Super Bowl 2013

[Stee_cri1]

Hi All,

 

So I came across this today and thought I would share. Im sure a few people watched and wondered what was being used so here you go

 

Selected Lighting List

2 PRG V676 Lighting Control Console

6 PRG Series 400 Power and Data Distribution System Rack

26 PRG Node Plus Network Interface Device

180 Clay Paky Sharpy

108 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash

37 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Wash FX

33 Philips Vari-Lite VL3500 Spot

52 Robe Robin 600 LEDWash

20 Reel EFX DF-50 Diffusion Hazer

3 Hungaroflash Strobe

53 Martin Professional Atomic Strobe with Atomic Scroller

306 Chroma-Q Color Block 2

272 Philips Color Kinetics ColorBlast

37 Philips Color Kinetics iW ColorBlast

 

Steve

 

 

[Tow]

Its good fo see the Americans using quality European kit :-)

 

Any more details on the cause of Blackout or 'Outage' as they say across the pond...

 

 

[dbuckley]

Read all about it.

[indyld]

Being too early to speculate has historically not stopped people from speculating. Richard Cadena has his own take, not one I feel particularly strongly about either way as I've not really heard anything much, wasn't there and didn't even watch it. Certainly the potential issue of non-linear loads has become more of a likelihood in our game than it used to be, so his warnings are worth reading for those new to show power anyhow:

Barbizon Lighting Blog reposted article

[the kid]

Speculate away. We all know what happened.

[Roderick]

News release from IAVM, I have highlighted the area that surprised me....

 

SMG, Entergy, New Orleans begin assessment of why lights went out during Super Bowl

Super Bowl XLVII was everything the City of New Orleans and the National Football League could have wanted with the Baltimore Ravens hanging on to edge the San Francisco 49ers, 34-31. The game was watched by 108.4 million people, making it the third most watched program in television history. Oh, and the lights went out for 34 minutes.

The Mercedes-Benz Superdome never fell into complete darkness, but just as the 49ers were about to come to the line to run a play early in the third quarter, banks of lights ringing the stadium shut down as did the microphones of CBS television analysts Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.

 

There has been much speculation in the days since the game was played about what exactly happened and why, but no definitive answers have been reached yet. In fact, SMG, which manages the venue, along with Entergy New Orleans held a joint press conference to announce that the two entities will employ a third-party private engineering firm to try and identify the exact problem.

Entergy New Orleans CEO Charles Rice and SMG Senior Vice President Doug Thornton agree that the problem happened at the point where Entergy’s responsibility for delivering the power ends and SMG’s begins. That leaves a very fine line, though, for pinpointing where the problem began.

 

Thornton added that some power was lost during rehearsals for the halftime show, but that is a fairly common occurrence when a show arrives and the venue and workers must determine the show’s electrical needs.

 

There has been speculation that new feeder cables could have been part of the problem, but Thornton refuted that notion.

Venue spokesman Eric Eagan said that the venue has been inundated with media requests but that he hopes to soon share with IAVM some steps the venue took to restoring full power as quickly as possible as well as lessons learned from the incident.

 

The outage helped attract an estimated 47.7 million social media posts during the game, compared with 17 million during last year’s game and three million in 2010.

[Wilflet]

News release from IAVM, I have highlighted the area that surprised me....

 

 

Thornton added that some power was lost during rehearsals for the halftime show, but that is a fairly common occurrence when a show arrives and the venue and workers must determine the show's electrical needs.

 

 

Yes, Any lighting company worth theyre salt can surely provide a pretty accurate estimate of what theyre going to draw before they arrive on site.

That quote sounds like the venue take a trial and error approach to tailing in.

[Roderick]

And the reported fact that the halftime entertainment ran of gennies....

The glitzy halftime show featuring Beyonce wasn’t at fault, either, they said, because separate generators powered that spectacle; Superdome crews monitoring the amperage said power consumption actually dropped as the house lights went down.

http://www.nola.com/superbowl/index.ssf/2013/02/super_bowl_blackout_could_be_t.html

[Dave SA]

So much irony it is ironic. How do the yanks spell irony?

[Jamtastic3]

Not even a piece of American DJ fixture in site! ;)

[Stee_cri1]

News release from IAVM, I have highlighted the area that surprised me....

 

 

Thornton added that some power was lost during rehearsals for the halftime show, but that is a fairly common occurrence when a show arrives and the venue and workers must determine the show's electrical needs.

 

 

Yes, Any lighting company worth theyre salt can surely provide a pretty accurate estimate of what theyre going to draw before they arrive on site.

That quote sounds like the venue take a trial and error approach to tailing in.

 

This is true but the Lighting company were using their own generators.

[BlueShift]

This is true but the Lighting company were using their own generators.

 

And this is the kicker, and why I don't buy the halftime show argument. I would have thought, and what I've read would seem to support it, that the halftime show and most of the broadcast elements were run of generators.

 

This is of course partly because venues like this aren't typically engineered to provide for the kinds of additional power draws that these events require, and partly because having their own isolated power supply gives the show an element of redundancy not afforded by the shore power.

 

I wondered whether it was something to do with a hot restrike of all those sodium/arc lamps and a potential overcurrent or RCD fault.

 

However, the article about harmonic current in the neutral on three phase systems is a good one, and is not just an issue for lighting and video people. Most of the current crop of large scale audio amplifiers use switch mode power supplies and cause huge amounts of neutral current.

[dbuckley]

The American National Elctric Code has required that switchboards intended for feeding theatrical stuff have 200% rated neutrals for this very reason, and have done so for several years.

[Roderick]

Entergy New Orleans accepts fault for Super Bowl power outage

Entergy New Orleans announced last Friday that an electrical device that had been installed to prevent a power outage was actually the culprit behind the outage that caused Super Bowl XLVII to be delayed for 34 minutes at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. The announcement came prior to the energy company and SMG, management firm for the New Orleans venue, planning to bring in a third party to determine the root of the failure.

The device, known as a relay, had been installed in switching gear to protect the dome from a cable failure between the company’s incoming power line and lines that run into the stadium. The same device had been used during the Sugar Bowl in January but has been removed and will be replaced.

Entergy’s admission came before city council members and absolved the Superdome of any fault, something Superdome/SMG Senior Vice President already knew.

“We knew the problem was with the device that failed, which is not even near the Superdome,” said Thornton. “Entergy has control over the equipment. It’s very complicated the way these things work, but we spent a lot of time doing our research and knew it was a problem in their vault.”

Thornton said that the National Football League had advised all parties to not speak with the media or to place blame until a determination could be made of what went wrong. Despite the league’s request, Thornton said that the energy company released a statement minutes after the game indicating the outage was a building problem.

“I think that is an important lesson learned,” said Thornton. “People should not make any public comments until they know what was wrong.”

Thornton added that venues should always be prepared for basically anything. “Be prepared,” he said. “We actually conducted a drill on January 10 to simulate a power outage. We wanted to document all conditions in the building so there was no question as to the nature of a problem.”

Thornton was in the NFL control booth when the west bank of lights went out and said his initial reaction was, “I can’t believe this is happening. But after you swallow and get your heart out of your throat you follow all the protocols you have established and drilled and trained on.”

Thornton said he knew immediately that one of the main power supplies had been lost. “It’s like flying a plane on one engine,” he said. “While you are flying you are trying to re-start the second engine.”

“If we had not trained or had people in position, it could have taken a lot longer (to restore lighting),” he added. “But we had gone through a lot of tabletop exercises because this was the Super Bowl and because Entergy had installed new equipment.”

Thornton said the power had actually come back on in 18 minutes, but the other processes for rebooting took the process to a still impressive 34 minutes.

Thornton’s takeaway advice to fellow venue managers is that a situation may not be your fault, but it will become your problem. “We don’t produce kilowatts, we produce football games,” he said. “But you better learn a little about all the equipment.”

As for Thornton’s electrical knowledge, he said that, “I learned more about electrical systems in the last two weeks than I had known the rest of my life.”