I found these stats about the Super Bowl on Gizmodo, and thought I’d pass them along:
- 1,000,000,000 worldwide television audience
- 130,000,000 US viewers
- 70,000 fans at Ford Field in Detroit
- 38,000 dollars per second of commercial time
- 720p HD standard of the broadcast
- 500 monitors in control trucks
- 400 crew people for production, technical, administrative and support
- 100x optical zoom of the longest Canon lens to be used
- 180 frames per second of Sony’s new experimental super slo-mo camera
- 90 inputs on the video switcher
- 90 miles of cable for cameras and microphones
- 60 microphones, including 12 on-field parabolic mics
- 54 cameras used by FOX at last year’s Super Bowl, but not all were HD as they are this year
- 40 digital video instant replay units
- 36 TV cameras
- 36 seasons of ABC NFL coverage, of which this is the last season and last game
- 29 mobile vehicles
- 25 degrees, forecast temperature outside the domed stadium at kickoff, a concern of ABC technicians
- 20 “hard” cameras (stationary as opposed to hand-held)
- 10 television production trucks (not including the infamous horse trailer)
- 10 commercials bought by the game’s biggest advertiser, Anheuser-Busch
- 7 handheld cameras
- 6 robotic cameras
- 6 super slo-mo cameras
- 5 million dollars per minute to buy a commercial
- 4 announcers: Al Michaels, John Madden, Michelle Tafoya and Suzy Kolber
- 3 60-second advertisements (the rest are :30), bought by General Motors, Burger King and ESPN
- 2 operators for SkyCam: one cameraman, one “pilot”
- 1 director, Drew Esocoff, his second Super Bowl as a director
Related Links:
ABC Sports Prepares for HD Super Bowl XL [TV Technology]
Super Bowl XL on ABC Sports in SD/HD simulcast [Broadcast Engineering]
Super Bowl XL Ready to Go in Detroit [Broadcast Newsroom]
Super Bowl Gets Supersized Production [Broadcasting & Cable]