Super Bowl XLVII: the tech, the ads, and the blackouts – The Verge

Super Bowl blackout caused by incorrect switch setting, says manufacturer

2013-02-08T15:47:17-05:00

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A half-hour outage during Super Bowl XLVII was the result of an electrical relay with incorrect settings, says the device's manufacturer. Shortly after the outage, power company Entegy reported that "a piece of equipment that's supposed to monitor electrical load malfunctioned, opened a break, and power was cut off," giving us few specifics. Now, CNN has published a statement from S&C Electric Co, which produced the relay. According to S&C, operators set the device to trip far too low: though no power surge occurred, the electrical load still went over the line, causing the relay to cut power in an attempt to prevent damage.

"We have determ …

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Super Bowl online streaming viewership grows to 3 million in second year

2013-02-05T17:41:37-05:00

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In the second year the Super Bowl has been streamed online, viewership has grown sharply - even if it's still barely a blip compared to traditional TV viewership. According to CBS, its stream of Super Bowl XLVII garnered 3 million unique viewers, compared to the 2.1 million that NBC reported last year. Unsurprisingly, CBS says this is the largest audience the CBS Sports site has ever seen, and it's a significant number for any single streamed event.

The Olympics, one of the biggest live viewing opportunities, had 31.5 unique computer-based online viewers in the first week of its events - with the most popular individual events garnering aro …

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Can technology solve the NFL’s head injury problem?

2013-02-04T16:51:34-05:00

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If you were one of the viewers who helped make last night's Super Bowl among the most-watched television events in history, you may not have spent much time worrying about the players' safety. But if so, the NFL wanted to make sure you knew it shares your concern. As part of a long-running effort, the league ran several ads on the topic, the longest of which recapped a century of safety advances. As SB Nation's Jon Bois explained, the spot alludes to rule changes from the elimination of "flying wedge" blocking formations to the prohibition on horse-collar tackles. Unsurprisingly, though, the commercial emphasized the evolution of the footbal …

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Super Bowl XLVII in pictures: four days at the world’s greatest shrine to football

2013-02-04T11:22:52-05:00

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"Can you take a picture of us?"

If I had a nickel for every time someone asked me that while I was in New Orleans this past week, I'd quite possibly be a millionaire. As hundreds of thousands of people converged on the Big Easy for the incredible back-to-back combination that is the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras, everyone wanted to document their trip. With good reason, too: the Super Bowl is a spectacle that must be seen to be believed.

From the hectic Media Day to the cavernous NFL Fan Experience to the always-raucous Bourbon Street scene, New Orleans really is a city like no other. I went down for this year's game, plus a few days before, t …

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How Oreo’s rapid-response team lit up Twitter with a Super Bowl blackout ad

2013-02-04T10:22:29-05:00

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The Super Bowl, America's annual celebration of the gridiron game, tends to be the most expensive day on any advertiser's calendar. Or maybe not. Oreo Cookies took a novel approach to its marketing during the big game last night by keeping its advertising team in the office, ready to respond to any unusual events during the match. Such an opportunity arose when the power inside New Orleans' Superdome went out, and the marketing minds quickly set to work on producing a poster ad for their product that played off that anomalous incident. After only a brief time, Oreo's Twitter account was up and tweeting the "You can still dunk in the dark" im …

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Beyonce, a blackout, and the Ravens: what ruled Twitter, Facebook, and Google during the Super Bowl

2013-02-04T09:52:23-05:00

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There are few things that social networks love more than rounding up the chatter surrounding a big event, and the Super Bowl is certainly no exception. Twitter, Facebook, and Google have pulled together the top searches, tweets, and coversation-starting moments of the "big game," and what's surprising is the variance in trends across different networks. On Twitter, the unexpected power outage generated the highest volume of tweets during the game itself - more than 231,000 tweets per minute (TPM). Ranking second was Jacoby Jones' 109-yard kickoff return near the beginning of the second half; it generated 185,000 TPM. Just trailing that for t …

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CBS interview gives a look into the NFL’s control room during the Super Bowl blackout

2013-02-04T09:45:29-05:00

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Unless you've been living under a rock or purposefully avoiding anything to do with last night's Super Bowl, you're likely aware that power went out in half of the Mercedes Benz Superdome just after the start of the third quarter last night. The outage was enough to halt gameplay for over a half an hour while officials triaged and resolved the problem and got the lights back on. It would be fairly safe to assume that the power outage caused a lot of people grief, especially those that are in charge of putting on one of the biggest television productions of the year. But if CBS's video evidence of the NFL's control room captured when the blac …

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Extended ‘Iron Man 3’ Super Bowl spot shows dramatic airborne rescue

2013-02-03T22:44:11-05:00

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Marvel Studios may have locked up a product placement deal for Iron Man 3 with China's TCL, but that doesn't mean that the studio is ignoring traditional, all-American promotion. Take the new 30-second Super Bowl spot, for example, where Tony Stark plucks falling passengers out of the sky in the aftermath of an air disaster.

The video below is an extended version which mixes the new footage with some that's been seen previously, as well as an intro where - true to the occasion - Robert Downey Jr. attempts to run down the clock. Iron Man 3 will be out in theaters on May 3rd.

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AppStore.com short links make public debut in ‘Star Trek’ Super Bowl trailer

2013-02-03T21:20:41-05:00

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The Star Trek Into Darkness Super Bowl trailer has more going on than just Benedict Cumberbatch - as CNET points out, it features the first example we've seen of a custom Appstore.com short link. Apple enabled this functionality for iOS developers a few days ago, and it allows for a more convenient URL than the previous links. For example, the Star Trek app can be accessed at AppStore.com/StarTrekApp, whereas before it would have had to be https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/star-trek-app/id588255788?mt=8. Appstore.com itself, however, doesn't do anything beyond launching the App Store in iTunes.

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Super Bowl stalls for 35 minutes as Superdome experiences major power outage

2013-02-03T20:44:02-05:00

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Did you feel that? Half the power at the New Orleans Superdome just went out, and the Super Bowl is on hold. The Superdome's energy provider, Entergy New Orleans, says that the issue is "in the customer's side," but it's not clear yet how that will impact recovery. As ESPN reports, police officials said that too much electricity was being sent to the Superdome, causing a surge. Also speaking to police officials, ABC News reports that there's no obvious sign of foul play. The outage lasted for more than 30 minutes, and is an unusual interruption for an event with such high production values.

Our own David Pierce is on the ground at the Super …

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