Latin America. It's not every day that history is made, but it is on Sunday, February 11. Not only did it mark the first Super Bowl played in Las Vegas and a major step forward for the soccer dynasty of Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs, but it was also the largest audience ever to watch the game on a Spanish-language television network.
More than two and a quarter million viewers tuned in to Univision's Super Bowl telecast to watch the Chiefs defeat the San Francisco 49ers. To mark the occasion, the popular Spanish-language network hosted a lively pregame celebration at Caesars Palace. At the center of the festivities was the performance of multi-award-winning Puerto Rican rapper and singer Myke Towers, which was broadcast on the "Televisa – Univision" sports special for the Super Bowl.
Raising the energy level around the performance for the live audience and TV viewers was a production design by René Garcia of Absolute Lighting Designs that featured over 75 Chauvet Professional luminaires supplied by 4Wall Entertainment.
Working with programmer Chris Fernandez and camera director Michell Lorens, Garcia created a captivating flow of stunning looks for the event, which took place in the fountain area of Caesars Palace at the entrance to the resort. Their design moved perfectly with the flow of the show, starting with Myke Towers and the dancers starting their performance in a car and taking to the stage.
Flanking the star and her dancers as they approached the stage were a series of Chauvet Professional COLORado PXL Bar 16 luminaires that lined the runway red carpet. "These props worked like a charm," Garcia said. "They were ideal for our still and jib camera shots."
Anchoring the platform were 46 Maverick MK3 Wash fixtures. Garcia and his team placed the powerful RGBW moving lights on two separate sets, using 24 of them on the indoor stage grid, while the rest were placed in truss units arranged around the stage lift for the cameras.
"We chose the MK3 because of its wide-angle lens and the amazing visual effects we were able to get from these units to achieve mesmerizing looks," said Garcia. "As this started at two o'clock in the afternoon, we still had a substantial amount of sunlight, so we relied on MK3 Washes, Pixel Bar 16 and R2 Washes to highlight and create the necessary styles."
Garcia and his team took care of the TV cameras, based on location data from the director's cameras and the looks they wanted to create. They spent a day of preparation at the 4Wall facility, followed by two days of set-up and lock-out of the rehearsal chamber, and a day of filming."
In the end, the end result was worth it. "I really loved seeing the wide shots that showed all the matches," Garcia said.
Viewers who tuned in to the show no doubt felt the same way. For them, this part of a historic Super Bowl Sunday was pure victory.
