With more than 150 cameras and a mass gathering of cutting-edge technology, the live production of the 2025 Super Bowl saw a seamless delivery
Words Verity Butler
Super Bowl LIX broke records at the start of February when it reached more than 127 million viewers, making it the game’s biggest TV audience of all time. Viewership during the much-anticipated halftime show, this year performed by Kendrick Lamar, was even higher in reaching an astonishing 133.5 million – making that yet another all-time high.
Evidently, the sheer scale of this annual production is intensifying year on year, making the live broadcast – in terms of both software and hardware set-ups – an enormous challenge requiring rigorous planning and expertise.
With the rights cycles rotated annually among different major US networks, this year it was once again the turn of Fox to step up to the plate. Speaking to Kevin Callahan, the vice president of operations and engineering at Fox Sports, he shares an insider’s perspective on the effort.
Callahan is no stranger to high-profile sporting events. Bringing over a decade at Fox alone, including key experience working on past Super Bowls and other major tournaments, he recognises the importance of taking stock after each event in order to improve the next.
“This was Super Bowl number eight for me,” he begins. “We take our learnings from one event to the next. It’s how we get better and continue to deliver an elevated product.”
This year’s production saw more than 150 cameras cover every possible angle of the game – delivering feeds into five different production galleries and 16 mobile production units on-site.
“The Super Bowl is so large, with all those cameras and replay sources, that we need another control room just for all additional elements. We had a dedicated control room for our augmented reality execution, one for studio productions and another for our red-carpet show, which streamed as a stand-alone programme for the first time.”
The logistics behind setting up a production of this scale are monumental. Fox Sports began its on-site build back on 6 January – that’s more than a month before the game – adding approximately 18,000 sq ft of temporary office and production space.
“The first part was creating the infrastructure,” Callahan highlights. “Once we had added the technical and production space, we moved into power planning and redundancy set-ups to ensure a seamless broadcast.”
The mobile production units themselves had a complicated journey to New Orleans.
“The trucks came from the NFC championship game in Philadelphia on 26 January. They all drove down and parked on the 29th and, when working with 16 units, it took nearly six hours just to get them all positioned correctly.”
In a surprising turn, the set-up process in New Orleans was interrupted by an unexpected weather event.
“We got a foot of snow during the set-up,” reveals Callahan. “But, being a Southern city, New Orleans didn’t have ice melt or snow ploughs, which created some challenges. Fortunately, though, it happened early enough that we were able to recover quickly.”
Grass Valley’s Kayenne production switcher is a highly modular system
Despite months of planning, last-minute changes are inevitable. Major networks like Fox need to be able to adjust to breaking news, unexpected developments and any eleventh-hour creative decisions at a moment’s notice.
“The first 15 minutes of the main game broadcast changed entirely in the last week,” shares Callahan. “Having all the production galleries on-site allowed us to adapt quickly. We had equipment available that we initially planned to use for testing and rehearsals – but we pivoted and integrated it into the augmented reality portion of the show.”
Fox Sports leveraged an array of state-of-the-art technology to enhance the Super Bowl viewing experience. This included Grass Valley switchers, which played a critical role in managing the overall broadcast output.
“The switchers were the lifeblood of the production,” Callahan emphasises. “Every signal that a viewer sees goes through it. We had to provide multiple outputs, including the world feed for the NFL – and a clean feed for another NFL entity. Having the flexibility to manage multiple feeds was absolutely essential.”
Working at the heart of the action, there were around 30 Grass Valley switchers on-site in total – working tirelessly across the OB trucks in the production compound to ensure the broadcast’s success. One vital aspect of Fox Sports’ workflow is the ability to integrate both traditional and modern production methods.
“All our primary events are done with Grass Valley switchers. At the Super Bowl, we had a mixture of legacy SDI switchers and newer 2110 switchers. Even though our main production truck was a legacy IP one, we had to operate it as if it were SDI while integrating newer 2110-based mobile units. For our operators, it offers the same user interface that they are comfortable with.”
Scaling production efforts smoothly is key for a production of this magnitude.
“We had two different panels on the same switcher frame. One was handling sub switch, while the other controlled the augmented reality suite. Sharing resources like that was a big win.”
Fox also continued its push for high-quality visuals, delivering the Super Bowl broadcast in high dynamic range (HDR) for the third time.
“We’re big believers in high frame rate,” says Callahan. “It provides a unique visual difference to viewers at home and enables super-clear replays. We’re also seeing more demand for multiple feeds, whether it’s shoulder programming, international feeds or custom graphics for different markets and geographies.”
For the team at Fox Sports, producing the Super Bowl is both a challenge and an honour in equal measures.
“We refer to ourselves as stewards of the event,” notes Callahan. “We’re lucky to do this every three to four years and are always looking to push the envelope. The Super Bowl allows us to work with top vendors and explore the latest tech, ensuring that every broadcast debuts cutting-edge advancements.”
As the Super Bowl continues to evolve, so will the technology and techniques used to bring it to audiences worldwide. With each iteration, broadcasters like Fox Sports will seek to refine their approach, learning from the past to create an even better experience in future. Super Bowl LIX was another milestone in this journey – showcasing the remarkable dedication and innovation behind one of the biggest nights in US sports.
This feature was first published in the Mar/Apr 2025 issue of LIVE.
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