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Super Show or Black Eye?

Never in the history of Super Bowl halftime shows has there ever been a more divisive show, judging by the number of tweets and FB posts. Hip hop music has that effect, usually dividing listeners along the lines of age and culture. Music aside, what did you think of the Super Bowl halftime show? 

I'm very curious to know how all of the LED suits were controlled. Were they under wireless DMX control, pre-programmed, or randomly flashing? Same with the suits worn by the BEPs. 

I'm also curious to know how many universes of DMX were used on the show. Was it close to the 37 universes used at the Beijing Olympics?

Anyone know who the designers, programmers, and directors were? I know Bruce Rogers of Tribe designed the set and Ricky Kirshner is the producer, which is why I tend to like what I saw (it's hard to separate friends from critical analysis of the technology).

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Permalink Reply by Dennis J Solomon on February 7, 2011 at 9:33pm

Hey TC,

There are some folks who have been doing some very nice body EL - including arrays - for about 4 years.  Buy a strip of 12v LED Christmas lights, a couple of RC Auto Power Packs in series,  a 12v regulator and a push button and you're off and running.  A DMX controller and a mosfet and you are a universe.  Many DMX-LED driver circuits will normally sink 12v.

Best,

Dennis   

Truth Collins said:

I liked the half-time show.  Thanks for pointing out the manual control of the LED body suits which I was curious about too.  I didn't hear the show too well when watching it and not being a sound guy, I won't contest criticisms going in that direction as the technical descriptions sound about right.

 

Almost as an aside though, as not being part of the technical discussion here, I think it is important to mention the fact of this being one of, if not the first hip hop performances at the Super Bowl.  Though not having watched them all I'm not sure but the list on Wikipedia seems supportive of the idea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Super_Bowl_halftime_shows .  Keeping this in mind, it reminds me of how people can be polarized by politics in that some of the criticism is no doubt out of cultural prejudice.  Of note in this respect is an interesting looking book by Jay Z.  http://www.amazon.com/Decoded-Jay-Z/dp/1400068924 Speaking of prejudice, to go even further off topic, a class I took on this subject stressed the following, that though our minds tell us that everyone has just as much right to be like us as we do, to do it our way, they also have just as much right to be different.  And yuppie hip hop artists aside, it's not the majority which grew up with private music tutors and piano lessons, as it's a class issue where many are self taught musicians, though cheaper computer/devices and the spread of the internet helps to even out the divide, which, by the way is not just one directional.  For example, there is an Android app called B-Rhymes dictionary, for almost rhyming words or related ideas, useful for poets and word-smiths.

 

Back to lighting,  though I assumed the body suites were LED powered, I wondered at the time if it could be done with EL wire.  I don't think so because it's not as bright and not used so much.  I've seen it used very little, only for a few small signs.  But I've googled it on the internet and wondered as to what it would take to control it with DMX.  Much of it is 12 volts so I've wondered if a 12 volt DMX controller would work, though I assume something else could be needed in between the wire and the DMX controller (though I don't know all that much about electronics).  Does anyone know?

 

What's next, LED t-shirts for the audience controlled by embedded RFID chips which communicate with the closest transmitter organized by zone?  Who knows.

Permalink Reply by Martijn Wezenberg on February 9, 2011 at 1:58am
I think the lighting looked pretty good! All the video, Vl's and the led rings of the arena made it a pretty good picture. But sadly it were the BEP's, never liked them never will.. Mean that auto tune was killing.
Permalink Reply by Richard Cadena on February 9, 2011 at 5:49am
I watched the show again on youtube and I agree that the lighting was really good. I especially liked the automated lighting chases on the downbeat during the intro to Sweet Child of Mine.

Martijn Wezenberg said:
I think the lighting looked pretty good! All the video, Vl's and the led rings of the arena made it a pretty good picture. But sadly it were the BEP's, never liked them never will.. Mean that auto tune was killing.
Permalink Reply by Justin Lang on February 9, 2011 at 8:33am

Hi Richard,

 

Here is more info from the people that made the LED suites.

http://response-box.com/gear/2011/02/led-control-superbowl-xlv-halftime-show/

Permalink Reply by Truth Collins on February 9, 2011 at 1:02pm

Thanks Dennis.  You may have already answered yes to the question as an implied yes.  Heres an example.  How about this DMX controller, not for a body suite?  Would it be as simple as wiring the EL wire to an output and powering the DMX controller?

http://www.sirs-e.com/st/rgb-led-dmx-controller-2-p-2930.html?cPath...

Dennis J Solomon said:

Hey TC,

There are some folks who have been doing some very nice body EL - including arrays - for about 4 years.  Buy a strip of 12v LED Christmas lights, a couple of RC Auto Power Packs in series,  a 12v regulator and a push button and you're off and running.  A DMX controller and a mosfet and you are a universe.  Many DMX-LED driver circuits will normally sink 12v.

Best,

Dennis   


Permalink Reply by Dennis J Solomon on February 10, 2011 at 1:06pm

TC,

True EL - (EL wire, etc) requires an inverter rather than  DC LED power.  2 AA/ 9V EL inverters are common, and one could use many DMX LED outputs for the purpose.  Storing and replaying DMX commands for battery powered LED or EL control can be quite compact (about credit card footprint and less than 0.25" inches high.)

We have been commissioned for a similar project this summer which may be of help if you have upcoming requirements.

Best,

Dennis

 

 

 

 

       



Truth Collins said:

Thanks Dennis.  You may have already answered yes to the question as an implied yes.  Heres an example.  How about this DMX controller, not for a body suite?  Would it be as simple as wiring the EL wire to an output and powering the DMX controller?

http://www.sirs-e.com/st/rgb-led-dmx-controller-2-p-2930.html?cPath...

Dennis J Solomon said:

Hey TC,

There are some folks who have been doing some very nice body EL - including arrays - for about 4 years.  Buy a strip of 12v LED Christmas lights, a couple of RC Auto Power Packs in series,  a 12v regulator and a push button and you're off and running.  A DMX controller and a mosfet and you are a universe.  Many DMX-LED driver circuits will normally sink 12v.

Best,

Dennis   


Permalink Reply by cody stoltz on February 11, 2011 at 7:50pm
The who playing for the who dat's. Being new orleans first time going/winning the super bowl in over 40 years It was worse then mardigras in the french quarter ive never seen such a wild night, And everything was really awesome last year, as for this year Eh not impressed Bep was terrible, they didnt have no where near the amount of pyro or lasers as they have had before and there  was nothing spectacular about the lighting, except for the led suits but I dont think that should really go under lighting.
Permalink Reply by Truth Collins on March 17, 2011 at 10:56am
Not sure if this answer's my own question but according to this, EL wire cannot be controlled directly buy a DMX PWM driver. Says it can't be dimmed the same way. So maybe just an on/off control is possible.

http://www.ladyada.net/learn/el-wire/

"EL wire is not a resistive light (like an incandescent bulb) and it is not a diode light (like an LED), it acts like more like a capacitor! The stiff inner wire is one 'plate' of the capacitor, the corona wire is the other 'plate' and the phosphor coating being the insulator/dielectric (for more details on capacitors, see Wikipedia ). This means you cannot use dimming methods such as triac/chopping for resistive incandescents or PWM for LEDs."



Dennis J Solomon said:

TC,

True EL - (EL wire, etc) requires an inverter rather than  DC LED power.  2 AA/ 9V EL inverters are common, and one could use many DMX LED outputs for the purpose.  Storing and replaying DMX commands for battery powered LED or EL control can be quite compact (about credit card footprint and less than 0.25" inches high.)

We have been commissioned for a similar project this summer which may be of help if you have upcoming requirements.

Best,

Dennis

 

 

 

 

       



Truth Collins said:

Thanks Dennis.  You may have already answered yes to the question as an implied yes.  Heres an example.  How about this DMX controller, not for a body suite?  Would it be as simple as wiring the EL wire to an output and powering the DMX controller?

http://www.sirs-e.com/st/rgb-led-dmx-controller-2-p-2930.html?cPath...

Dennis J Solomon said:

Hey TC,

There are some folks who have been doing some very nice body EL - including arrays - for about 4 years.  Buy a strip of 12v LED Christmas lights, a couple of RC Auto Power Packs in series,  a 12v regulator and a push button and you're off and running.  A DMX controller and a mosfet and you are a universe.  Many DMX-LED driver circuits will normally sink 12v.

Best,

Dennis   


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