadium’s top brass has visions that go far beyond the Super Bowl. The facility is also a concert venue that will host the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bad Bunny this year, and it will play a feature role in the 2028 Summer Olympics in L.A.”
The video tour below provides more of a perspective
The Broadcast
“Few live sports broadcasts compare with the NFL’s season finale when it comes to total cameras and equipment. However, (NBC’s) Gaudelli emphasizes that additional camera angles will be focused on capturing key situational moments rather than adding more cameras for the sake of adding more cameras. So the bulk of the additions for Super Bowl LVI will be goal-line cameras, cameras shooting down the sidelines, and camera shooting down the end-line in the end zone.
NBC will also debut a new graphics package for the game, upping the ante on AR and virtual elements in the broadcast. For the first time, NBC will have virtual graphics available via a Steadicam on the field and also plans to use SoFi Stadium’s Infinity Screen LED halo scoreboard above the field as a graphic display for some of the virtual graphics in the broadcast.”
Metaverse, NFTs and more
“VR and AR experiences have been available for the Super Bowl for a few years now, with FOX Sports broadcasting Super Bowl LI Highlights in near real-time in 2017. Five years later, VR and AR have immensely progressed, with the entire game being able to be streamed in VR on apps like Bigscreen. Bigscreen is a VR app designed to let you watch content with friends in the metaverse.
The NFL has also partnered with Meta to allow fans to decorate their online 3D avatars with virtual NFL merchandise. According to officials from Meta, these 3D, customizable avatars show that the metaverse represents VR and AR, but also more familiar digital platforms like your phone and computer. Small changes like a 3D avatar across all platforms could be a key entry point for people stepping into the metaverse.
In another step in modernizing the Super Bowl, the NFL is offering each attendee of Super Bowl LVI a personalized non-fungible token (NFT) ticket that is customized with their seat number. As of now, the Super Bowl NFTs will be considered collectors’ items. The NFL could also use the ticket NFTs for future experiences and activations.”
Machine Learning
Games this season have already been able to take advantage of ML driven recommendations and hopefully the Super Bowl will be close enough to require early and often the Next Gen Stats Decision Guide which “is built on a series of machine-learning models using the Amazon SageMaker platform powering live fourth-down and two-point-conversion decision analytics. For every crucial decision, Next Gen Stats breaks down the numbers in real time. To create a quantitative tool that can aid in live decision support, we first have to break down the driving factors of the decision: win probability (the impact of each decision on the game) and conversion probability (the likelihood of success with each decision).”
The health and security protocols
KN95 masks will be given to spectators at SoFi and the NFL has vaccine card and other requirements
Security will be massive as the video below describes
The Ventilation
The stadium’s passive ventilation and daylighting strategies — both defining features of its indoor/outdoor atmosphere — capitalize on the sun’s position and ocean winds throughout the day, resulting in a series of small microclimates on the site that informed landscape planning.
This may be a challenge with temperatures expected to be in the 80s. While the stadium has natural ventilation with its roof with open sides, the temperature inside will likely be higher in a packed stadium
The Half-time show
The acoustics, the lighting and fireworks will be electric – here is a preview
The Commercials
Now for the best part of the game. The price for a 30 second spot is nearly $7 million, yet NBC is sold out of inventory. Lots of technology vendors will be represented.
In fact, it is being called the Crypto Bowl, because as at least 5 of those startups will be featured in Super Bowl commercials. But you also have enterprise vendors like Salesforce with this
My early favorite for best commercial from the Game involves robots. Ok, it also involves beer :)
The whole place should be rocking with Mary J
"Let's get it crunk up on
Have fun up on, up in this dancery...."
Reasons I love the Superbowl--the ads and nachos at Superbowl parties. The verdict is still out on the NFTs. Interesting idea on the memento NFT they're giving out, but we'll see if this has any value in years to come.
Posted by: Bonnie | February 08, 2022 at 09:33 AM