Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Rob Spence]

I checked the show out on 2 different channels, OTA broadcast with full 5.1 Vocals were low in some parts and not so bad in others.
The choreography was quite good and it looked like there was a live band (with tracks)
I did like the idea of "travelling" from inside the tunnel to different stages and on to the field.

The thing that really got my attention was the scrolling Pepsi logo running across the seating area behind the stage. Neat trick with, what I assume, are hand held LED devices.

Most of the attendees travelled from inside a tunnel to the stands. Whop. The dancers were great. They didn’t need JT. LED cubes were cool. None of it was “the greatest music event of the year” (the week after the Grammys - which were really well done).

ATK, as usual, did a great job. Just needed a bit more talent in mix.

Pink did a fabulous job on the National Anthem.



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[Gordon Brinton]

Pink did a fabulous job on the National Anthem.

No. She was off-key on a lot of notes. I've heard her sing better than that. But then, someone said that she was recovering from the flu. If so, they should have had a backup talent ready to do the job.

[Robert Lunceford]

From a stint in cork-sniffing hifi back in the 70’s...  No highs, No Lows.. Must be B__e

[Rob Spence]

No. She was off-key on a lot of notes. I've heard her sing better than that. But then, someone said that she was recovering from the flu. If so, they should have had a backup talent ready to do the job.

They did have a backup ready.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[Tim Weaver]

Does anyone know if JT really can play the piano?  I noticed all the shots when he was at the piano were purposefully angled to not catch his hands.  Its one thing when a truly good singer lipsinks on a high profile show, but its just silly when someone who doesn't know how to play an instrument fakes it for no real reason, be it piano, guitar whatever.

I got a chuckle out of one of the "horn players" holding a concert tuba on his shoulder like a sousaphone. It looked really awkward. They also painted the bell white so it would stand out more.

I dug the Prince tribute. The airy, projection on a scrim is much more classy than a hologram.

I really dug the set design. Those video panel bandstands were great, and the video content on them was really cool.

[David Allred]

Does anyone know if JT really can play the piano?  I noticed all the shots when he was at the piano were purposefully angled to not catch his hands. 

I have seen concert clips of him at keys.  So he at least can play piano like a keyboard player.  Playing "cords" and playing "piano" is all a matter of perspective, I guess. 
As to your faking it comment.... yeh, hate it, especially when they show their hands.  Ralph Macchio in the Crossroads' duel was pretty believable until he started the classical riffs.  Then it just got silly (bad).  Vai's mess-ups were also poorly done.

[Geoff Doane]

I've just come to expect to witness technical difficulties with the SB HT Show... it's just too much crap to try to make right in 6 - 7 minutes setup time regardless of how much rehearsal you get.  Therefore I tend to give them a lot of slack with regard to what comes out of my 5.1  home system when I watch a spectacle of this nature.  All in all, kudos I say!  That's a helluva thing to pull off!

There are a lot of things that can go wrong with a 5.1 mix between the live mixer and your home TV, as I found out on a gig this past summer.

I was working as the Engineer in Charge on a remote audio truck during a national July 1st broadcast.  Our job  (the A1, A2 and me) was to do a live 5.1 mix of 3 songs, embed them in an HD video feed, and then send the whole thing to Toronto via satellite, where the clips would be assembled into the show.  We had a day of rehearsal and a capable console (SSL C200)and stage crew, and after the first song had been dispatched, we thought everything was going fine.

Until we got the phone call from Toronto, "There's no vocals or bass in the mix!".  Well, there certainly was when it left us.  Fortunately, everything was operating on a delay (our first segment was not yet needed for the show), and we had recorded it at our location as we sent it to the satellite.  So we sent it again, and they had the same problem.  There was much discussion about codecs and channel assignments, and then some bright light up the line admitted that they were trying to upconvert our signal to 5.1.  But we were already sending them 5.1, so our L and R channels don't include ANY of what is in the centre channel.  With that sorted out, the rest of the day progressed more smoothly.  But we had the luxury of doing a re-feed, which the Super Bowl broadcast doesn't have.

If we could have a screwup like that, it doesn't surprise me that similar things can happen by the time a show gets through the whole chain to an affiliate in who knows where.  I suspect there is a lot of "upconversion" going on because people making the decisions don't really understand the problem.

GTD

[Stephen Kirby]

  Vai's mess-ups were also poorly done.

Vai played all the parts in the "classical" segment.  Cooder just did the slide parts.

Geoff, I know what you mean by upconvert.  I get this all the time at work.  Where someone thinks they understand something and so "fixes" it where they should have left it alone.  Just yesterday I had someone show me a specially modified part because they thought they understood how it would be installed.  Without modifications these are sold by the millions to people who use them just fine.  But this guy thought he was clever and thought he could "improve" it.  A 30 second question and 1 minute explanation could have saved him hours of CAD time.

[John Koepke Jr.]

Agreed. I can't begin to imagine all of the hard work, planning and coordination that has to go into an event like this. The Verge did a write-up on some of the audio engineering that goes into the Superbowl halftime show:

https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/2/16961244/super-bowl-halftime-show-audio-patrick-baltzell-2018

I'd love to see a more in-depth write-up of the entire production; it's super fascinating. If anyone has more info about some of the behind-the-scenes magic, please share!

A while ago I found this video about Katie Perry's 2015 Superbowl setup.  Its about an hour long but has quite a bit of detail about how it all goes down.  Quite amazing if you ask this "Weekend Warrior"..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFttH_etf4Y

[David Allred]

Vai played all the parts in the "classical" segment.  Cooder just did the slide parts.

Via definitely looked the part of the devil's headcutter.  Odd that instead of having him misplay the riff, he just ground to stop. 

[ProSoundWeb Community]