CBS Sports adds AR elements to Bellagio fountains, Allegiant Stadium

For the year’s biggest sporting event, CBS Sports accented its coverage with augmented reality elements, though they were not necessarily the focus of the overall look.

CBS worked with Silver Spoon, a division of AE Live, to create its augmented reality elements for Super Bowl LVIII, which appeared above and within the famous fountains outside of the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

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The designs were largely used for bumps throughout coverage of the game, including previews, and included designs with the current score, countdowns and highlighting key moments in the game.

Meanwhile, Paramount-owned sister network Nickelodeon carried a kid-focused simulcast of the game that used plenty of AR elements, including slime, of course.

There were multiple designs available for the Bellagio fountains, some of which floated on the water while others created the illusion of new structures added to the fountains.

Often, these styles of elements were added on top of existing real elements that are part of the fountain system, adding to the sense that it was part of the installation.

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Looks could incorporate a countdown board leaning against a large, plinth capped off with the Super Bowl logo and complemented with virtual greenery and local landmarks. Meanwhile, large 3D versions of each team logo were mounted on curved arms that jutted out from either side.

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A separate design was used to add large letters reading “touchdown” in of live images from inside Allegiant Stadium.

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This look also made it appear that pyrotechnics were fired from the sidelines into the air above the game. Additional details included the scoring team’s logo, as well as covering the audience stands with virtual colored squares that, when viewed from the scale used in the shots, created a subtle reference to the star elements found in the 3D floating elements as well. 

Large elements with scores, current play and clock information could also be inserted seemingly floating above the field. 

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The various elements were created in Unreal Engine and powered by Pixotope.

CBS also deployed a real dimensional version of the Super Bowl logo to the middle of the water in front of the Bellagio, which appeared in some of the extended reality shots, but this was real. 

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The logo also appeared as part of a drone shot that includes two passes through the open, frame-like parts of the display. 

Its use also likely was done to help IRL visitors see Super Bowl branding in a prominent location since they obviously wouldn’t be able to see the AR elements without watching on TV.

CBS also showed clips that might have seemed to be AR — but actually weren’t, thanks to Las Vegas’ plentiful implementation of impressive LED installs.

The MSG Sphere, which also featured prominently in the Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix races in 2023, was used in multiple shots with a variety of imagery displayed on it. 

The 516 foot wide venue is clad with over 580,000 square feet of LEDs, allowing the owners to feed a variety of multimedia content to it.

In addition, Allegiant Stadium also has multiple LED installations on both the exterier and interior and showed up during many broadcasts with large Super Bowl imagery shown on these arrays, including ones with unique shapes that form one face of the so-called “Roomba” venue.

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