Automation Rules, Even at the Super Bowl

In case your brain has frozen from an overload of 36 straight hours of watching the Weather Channel coverage of The Blizzard from Hell, let us remind you that the Really Important Story of early 2015 is yet to come. The Super Bowl is this coming Sunday. The shutting down of the northeastern quarter of the country is small potatoes by comparison.
And that story is not just about Deflate-Gate, the best commercials—let the arguments begin—and massive quantities of chicken wings to be consumed.

Behind the scenes, it’s automation that keeps the fun and spectacle going. The folks at Fluke  have pulled back the curtain a bit on some of the automation tech (of course, aided by Fluke) that supports the big game and makes it what it is.

If you think you get too warm from having your laptop running on, well, your lap, imagine trying to keep a control room stuffed with all the electronics required to broadcast the Super Bowl cool enough to function.  Not as simple as cranking down the thermostat.

And tech has a role to play on the field as well. Should you happen to spot a green dot on the helmet of your favorite linebacker or quarterback, it’s not really just a marker to tell the defense that this is the guy to grind in the dirt. Those are the indicators of top secret radio-equipped helmets that allow the coaches and key players to communicate mid-game. Does this mean that if our team’s quarterback gets sacked for 20 yards, we can blame a bad wireless connection? Probably not.