The Super Bowl Half-Time Show is one of the biggest performances of the year. Each year viewers sit in anticipation eagerly waiting for a superstar to take the main stage and perform during the NFL’s half-time. This year, the show was hosted by Rihanna and while it wasn’t as flashy as Lady Gaga jumping off the stadium roof, the performance relied on technological advancements that took months to prepare for. Mainly, engineers decided that instead of spending time protecting the grass from the stage, they would suspend the stage in the air during the performance.
You see, grass preservation is a major focus for the NFL during the Superbowl Half-Time Show. During each year’s performance, the grass is carefully protected by various materials so that after the show, players can resume the match without worrying about the damage.
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The grass in the State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona is watered and mowed daily. It is even checked with a special tool called the Clegg Impact Tester which analyses the density to make sure it is safe for football. You can understand why the organizers of the show wanted to avoid damaging this precious grass.
Believe it or not but Rihanna’s performance at the show this year was put together in only 7.5 minutes. This means the crew only had seven minutes in order to set it all up and took it all down in 6 minutes. If you watched the performance (which you can view below), you would see that Rihanna spent most of her time suspended in the air by floating platforms. These platforms were above a smaller-than-usual stage on the grass below.
These floating platforms were the highlight of the performance but were only actually done in order to create a floating stage to protect the field. If Rihanna’s show wasn’t elevated, the general scale of the stage would have been a lot smaller than what we saw.
The performance was put together by 800 people and consisted of 80 dancers dressed in Savage X Fenty costumes. The construction of the stage relied on fine-tuning its weight in order to compensate for its in-the-air design. It also had to be made in order to be rolled out onto the field across 15 carts. Keep in mind that these carts also had to be pushed out into the field evenly to avoid damaging the grass.
The production team also planned ahead by hoisting the elevated stage parts into the air way before the performance started. They then slowly lowered it during the 7-minute set-up time while the bottom of the stage was being built.
According to the project lead from Tait Towers Aaron Siebert, this year’s performance was the most technically advanced to date because of these platforms and the focus on grass preservation.
“This will be, in my opinion, the most technically advanced Super Bowl halftime show that’s ever been done because of the amount of tech used to move the platforms”
If you haven’t watched the show yet, I suggest you do. Check it out below:
Source: Wired
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