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

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, ASM Global Continue To Work Hand in Hand

Out of 59 Super Bowls, the city of New Orleans is hosting its record-setting 11th. Van Wagner has been present for a fair number of these title games, including the last time the game was in the Big Easy: Super Bowl XLVII in 2013 between the Baltimore Ravens and San Francisco 49ers. It’s Becker’s 30th Super Bowl, and he has seen a ton of changes in the way the NFL’s biggest game is produced.

“Every year brings new challenges,” he says, “because [the show] gets bigger and better. The last few times we were here, the ribbon boards were smaller, and the control room was higher up in the stadium. We’ve really advanced the technology for this game.”

The behind-the-scenes workflows that make the videoboard show possible

Although the technology and workflows have changed, the collaboration between his crew and the host venue’s staff hasn’t. At Caesars Superdome, the ASM Global folks are familiar faces to Van Wagner, which means not only an amazing show but also an extremely enjoyable environment to work in on Super Bowl Sunday.

“To us, they’re family,” says Van Wagner’s Becker. “I have complete admiration for what they’ve done [over the years], and I highly respect their work ethic. It’s always nice to come to a place where you feel comfortable with both the people and the facility.”