BLACK EYED PEAS AT HALFTIME, WHAT WAS THE NFL THINKING ?

[WPPCProductions]

The Black eyed peas performance was ok.I'm not into their tunes.I would like to see Fergie dump the peas and go solo.I have not replay my recording of the performance to note the sound mix.but I notice they had problems keeping up in the timing Fergie's mike potted up when she starts perforning.will live tv .anything could happen.The lighted people look awesome and will produced.Christine Aguilera thats another whole topic.

 

[MarcB]

The only song of theirs that I like is "My Humps", I wonder why THAT one was missing? :

That one I think is very annoying. Drifting off topic for a minute here. Are The Peas popular with the Latino audience? I've heard Both "Boom Boom Pow" and "The Time" on Mix Shows on 2 different Latino Stations - La Fiesta 98.5 on Long Island and on Bomba 97.1 (104.1 HD2) in Hartford, CT.

 

[searadiofreak]

Worst Super Bowl halftime show I've ever seen.

Is "Up With People" still available?

 

[azumanga]

Worst Super Bowl halftime show I've ever seen.

Is "Up With People" still available?

Yes, though it's practically a shadow of its own self -- it ceased operations in 2000 due to financial difficulties, but restarted in 2004:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Up_with_People

Compared with the performances of recent years, I would be content with "Up With People" or even a marching band performing during halftime, like the days of yore.

 

[Chuck]

By my count there were only six mics and a music track used in halftime. I'll acknowledge that there may have been a couple of "ambience" mics as well. That makes eight and a pre-recorded music track. It is hard to screw that up, even for a fairly inexperienced audio person. Somehow, I doubt that "the weekend crew" were running things. I wonder what went wrong?

And it went "really wrong...." The audio in my living room was truly awful during half-time.

 

[TheBigA]

It is hard to screw that up, even for a fairly inexperienced audio person. Somehow, I doubt that "the weekend crew" were running things. I wonder what went wrong?

They do a sound check, but it's usually the day before, when the stadium is empty. Then they strike everything, pack it away, and save the settings for the next day. On show day, they have to rebuild the entire set in a couple minutes and get everything back up to speed during the commercial break. Depending on how long it took to clear the field after the final play of the half, you may have 4 minutes. Sometimes there's time for a mic check, sometimes there isn't. That's probably why Fergie's mic wasn't on for the first few words. Don't know about the rest of it, but from what I've heard, it's usually one big cluster.

 

[radiolives]

I will say this it was a little more upbeat then last years halftime show. But I am sure CBS wanted to play it safe and what could go wrong with "The Who".

Glad the two next Super Bowls aren't on FOX. I'd rather watch the game on CBS or NBC. Afterall they are the ones who broadcasted the game first. Also didn't CBS beat out FOX as the #1 network to watch football this year?

 

[Studio20]

And it turned out to be a great game.

This was one of the worst games I've ever watched. Not one of the worst Stupor Bowls, one of the worst football games. These two teams are supposed to be the league's finest yet they continually made mistakes and dumb calls. The Steelers QB couldn't throw a pass and the Packers couldn't catch one.
snip

Off this quote, you come across as a misinformed, if not totally miserable human being.

While each team dropped a few passes, The Packers Jordy Nelson made some great catches to keep the Pack in front....

You know what? I ll stop with the analysis there. It's obviously way over your head.

There have been far worse Super Bowls, at least three dozen worse..but you probably weren't born yet to see them.

I'm not the biggest Buck/Aikman fan, but even the biggest critics are saying their commentary was better than their usual work.

As far as the halftime show goes, what do you expect when the men can only "rap"...with auto tune , and they force the female to sing an octive lower no less. Its not music. Its (c)rap.

This win culminated the greatest single run to a title in NFL history. A team with over a dozen players on IR that had to win 6 straight games, four on the road.

 

[sandiegoinexile]

Dancing Robots

........FOX's coverage was excellent. Yet again, they have totally outclassed CBS and NBC.......

Sorry, but those dancing transformer-like football players coming in and out of nearly every commercial break makes me despise the FOX coverage. The 7-year-olds like them, though. Oh, and the supplemental, fake "crowd noise" they use to sweeten the "excitement" (although admittedly not as much as they use on MLB). I am looking forward to the grown-ups of NBC in 2012.

 

[sack]

I would have enjoyed a marching band a whole lot more than The Peas. If you've ever seen the movie Drumline, you will know that a good marching band has more power and more pizazz than a few people doing karaoke. The most amazing thing about the half time shows is that they can set-up and break-down a stage so fast.

 

[OhioMediaWatch]

There must be a generation gap. Some of my younger FB friends liked it, some a lot.

But by the time the Peas were done, I was looking down at my drink, wondering if someone had sneaked into my home and spiked it without my knowledge...

 

[Bengalsfan]

We just started playing "The Time" at the club I work at.

You want "The Time", call Morris Day. The BEP performance was awful. And for those who think Fergie has talent, I suppose screeching a 20 year old song off key is what passes for talent now. No wonder record sales and concert tix sales are down.

 

[quadraphonic]

Re: Dancing Robots

........FOX's coverage was excellent. Yet again, they have totally outclassed CBS and NBC.......

Sorry, but those dancing transformer-like football players coming in and out of nearly every commercial break makes me despise the FOX coverage.

That transformer-thing stretching and shaking out is the worst thing FOX does.

 

[Chuck]

They do a sound check, but it's usually the day before, when the stadium is empty. Then they strike everything, pack it away, and save the settings for the next day. On show day, they have to rebuild the entire set in a couple minutes and get everything back up to speed during the commercial break. Depending on how long it took to clear the field after the final play of the half, you may have 4 minutes. Sometimes there's time for a mic check, sometimes there isn't. That's probably why Fergie's mic wasn't on for the first few words. Don't know about the rest of it, but from what I've heard, it's usually one big cluster.

I did live sound for a living for well over 30 years, including quite a bit in stadiums, but never a Super Bowl. You are right, it is quite a "cluster" moving all that stuff out on the field. It looked to me like they had almost ten minutes which should have given them enough time to move the stage pieces in place.

Getting things right in a situation like this can be a big problem, especially when everything has to be hard wired together. In this case, the vocals were all wireless, as well as the in-ear monitors (IEM's). I suspect the guitar was wireless as well. That pretty well eliminates the possibility of patching something in wrong when the stage is moved into place. Unless somebody is feeling suicidal, the wireless mic receivers would not be struck after sound check. They are probably up in a booth somewhere along with the mixer for the house sound. Since there was no live band and the music was from a prerecorded track, that greatly simplifies the set up.

At every other NFL game I've ever worked, a great deal of attention is given to wireless frequency coordination, so nobody interferes with the program audio or team communications. I know firsthand how particular the NFL Frequency Coordinator can be, so I doubt that was the problem. The vocal mics were high end Sennheiser's, which are some of the best you can buy. I suppose there could have been a problem with one, but they eventually all worked, so I doubt it was the microphones. They usually don't fix themselves.

That puts it pretty much in the realm of "operator error" or perhaps something crapping out or being patched wrong at the mixer. Since the mix was dreadful throughout the whole thing, and not knowing any other specifics, I lean toward "operator error." I imagine there are some people who are not very happy about that. I'm glad I wasn't the engineer....

 

[TheBigA]

I also think audio is handled over several trucks, not just one, with music mix, anchor booth mix, and broadcast mix. Don't know where the ambience mics are added, but probably in the last step.

They didn't seem to have any problem with monitors. Usually they'll point to their ears if there's a problem. Didn't see any of that.

 

[landtuna]

Personally I'm glad the Peas were on at halftime. Reminded me to.....take one. ;D

 

[hubcity]

Personally I'm glad the Peas were on at halftime. Reminded me to.....take one. ;D

At which point he put on his shades and cued The Who... 8)

 

[vchimpanzee]

I never see the halftime performances. I desperately need a real break to go to the kitchen and do other stuff. Because you never know what's going to happen. The length of a break is never guaranteed. And you can almost be certain that after a touchdown the next break won't be long enough to do anything.

Yes, even I have to know a little about the rules of football.

I did notice the longest break was after they concluded the pregame show.

The easiest thing would have been to use TiVo, though my TiVo was pretty much full. Or a brand new VHS tape that can record the whole thing.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Fergie should go solo. She doesn't need the BEP. They need her a lot more than she needs them! Her talent is wasted on them!

And I could have done without their "remake" of "I've Had the Time of My Life." :

I could have done without the original.

 

[vchimpanzee]

You want "The Time", call Morris Day.

That's what I was going to say. I finally watched "Purple Rain" a few years ago, and he was the only good thing about it.