San Diego buzzed with football last January. With Super Bowl XXXVII a week away and several NFL-sponsored events happening nightly, the city was full of players, coaches and fans — along with thousands of vehicles. The volume of people expected led NFL event planners to seek overflow parking space to facilitate the extra vehicles.
Parking at Qualcomm Stadium was limited for reasons of security. Their solution was to rent a couple of fields three miles from the stadium and bus fans to the game. Two fields were fenced off and graded, leaving ample parking for fans attending the game. But the makeshift parking lot posed another challenge — lack of adequate lighting.
In May 2002, Fleet Systems, a San Diego rental company, had expanded its line to include a new portable lighting division. The initial goal was to make available enough light towers, generators and cabling to handle the types of jobs that most other rental companies in the area could not. But Fleet Systems never imagined that, in a few months, it would be providing lighting solutions to support one of the biggest athletic events in the world.
Trying to break into a new market area, Fleet Systems knew it needed to establish itself as a company offering quality lighting equipment. “We started at ground zero in the minds of our market,” said Jerry Laudermilk, vice president of marketing. “To build our reputation as a lighting supplier, we needed to provide the most dependable equipment available.”
Fleet Systems purchased its first 10 Allmand Night-Lite PRO light towers in June 2002. “The Allmand light tower is easy for our customers to set up and take down,” Laudermilk said. “We found ourselves buying 10 more a month later.”
The following January, having been in the portable lighting game for only six months, Fleet Systems already sported an impressive resume. Its lighting expertise had been employed at construction sites, car dealerships, shopping malls, special events and military bases. “We get calls from certain clientele asking for very specific setups,” said Laudermilk. “With our towers and the LSC system, they get maximum efficiency and reliability.”
Fleet Systems’ expert reputation prompted the call from NFL event planners for Super Bowl XXXVII.
With the game and celebration ending hours after sunset, the temporary parking lots were a potentially unsafe environment for drivers and pedestrians. Temporary lighting was called in to light the way, allowing fans to safely navigate the overflow-parking areas.
With 21 light towers set up on the larger site, nine on the small site and additional towers at the stadium, ensured everything ran smoothly.
The LSC100 is an engine auto-start package that enables operator-free performance and prevents gen-set damage by ensuring that the light tower is operated through the proper sequence. When the start sequence is initiated, the glow plugs function as needed. The engine is started, and the lights turn on when it reaches a given temperature. Conversely, the LSC100 turns the lights off before shutting the generator down. This system offers control via photocell sensor, digital timer or a wireless communication device. LSC100 enables light towers to be totally self-sufficient, saving time and labor, and maximizing life expectancy of both the lights and the generator. Since the light plants automatically run only when light is required, significant fuel savings is realized.
Kate Metzger is Public Relations Specialist for the Promersberger Co. She can be reached at
kate@promersberger.com.
