It’s the (relative) calm before the Super Bowl storm. At Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, California, golf carts buzz around carrying people and equipment. Workers water the lush field as the afternoon sun beams in. And broadcast crews run through rehearsals to make sure everything looks good on your TV come game day.
Earlier this week, I swung by Levi’s Stadium to get a behind-the-scenes look at some of the tech powering the US’s biggest sporting event, which this year takes place on Sunday, Feb. 8, and pits the Seattle Seahawks against the New England Patriots.
The Super Bowl has long been a staple for football fans, but in recent years, it’s also morphed into a showcase for cutting-edge technology, whether it’s advanced connectivity, improved sound systems or state-of-the-art displays. During my tour, I got a look at everything from high-end camera equipment to security rooms and even the custom-made headsets coaches wear to communicate with players.
In short, there are many moving pieces to ensure everything runs as smoothly as possible — both on the ground and on TV. Here’s what I explored throughout the stadium.
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Capturing and editing the big game
In the shadow of the stadium sit about two dozen white NBC production trucks, where hundreds of people work together to beam the Super Bowl to viewers at home. Stepping inside the unassuming structures, it’s as if a Mary Poppins-like enchantment has made their interiors much larger than their external dimensions suggest. Numerous screens and swaths of cables cover almost every inch of space, and switchboards are stacked with endless pulsing buttons.
Around two dozen production trucks are lined up outside the stadium.
Each trailer has a different function. In one, which houses the main control room, the technical director will work with the producer and director to ensure the right shots are being broadcast. An assistant director sees to it that those pricey Super Bowl ads run when they’re supposed to. And in an adjoining room is where the audio gets mixed.
“A lot of important decisions are made in this room in a split second, so they need to be executed perfectly with zero margin of error,” said Keith Kice, NBC Sports’ senior director of remote tech operations.
Here’s where the crew ensures the right shots — and ads — are being broadcast.
In another trailer, a team monitors the footage coming from dozens of cameras to match exposure and color, so everything looks as vibrant and true-to-life as possible.
In a demo, one of the operators showed us how he can change the color of the red seats at Levi’s to pink or “Home Depot” orange with the turn of a dial (though he noted he’s not really supposed to do that). The team can also make the grass a more vivid green if the field is looking a little dead and dingy (thankfully, it’s not). Changes are made in real time throughout the game, especially as the sun starts to dip and the artificial lights take over, altering the color temperature.
Cables galore.
A replay trailer, as the name suggests, allows the crew to slow down and revisit certain moments in the game. This is helpful for viewers at home, but also, critically, for officials pondering the right call.
Because the Super Bowl is such a fast-paced and high-stakes event, a lot of elements are pre-produced. The crew already has shots on hand from previous Patriots and Seahawks games that are likely to be referenced during Sunday’s big game.
“We try to have all that stuff already preloaded,” Kice says. “But if it’s not, we have ways of bringing that in.” A giant pipeline connects the production trailers in Santa Clara to NBC Sports’ production facility in Stamford, Connecticut, where all its files are stored. “They can find a clip there and we’ll have it in 15 seconds here,” Kice says.
A look inside the replay trailer.
Feeding into all of these trailers and, in turn, your TV at home, is footage captured by more than 120 Sony cameras. There are nearly two dozen different types of Sony models used for the Super Bowl, from the HDC-5500 to cinema cameras like the PXW-FX9. These are stationed throughout the field and stadium, and are also attached to drones capturing aerial views of the game. Almost all game-facing cameras have a high frame rate, making plays look smoother while also allowing officials to take a closer look at any replay shots.
There are also around 150 microphones and about 75 miles of fiber cables making the broadcast possible.
Yes, that is a Cannon lens, but the camera itself is from Sony; the two work together to capture footage during the Super Bowl. Teamwork!
Sony’s custom-made NFL headsets
The NFL teamed up with Sony to design custom headsets for coaches, and this will be the first time they’re used for the Super Bowl. The headsets made their debut during last year’s season (‘s David Katzmaier got an early look), and they’re inspired by Sony’s popular 1000X headphone series.
Sony engineers worked alongside the NFL for two years to understand what coaches needed. The most important elements were audio clarity and noise cancelation, so that the dozens of coaches can clearly communicate with each other over thunderous crowd noise.
Sony worked closely with NFL coaches to design custom headsets. These allow coaches to communicate more effectively over crowd noise. They’re also built to withstand both tantrums and harsh climates.
Durability is always important, but that’s especially true when coaches have a tendency to chuck their headsets at the ground in frustration. Sony built these headphones to withstand that, as well as all kinds of weather conditions like snow and rain — though that’s not much of a concern this year in sunny California. Engineers subjected the headsets to time in freezers and out in the rain during development to ensure they could hold up in regions where real winters exist.
The Sony NFL headset was surprisingly comfortable to wear.
Perhaps most importantly, the gear has to be comfortable, especially when coaches have to wear these for hours. I got to try on the Sony NFL headset during our Levi’s tour, and it was like a cushiony pillow had enveloped my ear. (There are some versions with two earcups and others with one, for folks who want to hear some of the sound around them. I tried the version with one earcup.) Put me in, coach, I’m ready to relay.
Let’s not forget the musical performances
For some viewers, the real highlight isn’t even the football game, but rather the halftime and pre-game performances. It’s nothing personal, Patriots and Seahawks; Green Day and Bad Bunny are just that great.
Audio system engineer Johnny Keirle designed the L-Acoustics sound system for this year’s Super Bowl, also working with audio supplier ATK Audiotek to ensure the game and performances sound good no matter where you’re sitting — whether it’s at the back of Levi’s Stadium or on your couch at home.
Keirle, who also led the sound design for the last three Super Bowls, submitted initial plans for this year’s sound system back in May, which the team refined in the ensuing months. Each stadium presents its own obstacles. At Levi’s, the acoustic challenges stem from the space being large and asymmetrical.
“You’ve actually got twice the workload, because you’re trying to find a solution for the different geometric constructions of the venue,” Keirle noted. On the other hand, the fact that it’s an open-air stadium is an acoustics plus, since there’s no roof for the sound to bounce off of.
In some venues, like Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, where Kendrick Lamar and SZA performed during last year’s halftime show, a roof can present acoustic challenges because sound can bounce off of it. But sound designers work together to minimize that effect. Here, L-Acoustics loudspeakers and subwoofers bring the performance to life.
Levi’s is one of the few remaining stadiums with a natural grass field. As a result, access is restricted to preserve its appearance — meaning the audio teams had even less time to set up and test equipment before kickoff.
“Our time on that grass is very, very limited, so we have to get things right. We can’t afford to lose time because systems are not working, especially in the rehearsal process,” said Kirk Powell, lead audio engineer at ATK Audiotek. “That’s why our prep is so important before we get on that field. We have to make sure everything is ready to go.”
When Bad Bunny takes the stage at halftime, carts with speakers will be wheeled onto the field just before the show starts. Each is loaded with various L-Acoustics subwoofers and line arrays, as well as additional loudspeakers to fill in sound. That’ll all work together to amp up every corner of the stadium — and, undoubtedly, my living room.
With around 70,000 seats at Levi’s Stadium, a strong Wi-Fi network is critical for fans who want to stay connected while at the big game.
The rollout of Wi-Fi 7 at Levi’s Stadium
For those lucky enough to be in the stadium on game day, perhaps the most important thing is having good Wi-Fi to instantly brag about the experience online.
Levi’s Stadium began partially implementing Wi-Fi 7, the current and most advanced Wi-Fi standard, during the last couple of games of the San Francisco 49ers’ season, in collaboration with Cisco. It’ll be initiating a full rollout of the wireless tech for the first time during the Super Bowl, making it the first outdoor stadium to do so in the world, according to Costa Kladianos, San Francisco 49ers and Levi’s Stadium executive vice president and head of technology.
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Wi-Fi 7 allows for faster speeds and lower latency — meaning you can ideally get that Instagram story uploaded more quickly or have a smooth livestreaming experience, even in a stadium with tens of thousands of people.
“Our bandwidth has gone through the roof,” Kladianos said. “It was tested during the season; the fans really noticed the difference, we noticed the difference, so we’re incredibly excited.”
There are about 1,200 access points across the stadium, which allow devices to connect to the Wi-Fi network. A couple of hundred of these points were added in preparation for the Super Bowl.
“It’s one seamless adventure, the second you scan your tickets all the way out the gates,” said Anish Patel, the NFL’s director of stadium and wireless engineering. “As you walk through the fan events — between tailgate, merchandise, concessions — it’s all one large sort of wireless network that we extend for game day.”
The current record for most data transferred at Levi’s Stadium is from Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in 2023 (good times), about 90% of which consisted of uploads. With Wi-Fi 7 and an eager crowd, the Super Bowl crew is certain that record will be broken on Sunday.
Many teams work together to ensure safety throughout the stadium’s campus.
Maintaining security on and off the field
The Super Bowl is considered a SEAR 1 (or Special Event Assessment Rating) event, which, according to the US Department of Homeland Security, means it requires “extensive federal interagency support.” So it’s no surprise that security was such a big focus on one of my tours.
I saw a room on one of the top floors of Levi’s called the Security Operations Center, in which personnel can flag and prevent various cybersecurity risks, so there aren’t any disruptions or delays to the game.
This center pulls in and displays data from a variety of Cisco’s cybersecurity products, including Splunk, Cisco Umbrella and Cisco Secure Firewall. These systems can monitor for any suspicious activity in real time and immediately identify threats. That could include bad actors trying to take over the PA system or displays, for example, or anyone impersonating the NFL brand. These systems were set up about a month before the Super Bowl to ensure any early threats are identified.
This is the Security Operations Center at Levi’s Stadium, where cybersecurity threats are monitored.
There’s also an NFL control room, in which feeds from hundreds of security cameras around the stadium are on display. The NFL and stadium personnel, along with local, state and federal agencies, can monitor any suspicious activity on the ground. Emergency responders will also be stationed in this room, ready to intervene if necessary. Crews can watch for bottlenecks, too, and make calls to divert foot traffic as people enter and exit the stadium.
In the NFL control rool, officials and emergency responders can keep an eye on the stadium grounds and quickly flag any issues.
With so many moving parts, from cameras to communications equipment to sound systems, it’s overwhelming even just to observe. But each part of the well-oiled machine works together to ensure the big game goes as smoothly as possible for fans, whether you’re watching from the stands or cheering on from home — as I’ll be doing, while keeping an eye on whether one of those cushiony headsets goes flying.
