Bandit Lites Brings Classic Rock Energy to Sunday Night Football Show Open Featuring Carrie Underwood
Lighting Designer Nick Whitehouse and Director of Photography Chuck Ozeas Team with Bandit to Create a Massive Rock-and-Roll Visual for NBC Sports
NASHVILLE, TN – Bandit Lites helped bring the lights, scale and attitude of classic rock to the national stage, partnering with Lighting Designer Nick Whitehouse and Director of Photography Chuck Ozeas on NBC’s Sunday Night Football show open featuring Carrie Underwood for her 14th consecutive season.
Created to launch another season of one of television’s biggest weekly broadcasts, the show open takes viewers on the journey of a song- from intimate beginnings in a lounge and recording studio to a small club and, ultimately, a massive stadium performance. Bandit provided the lighting equipment, production expertise and technical support needed to transform each environment while helping Whitehouse’s vision translate seamlessly to camera.
The stadium sequence draws heavily from the visual language of classic rock, with Whitehouse and Ozeas looking to legendary concert productions for inspiration.
“Once we reached the stadium we wanted to lean fully into the rock side of it,” said Whitehouse. “We were inspired by those huge classic Rock PAR can rigs from bands like Queen, AC/DC and Iron Maiden, but updated through modern fixtures, color, control and programming.”
Turning that concept into a nationally televised production required more than simply building a large rig. Every lighting choice needed to serve the camera, the edit and the performance, often within seconds.
“In a broadcast open, every second has a job,” Whitehouse said. “The lighting has to create scale, support the edit, flatter the artist, work with the camera moves, and still leave room for graphics, football footage and the overall NBC Sports language.”
The production also faced a particularly tight window at the stadium, leaving limited time to load in, pre-light and prepare for filming. Bandit approached the one-off production with the same preparation and efficiency it brings to a touring show.
“That is where Bandit really excelled,” Whitehouse said. “They approached this one-off massive rig with the same discipline they would bring to a touring show: prep it properly, make it efficient, make it repeatable, and make sure it could roll in and go up cleanly.”
That efficiency extended to the smaller club sequence, where space was limited but the creative still called for significant rock-and-roll energy.
“[The Martin MAC Ones] gave us the punch, movement and scale we needed without overwhelming the space,” Whitehouse said. “They really rocked that little club.”
For Bandit, the project was an exercise in delivering the right tools for the creative rather than simply building the largest possible lighting package. That philosophy paid off in the finished stadium sequence. Whitehouse’s programming drove hundreds of lights in sync with the music, while Ozeas’ cinematography captured the interaction between the lighting, haze and anamorphic lenses.
“What we’re most proud of is that the stadium never stops feeling electric,” Ozeas said. “Every shot has energy in it, and a lot of that comes from Nick’s programming interacting with the anamorphic glass, because those beams hitting the lens bloom into flares that make the whole frame feel alive.”
For Bandit Lites Client Representative Mark Scherer, the project was a standout example of what can happen when a strong creative vision is matched by close collaboration between the creative and production teams. “Working with Nick and Chuck on the Sunday Night Football show open was an incredible experience,” said Scherer. “Their vision and attention to detail made the production come together at an exceptional level!”
One of Ozeas’ favorite moments is a dramatic drone shot that sweeps low over the crowd before revealing the full lighting rig.
“That is the shot where the scale finally lands, and it only works because the design was built to be seen that way,” he said. For Whitehouse, the finished piece successfully captures the classic rock influence while giving it a modern broadcast treatment.
“The idea was to keep that big, iconic, classic rock silhouette, with strong beams, bold hits and real scale, but make it feel fresh and designed for today’s cameras,” Whitehouse said. “We’re really proud of the Bandit team and how efficient they made the programming and lighting process!”
