Wide-Format Printing Company bluemedia Scores a Touchdown at Super Bowl LVI

For the eighth year in a row, large-format print service provider bluemedia, based in Tempe, Arizona, took on the enormous challenge of producing and installing all of the graphics for the Super Bowl. This year’s game, Super Bowl 56, was held in Los Angeles on February 13, and brought it’s own unique challenges and opportunities for creative graphics.

bluemedia’s EVP and partner, RJ Orr, sat down to talk with Wide-format Impressions about everything that went into this year’s project. Like in past years, he notes, it encompassed not just the stadium itself, but a variety of venues across the city including the airport, both team hotels, the NFL Experience Center, the practice facilities for the teams, the media center, and more. In addition, he notes, the PSP worked with clients that touch the Super Bowl, such as Anheuser-Busch and Marriot Hotels.

“All the interior and exterior graphics packages were under our contract,” says Orr. “Everything, for the most part, that you saw on television leading up to the game, and on game day itself, was handled by our team.”

One of the biggest challenges unique to this year, Orr notes, was the sheer size. “This was the second largest area in the country behind New York,” in terms of the number of venues and the scope of the project. “So it was ‘how do you pull this off at the level everyone is accustomed to?’ Compared to cities like Tampa, Phoenix, or Houston, where we have the ability to take over the entire town, in a city like LA it’s difficult to do. It’s huge, and very spread out. With such a large expanse of real estate, we had to make sure the event wasn’t swallowed up.”

That, he notes, was one of the biggest directives from the NFL when it came time to start planning the graphics — make sure the Super Bowl was in the spotlight for the game, and not just a footnote in the city.

To accomplish that goal, says Orr, the team focused on the epicenters around the city that would have the most impact. The downtown area around the stadium, in particular, was heavily themed for the game, which included major side events such as the Super Bowl Experience, NFL’s headquarters for the game, the official Bud Light Hotel, and more.

“We were able to secure the south elevation of the LA convention center,” says Orr, “which faces the I10 freeway. We put up a banner that was 22 feet tall on the backside of the convention center, and on the roof we built letters that were 25 feet tall. Those lit up, and you could see the LVI as soon as you drove into the city, which was really cool.”

Another interactive element bluemedia brought to the table was the use of drones for the Friday, Saturday, and then Sunday of the event. “We had 500 drones — the biggest show in the United States — and the only one to take place over a major metropolitan city. We flew it over the LA convention center, and each show was 12 minutes long, with teams logos, quarterbacks throwing the football, and more. It was just really awesome,” says Orr. “It really added to the wow factor.”

Making A Unique Stadium Stand Out

This year’s game had one unique challenge that bluemedia had to work around — the stadium itself is already iconic, with a unique shape that meant just dominating it with Super Bowl graphics wasn’t going to be possible. “Unlike with Tampa, we weren’t able to put graphics on all four sides of the stadium to dominate the façade, and inside there was no one big place to put a graphic. We also couldn’t do anything on the canopy itself,” says Orr.

The solution was to come up with creative ways to make the stadium into a Super Bowl event with cleverly placed graphics in key locations that made it clear to fans arriving where they were. A big focal point, however, was just outside the stadium in the lake next to the venue itself, where another set of the same LVI letters were installed to look like they were floating on the water.

“That was a focal point of everything,” says Orr. “All the network coverage had this huge view of these 25-foot letters on a 6-foot pedestal, so the whole thing created over 30 feet. And then we had geysers on either side shooting fountains up, and at night it was all lit up. It was a great perspective day or night.”

Another major component was on the south side of the venue, where many fans entered the stadium, which features giant columns that help support the canopy. These 15x75-ft architectural features were turned into photo opportunities for fans, with graphics that highlighted players, making it a popular spot for those wanting to create memories of attending the game.

The team also needed to account for a secure perimeter fence line, and produced the graphics needed to create it. Orr notes that this year the fence was 8 feet tall, and spanned upwards of 10 miles on area, compared to just 5-6 in previous games. “That was tough,” he says.

For the interior spaces, this year, says Orr, they used more LED panels than they had in any previous year. “This stadium doesn’t have a traditional field wall like other stadiums, since it has suites all the way around, so we didn’t have one massive canvas at the field level. But we did have a lot of open spaces, so we focused on those.”

In addition to the field and tunnel graphics, the team focused on the 100-level backwall and the tiers that led to the upper decks. The stadium itself is white, which, Orr notes, lent itself well to highlighting areas with the graphics in the NFL’s chosen color scheme for the game.

The Timing of It All

For the second year in a row, this year the Super Bowl host city was also the hometown of one of the teams playing, which adds an extra layer of complexity when it comes to designing and installing the graphics. In addition, this year there was an extra timing challenge to worry about: this stadium also hosted one of the Championship games that decided the final two teams to play in the Super Bowl itself.

“That limited the things we could put up and build ahead of time,” notes Orr. That game was held two weeks prior to the Super Bowl itself, and, he notes, they usually go in a full month before the game to begin installation. Because of the championship game, both bluemedia and the other vendors responsible for everything from installing the interior booths for media and vendors, to running extra power, could only take the project to a certain point before everything had to be put on hold until that game was completed. “And then we all made a mad dash after that was over to pick up construction and put everything up.”

This year, he says, the full graphics installation wasn’t actually completed until 11 pm the night before the game, bringing it close to the wire for finishing everything and having it ready for game day. But, that said, “We brought in extra labor and overtime crews, and everyone did a great job and we were able to pull it all together.” He also notes that everything that was in the original plan for this game was ultimately created and installed — perhaps not on the original timeline, but the team was able to produce and install everything they promised again this year.

“I’m just proud that we were able to take a stadium like SoFi, that is so massive and doesn’t have the obvious places for a graphics décor program … and delivered a package that, when people arrived, they knew they were at the Super Bowl, and not just the stadium. We were able to deliver a true Super Bowl experience.”

He is also proud of the job the entire team did with integrating the digital and static elements, to the point where, he says, “unless the digital graphics were moving, it was hard to discern what was digital and what wasn’t. There is a lot of brand new tech at SoFi Stadium, and everything was sharp and bright, and then our graphics were matched. Everything was just well put together, and complimented each other very well.”

Next year, the Super Bowl will return again to Phoenix — both the site of bluemedia’s first Super Bowl experience, as well as its hometown. In the past eight years, Orr notes, they have built a core team to work on the graphics for these games, and a great group of subcontractors he enjoys working with year after year. “We’ve all really become a family, and we all understand how to work together,” he says. “It would seem like a monumental thing to overcome, but everyone bands together and handles it extremely professionally.”

The discussions about next year’s event have already begun, with bluemedia, the NFL, and everyone involved in making these games so successful already beginning to think about the elements that will make Phoenix 2023 even bigger and better. In addition, bluemedia has slowly expanded the work it does with the NFL, which now includes handling the graphics for events such as the NFL draft in Las Vegas, the Pro Bowl that was also in Las Vegas the week before the Super Bowl, and the kickoff event for the next season.

All in all, Orr notes, the Super Bowl is a large and time consuming effort, but he is incredibly proud of the results year after year. Los Angeles was another success story for his company.