At home football games this season, Ole Miss has made use of the light system in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium, not only for illuminating the field, but also for displaying light shows set to songs like AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck.” Now, fans may get to play an integral part in that light show.
Ole Miss Athletics, partnered with the Denver-based sports production company Cue Audio, will be debuting an interactive light show this Saturday night during the Texas A&M game.
Fans will be able to interact with the light show using the Rebel Rewards app, the same app that awards points for attending sporting events and allows fans to unlock prizes based on the number of points they accumulate. It will use the phone’s flashlight and screen to become a part of the show.
Stewart Pirani, who is the manager of Creative Services with Ole Miss Athletics and oversees the audio and visual systems in all of the sporting venues, designed the show. He explained the process to make the show happen.
“This gives our fans the ability to truly immerse themselves in the experience and even share it,” Pirani said.
Through the app, the phone uses its microphone to listen to specific frequencies of the song playing aloud in Vaught-Hemingway Stadium to determine which show is being played in order to sync to it. The user must open the app before the show begins.
“In a technical sense, the show is created using software that is used by theaters to control lighting scenes,” he said. “I bring in the desired song and created different actions for the lights to perform at a specific time. I have many different styles to choose from, such as strobe, pulsating, chase, random, wave, sparkle and others. I listen to the beats of the song, and try to choose the best possible lighting effect for that specific portion of the song.”
Associate Director for Marketing and Fan Experience Paris Buchanan will begin the show via the stadium controls during a scheduled break in the game. The show itself uses the stadium lights as well as the ribbon boards to interact with fans’ phones.
The first show has taken three months to plan, but it is expected to be revealed in its full capacity Saturday. Because Vaught-Hemingway Stadium is outdoors, light shows like this will only be available for night games, but can be integrated into the campus’s indoor venues moving forward.
Buchanan said that while a new fan experience may have a learning curve, he is confident that the light show will be a success.
“Education is key for the first few times we do this,” he said. “We really think that adding the stadium lights and giving the fans the ability to play a role in the overall show will be a big hit.”
