Press start: Engineers power Auburn University Marching Band’s upcoming video game-themed halftime light show

Move over, Metallica.

Mario’s got next.

Two years removed from its award-winning Metallica-themed halftime show, the Auburn University Marching Band (AUMB) returns to Jordan-Hare Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 11, with “Game On,” a video game-inspired performance featuring synchronized LED technology across 343 band members.

As before, the show has an Auburn Engineering twist: the lights aren’t just part of the performance — they’re designed and operated by students and alumni. During halftime of the Georgia-Auburn football game, fans can expect to see Mario Brothers imagery and other gaming nostalgia come alive for 11 minutes through four movements. The show opens with the EA Sports theme, celebrating the band’s inclusion in the developer’s recently released College Football 26.

“If you grew up playing some of these games, like I did, you are going to get goose bumps,” said AUMB Light Crew team lead Ronald Gurney, a percussionist from Niceville, Florida, and junior in electrical engineering. “I used to play Mario with my dad when I was four or five years old. I missed kindergarten one day because I was sick and he stayed home with me from work, and we played Mario on the couch. I remember thinking, ‘Wow, he loves me so much.’

“The band was practicing a few weeks ago and played the intro for Mario and I got choked up. I’d just heard my childhood all over again and relived some of those old memories playing that video game with my dad. I’m guessing that people watching from the stands are going to hear this music and feel it, too.”

Light Crew Assistant Team Lead Hannah Thompson, a junior in aerospace engineering from Birmingham who plays the tuba, said fans should expect to see “a lot of recognizable imagery.”

“This show, we stay moving the entire time,” she said. “We’re always making, creating something. You’re going to see a bunch of different images. I shouldn’t say much more because I don’t want to spoil it.”

The idea

While judging a high school band competition in Texas in 2016, AUMB Director Corey Spurlin noticed an ensemble incorporating basic LED lighting effects.

“The next week I was playing with my young daughters using an old Lite-Brite system,” he said. “Both of these instances sparked an idea to light up our marching band. I thought this could be something truly unique and innovative for our program, especially if we could light each student individually and create dynamic patterns/effects with recognizable imagery.”

So he called on Auburn engineers.

“I explained what I would like to do and told them that the mechanics were over my head,” he said. “Ben Brisendine (an electrical engineering student at the time) walked back in my office with a prototype. I went to the athletic department with the idea and a cost estimate. They appreciated our desire to be cutting edge and innovative so much that they paid for the materials to build the system. The rest is history.”

Brisendine, now a systems test engineer at United Launch Alliance who earned his degree in 2021, has tinkered with lighting systems since he was in high school in Muscle Shoals.

“I even built a Christmas light show at my parents’ house synced to music, including the Auburn fight song,” said Brisendine, who played percussion in the band and built the first light system in 2017.

“In 2017 and 2021, the light shows were during afternoon games,” he said. “They were decent in person, but they didn’t translate well on video as it wasn’t as dark as we’d prefer for a light show. The 2023 Metallica show changed everything as it was our first true night game, and that’s when things really took off.”

The band followed the Metallica show this past November with another light show — a tribute to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games and the 80^th anniversary of D-Day.

“It’s incredible seeing how far these light shows have gotten and how much people love them, especially after our first night game and the big contest with Metallica,” Brisendine said. “It’s really been wonderful seeing how even the band members get excited for it.”

It also features continuity.

Garrett Flowers, a 2023 software engineering graduate, served as the student team leader for the Metallica show while on the drumline. He worked closely with Brisendine as his assistant and has been part of the AUMB Light Crew for four seasons. Flowers returns this year to co-lead the student team.

“It’s been great having him back,” Brisendine said. “He’s a good leader and very dependable. “With Garrett, Ronald and many others coming back year after year, we’ve built up a knowledgeable and experienced team. They make my job a lot easier.”

‘Be where your feet are’

For the student performers, being part of a technologically advanced production is both exhilarating and demanding.

“It’s surreal,” Thompson said. “Coming from a small high school band (Briarwood Christian) of about 30 people, then getting to Auburn where just the tuba section had nearly 30 people, it was such a huge difference. My second or third show at Auburn was the Metallica light show and it was unlike anything I had ever experienced.”

Thompson learned to channel that overwhelming experience through focus.

“Dr. Spurlin always says, ‘Be where your feet are,’” she said. “If I think ‘don’t trip,’ I'll probably trip. Instead, I think, ‘Do this well.’ My focus will be on marching technique and playing through the formations.”

Gurney said that kind of focus is matched by passion and creativity behind the scenes.

“While I might be in electrical engineering and have more experience with soldering and wiring, my assistant team lead is an aerospace engineer,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what engineering discipline you possess. We have industrial engineers and civil engineers on our leadership team — even someone who wants to be a dentist. The main thrust is having that passion to create and innovate. It’s awesome to see what a bunch of nerdy band kids are doing.”

As the AUMB prepares for its fifth engineering-inspired light show, Spurlin takes pride in the band's “international reputation for innovation.”

“I am so proud of Ben and the numerous students who have contributed to our success with this over the years,” he said. “I am also proud that this concept requires a high level of performance from our students and that they have come through every time. It spotlights things that we do well. As dynamic as the light system is, it would not be impressive if the band was not precise with its marching and strong with the musical execution.”