Super Bowl show keep locals busy
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- January
- 30
If you ever wondered who’s responsible for the mechanical wizardry that makes the Super Bowl the extravaganza it is each year, you don’t have to search much farther than the lower Hudson Valley for examples.
Among the businesses that have contributed is McLaren Engineering Group in West Nyack. It’s entertainment division has created and supplied structures and gadgets that were used not just at sporting events, but at glitzy Broadway productions and lavish Las Vegas casinos.
The unit also created an aluminum trussing that allowed performers to dangle from ropes and tear down a banner in midair in a dramatic unveiling Monday of Microsoft’s newest operating system, Windows Vista.
This year, the company admits, its efforts for this year’s Super Bowl XLI being held in Miami are less pronounced than in years past.
“We engineered brackets that they put all around the stadium to support lighting for the half-time show,� said William B. Gorlin, McLaren vice president in charge of the entertainment division.
“Not very sexy, but it’s work,� he said.
Gorlin and his team also designed a booth for CBS sportscasters with a movable roof for pre- and post-game interviews as well as Super Bowl half-time gabfests.
McLaren also worked on a Toyota commercial that will debut during the Super Bowl. Gorlin said he wasn’t permitted to provide any details about the ad until after it aired on Sunday.
This isn’t McLaren’s first Super Bowl, he said. The company has also worked on Super Bowls XXXV, XXXVIII and XXXIX.
And while brackets for holding lighting schemes may seem downright dull, Purchase College professor David Grill is probably grateful that they are there.
That’s because Grill is the lighting director for half-time show as well as the pre- and post-game shows  the same role he played at last year’s Super Bowl in Detroit.
Gorlin said he hasn’t worked with Grill in preparing for this year’s Super Bowl, but “I’m sure that his equipment is hanging off the trusses that we’re supporting.�
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 6:55 pm by David Schepp.
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