Whose fault is it anyway?
Half the power in the Superdome went off for almost 27 minutes. Of course, just when the Niners needed a shift in their fortune. But…with a power outage like that? I am not sure about that. Police officials said that was too much power being pumped into the superdome, causing a surge. Some other officials say that the outage was caused by an outside power feed which went dead. Some Beyonce haters blame it on her half time spectacle. Some others blamed it on Bush — everything that happens in Orleans is his fault – #blameitonbush. NFL authorities are still investigating the cause of the interruption in electricity.
The fire department was called to investigate the smell of gas near the elevators, there was no fire, but the elevator was stalled. Entergy, the Louisiana electricity company who was responsible for maintaining the power stated that they are not responsible in any shape or form for the outage and it was due to Super Dome’s equipment. This might be a case of over preparedness on part of the Super Dome engineers but it was a mishap nevertheless! A mishap that stalled the game for over 34 minutes at one of the most important telecasts of the year — the Super Bowl!
Real time marketers cash-in
The outage was widely used by advertisers to create their brand imprints in the minds of the viewers. We do carry candles — Tweeted Walgreens. We can’t get your #blackout but we can get your stains out — Tweeted Tide. Audi took a hit at Mercedes saying ‘Sending some LEDs to the Super Dome”. It was nice that everyone started talking about the ads and all… the fact remains…that it was an ‘error of sorts’.
Not a million dollar bug but still a bug
Players from both the sidelines kept themselves warmed up with some basic stretches. The game might not affect the players all that much (in fact it looks like it worked out more in favor of the Niners, as they scored almost 17 points in a matter of 4 minutes once the power resumed. But there is still an important question which we need to bring to the fore — how can the electrical systems at super dome not be tested to prevent such a contingency? It’s not any divisional play-off for heaven’s sake.
Going back to lesson 101
It might not be a million dollar bug, but it’s still a bug in the electrical system. It didn’t cause the stock market to crumble or the Jet liners to stall — but still it’s a bug which could have been prevented? For starters, why couldn’t there be a back-up power system in place?
Just a few days ago I had talked about the lessons to be learnt from the Boeing 787 Dreamliner fiasco, that might be a good read to understand the implications of un-tested systems. I would also like you to listen to our webcast by Rutesh, our CEO and founder, who an example of a brokerage firm which was hit by a bug and halted all trading activity.
