I'm Michael Bartley in the main television control room for Monday Night Football and of course, this Sunday for Super Bowl football.

Coming up next OnQ, how does the game get on the air and into your living room?

It's all because of a crew from the Pittsburgh area.

The cameras, the microphones, the control rooms.

Come behind the scenes of the Super Bowl show OnQs coverage from Detroit.

Continues next.

Good evening.

Welcome to OnQ.

I'm Michael Bartley in downtown Detroit.

Only four days now to Super Bowl 40.

No question.

When Steelers fans get here, they'll visit the place behind me, Cobo Hall.

That's where the NFL experience is.

But I must tell you that there are many Steeler fans here all week who aren't going to the games.

They are not here to celebrate.

They are here to work.

It's because several Pittsburgh area companies have a crucial role in making sure we have a successful Super Bowl.

You wouldn't be able to watch the live Super Bowl coverage on ESPN or the NFL network, or even the biggest TV spectacle, the Super Bowl.

If it wasn't for what goes on at this television production compound outside Ford Field.

So let's take you inside the TV nerve center.

First of all, take a look at this on many of the big white TV trailer doors.

The yellow tape reads caution do not enter Steelers fans only.

That's only fitting, because the technical support provided to ABC sports comes from a Western Pennsylvania company.

It is called NEP broadcasting corporate headquarters Harmar Township, Allegheny County.

George Hoover of Ohio Township is vice president of engineering for, Super Bowl.

Here, we have four control rooms for ABC.

About 60 cameras.

Another 20, 25 video servers that are doing all the recording.

So it's all the nuts and bolts, the cameras, the microphones, the control rooms, and the people who take care of it maintain it.

And not to mention the cables that go from your trucks to the stadium.

So we get a signal.

Right All those cameras and of course, everything is wired back to the mobile units out here in the compound because it's such a big broadcast compound.

Normally the trucks would park underneath the stadium.

Here we're across the street, so we have almost 1,000,000ft of cable interconnecting the mobile unit into the stadium.

More than 30 NEP employees came from Pittsburgh to run cable and equip ABC sports to make sure all goes smoothly for Al Michaels and John Madden come Sunday.

Number of these cables go all the way into the stadium in a couple different places.

Where there are cameras.

Joe Signorino is from Butler.

There's a lot of it is interconnection between other trucks here which serve the game and, you know, halftime entertainment show and other and the long and the short of it is so it's yeah, it's the cable goes into the camera, the camera comes out to the truck, the truck goes the satellite, and then we watch, and then you watch it at home.

Yep.

Yeah.

Monday, February 2nd NEP prepares major TV broadcasts all over the world.

Sporting events, entertainment shows like the Academy Awards.

Chris DeLauro invited us into the control room for the Super Bowl broadcast.

Where the audio engineer was practicing with that trademark music.

We are in, the mobile unit that is called SS 26.

This is the mobile unit that does Monday Night Football on a week to week basis.

ABC Vice President of production Bob Braunlich says the broadcast team feels confident for Sunday, mainly because of the engineering expertise of NEP.

They've been an integral part of this whole, operation here at the Super Bowl and many of the other shows that we do as well, but especially here at the Super Bowl, we're excited about the game.

We think it's a good matchup.

We like the way that the Steelers march to the playoffs and march through the playoffs, and we think we have the potential for a really good game.

Kind of fun.

This is the last ABC Super Bowl for a while at least because we're now, Our contract with the NFL for Monday night has expired.

But we kind of think it'd be fun to go out with maybe an overtime, the first overtime in the Super Bowl.

Don't make me nervous, okay?

Well, and youre wondering And, while it's long days on the road and all business here, NEP employees admit what's really in the back of their minds.

You're from Uniontown.

I know you're here working, but don't tell me you don't have the Steelers on your mind.

I will not only have them on my mind, I'll be wearing my Steelers garb on Sunday, so go still go Steelers.

Absolutely.

With ABC being your client.

You guys can't walk around saying here we go Steelers.

Oh yeah.

And you'll still see jackets.

So yeah they'll be a little hopefully celebrating at the end of the night.

And NEP isn't the only Western Pennsylvania company impacting the Super Bowl.

Check this out.

Meet Otis.

He's a security robot.

Otis stands for omnidirectional inspection system.

The US Army took us to an undisclosed location to show us how Otis will robotically inspect vehicles all around Detroit for Super Bowl celebrations.

And at Ford Field.

This robots primary mission, is to look underneath vehicles and other hard to get places.

And this is going to be vehicles and we look for, bombs.

Bad stuff.

How did Otis get the Super Bowl security job?

Well, since it's manufactured at Kuchera Defense Systems near Johnstown.

We identified.

Jim Rooney Thought it appropriate to get Otis here.

You know, this makes a ton of sense for events where there are major security issues, where there are large groups of populations, a lot of vehicles that it would be difficult for an individual to inspect.

And I took the opportunity to introduce First Link and Kuchera to the National Football League security services.

Rooney is the son of Steelers owner Dan Rooney and also works for the Institute of Entrepreneurial Excellence at the University of Pittsburgh.

It's a great economic opportunity for western Pennsylvania.

Since September 11th, our security needs throughout the entire country have grown.

But fortunately, because of companies like Kuchera and so many others in western Pennsylvania, and programs at the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon, we really have an advantage in terms of the ability to secure our people.

Pittsburgh area companies impacting Super Bowl 40 and come Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Detroit expects black and gold to take over the streets in downtown Detroit to cheer on the players and the coaches.

But I must tell you, while they all deserve a Super Bowl ring so many in the Steelers organization want that ring for owner Dan Rooney.

There's nothing that would be mean more to me than be able to hand him that fifth trophy.

And so tomorrow night OnQ, what Coach Cowher and others are saying about Steelers owner Dan Rooney.

By the way, remember that guy in Pittsburgh who had the heart attack during the Steelers Colts game when Jerome Bettis fumbled?

A lot of people here in Super Bowl city of Detroit are asking, how is he doing?

I'll have that update for you tomorrow night as well.

For now, I'm Michael Bartley in downtown Detroit.

Now back to Pittsburgh.

Michael Bartley reporting.

Now, just four more days until the big game.

But even though Pittsburgh is favored to win, Steeler fans are not going to be taking any chances.

There is always the lucky t shirt or a favorite chair to sit and watch the game.

Those are just some of the rituals the fans hope will boost the team on to victory.

And OnQ, correspondent Tonia Caruso has a story on Steelers superstitions.

It's on the minds of just about everybody in western Pennsylvania.

Everywhere you go, everywhere you look, there's evidence of Steeler pride.

It's been a long, tough road to Detroit.

And Steeler fans aren't about to let Super Bowl 40 slip by without a win.

So they're not taking any chances.

I wear a bracelet every Steeler game, which means superstitions are at an all time high.

What did you buy today?

You could just show us.

T-shirts.

Oh, isn't that fancy?

I think they should stick with the white jerseys.

You do think they should stick with the white jerseys?

Why?

Because, you know, I mean, everything's been going, you know, great for them.

They don't need to change nothing.

They've been winning when they're white.

So maybe I am more superstitious than I thought.

They've been so fortunate with the last three road games with the white shirts.

So I think maybe they should wear the white shirt.

So maybe I am superstitious.

And that's just the tip of the Steeler superstitions iceberg.

I wear this to, to watch every Steeler game, and I, will have a cap that I wear.

That's not this one.

I bought this one in green Bay, incidentally, which is ironic.

Oh, yeah.

I'll put the black and gold on.

Definitely.

Oh, yeah.

Got to do the black and gold.

Fans have many other rituals they'll readily confess to.

Some can't sit through a game unless they're resting in their lucky easy chair.

Others say the game wouldn't be the same unless they're wearing their favorite Steelers t shirt.

And really, obsessive fans won't answer their phones until the game is over.

And if they do get a phone call, Steeler fans believe in what they're doing, and they believe that somehow their game day obsessions will help to ensure their team's success.

My husband is completely superstitious.

We have several jerseys at home and we, you know, we trade off, we wear them.

But on game day, if I'm wearing his Jack Lambert shirt, I have to take it off because he has to wear the Jack Lambert shirt.

That's the key.

That's key to the game for ya.

So what if Steeler fans are super superstitious?

Is there anything wrong with that?

It's a way of dealing with something that doesn't exist, namely the future.

Doctor Paul Friday says superstitions also relieve anxiety and tension.

He's chief of clinical psychology at UPMC Shadyside.

The better the chance that you believe that there is going to be failure, the greater the superstition.

So for several weeks here in Pittsburgh, Pittsburghers have been very superstitious.

But an interesting thing will take place over the week before because we're no longer the underdogs.

We are now the favorites.

People will probably still do their rituals, but without the same amount of emotional intensity, it won't be as pathological.

And oddly enough, without superstitions, the games wouldn't be as much fun either.

But if you think about it, which is no fun, but if you think about it, you know this is just a representation and the world is going to go on and people are going to live.

And the sun also rises.

But that's not fun.

It's far better to have the superstition and say, oh my.

And even with all their scientific and medical knowhow, it's comforting to know that even doctors have their own pet peeves when it comes to watching Steelers football.

During the Denver game, My wife Patty, love her to death, Came in, and she was going to vacuum the carpet during the game.

And I said to her, somebody is going to die.

There's you and me.

And no, don't vacuum the carpet during the game.

And for those of you who don't believe in superstitions and are maybe looking to the galaxy for guidance, local astrologer Pat McGuire has this to say about Sunday's Super Bowl.

And this especially is the 10,000.

The Steelers are going to win.

They are just going to win.

I don't know much about point spreads, but I think it'll be a big win.

Now do you know this as a fan or do you know this as an astrologer?

And what kind of of evidence would you say?

Well, I went back to the Steelers beginnings in 1933.

And one of the best things about the charts, the Steelers chart is that there are four planets in the 10th house, which is the House of Fame and Fortune.

So it's like we're all about, attaining stardom here.

So based on the birth of the Steeler franchise in 1933, our astrological chart looks better than Seattle.

Absolutely.

Seattle has nothing in their, fame and fortune quadrant.

So, they don't have this kind of, like, we're set for glory, and they're sort of plugging away.

So it looks good for us in terms of the birth charts.

Now, Pat does remind us that all of these are probabilities rather than predictions.

Even so, we absolutely love what she had to say.

On the other hand, an article in the King County Journal that's a newspaper in Seattle featured some other psychics and fortune tellers from the West Coast saying the Seahawks were going to win.

But I would like to take Pat's version.

And Stacy, I asked Pat, did you run a chart on last year's AFC Championship game?

And she said she did not.

She did not know, but she feels very confident looking at the charts that it will be the Pittsburgh Steelers.

And so but I have to ask you do you have any rituals?

Any superstitions?

No, I really don't.

And if I did I probably couldn't tell you.

But no, I really don't.

However, it's my understanding that the Steelers have a list of people that they have to call before every game to make sure that they are doing their superstitious.

Oh, is that all right?

I think I'm one of them.

I'm one of them.

They just call and say, are you wearing youre black shirt?

The interesting story would also be the superstitions that the players have, right?

The beards, lots of them don't shave before the games.

The way they stock socks which sock the, you know, right foot, left foot first, whichever way they want to do it, which, you know, they put their left leg into the pants first or the right leg into the pants first.

Okay, so you said, though no superstitions, no jinx.

It's all about the game.

Do you think the Steelers should wear white or black?

Oh, I think white because the only because they've been the away team and it has been successful for them.

That's not superstitious as much as as the odds favor that.

Do you sit in the same chair every week?

Well, it's where the TV is.

Thats why I sit in that chair, it has nothing to do with being of.

of a lucky chair.

Okay, well, do what you've what you've done for the past three games.

Why didn't you get a chance to ask you?

Maybe tomorrow we'll find out from you.

Thank you Tonia.

Sure.

Still to come.

Coverage of the Steelers is focused on what is happening in Detroit this week.

But the team set out on the road to the Super Bowl, months ago, last fall, two Post-Gazette photographers covered the team's journey.

We will have that story coming up next so stay connected.

You're watching OnQ magazine because these foundations care enough about local programing to help pay for it.

The Howard Heinz Endowment, the Richard King Mellon Foundation, the McCune Foundation.

The Pittsburgh Foundation.

The Hillman Foundation, the Grable Foundation, the Eden Hall Foundation.

These corporations also support OnQ.

Kids who are ready for school are ready for life.

PNC Grow Up Great is helping families with great tips and resources.

More information is available at any branch or online.

Andy was outside playing.

He started coughing.

The inhaler didn't work.

He was gasping for breath.

I called children's and I told them, get ready.

My son is having a severe asthma attack.

We didn't hesitate.

I had enough worries.

Thankfully, where to take him wasnt one of them.

Supporting the region's health care systems, ensures that the best options are always available.

A helping hand in the places we call home.

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield.

And we couldn't do it without you.

The members of WQED.

When viewers request, we respond.

Is there an OnQ story you think bears repeating?

One you heard about from friends?

Or maybe missed the first time around?

Let us know by logging onto our website wqed.org.

Then click OnQ to submit your request for an OnQ story.

Well, if the Steelers happen to win this weekend, what am I saying?

Happened to?

When the Steelers win this week.

And you can count on seeing a lot of black and gold images splashed all over television sets and in newspapers across the country.

But before the Steelers became the AFC champions, they had to make it through the victories and the defeats.

of the regular season.

OnQ contributor Dave Crawley reports this evening on some of the people who captured those moments of glory and despair with this view from the sidelines.

It's a long and bruising season for the masters of the gridiron, not to mention the sideline photographers who record their every move.

Sports photographer Pete Diana works home games at Heinz Field for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

He focuses on the Steelers, while his colleague Matt Freed concentrates his lens on their opponents.

We have to cover the whole field, and I think Pete and I actually do it pretty well.

He's on one end zone and I'm on the other.

He basically has the, the Steelers coming at him all the time.

I have the other opposing team coming at me.

Each quarter well switch.

I take a laptop in with me and I, work out of the Heinz field, transmit the photos back to the paper.

But I'll shoot 4 or 500 photos, edited down to about 25.

Photo editor back at the paper will, pick the ones that he thinks will go best with the story.

We try to tell the story in pictures.

The longer you do this, the better, chances are that you're going to match the story with the writer.

It's a once a week lineup of lenses, photographers kneeling almost in supplication, praying for that perfect shot, that definitive moment in the game.

Just luck.

Just being in the right place at the right time.

Experience tells him where that right place is.

Man they look good, man.

I'll tell you what.

He came right at me.

Unbelievable.

Just hope its in focus.

Referees step in when players on the field become overly ambitious while on the sidelines.

Security was yelling at me for being slightly above the yellow line.

The painted yellow line.

All in a day's work.

Digital cameras make film almost obsolete.

Gone too are newspaper developing rooms of the recent past.

This is how we used to clean the negatives off.

Thats forced air.

And magically comes out of the wall.

I don't even know what's back there.

And we just dont have a use for this now.

We, clean out our cameras with it.

So at least we have one useful thing left from the darkroom age.

The newsroom itself is part of a bygone era for Pete Diana.

He does his indoor work by computer from his home office in Monroeville, surrounded by photographs, sports mementos and newspaper spreads.

He chronicles the ephemeral face of sports.

This was a cover of The Baseball Wrap.

And now you look at these guys, and none of them are on the None of them are with the pirates anymore.

Same with the Steelers up here.

You're missing missing two of these guys out on the front line.

In this football mad city, Pete Diana's favorite sport is hockey.

He says that image of Mario Lemieux looking toward a Sidney Crosby future started out much differently.

Originally, I put Mario in front of Sidney because.

Because it's Mario.

And, the more I thought about it that it's going to be Sid's team.

That I'll switch it around.

So I tried to put Sidney in front of Mario, and I was it looked good, but I wasn't too sure about it.

So I went and asked Mario and he said, that's fine with him.

Go ahead and put Sidney in the front.

You know, he has no problem with that.

Creating just the right mood with a carefully lit photoshoot requires a different set of talents than trying to keep up with the hectic pace of a game.

This light is just killing me, man.

Too sunny can be just as bad as too rainy or too many photographers all vying for the same piece of turf.

Sideline photographers expect the unexpected.

The Browns game when the crazy fan ran onto the field.

And I'm actually I'm always on the sideline of the opposing team.

Also in the corner of my eye I saw him guy come out in the field and then end up going over to James Harrison and getting body slammed.

I was on it the whole time.

You can have your good action photos, but a funny photo is what I always try to aim for.

Players learn to anticipate other players moves.

On the corner he's going to run to the corner and so do photographers.

Come on Jerome, bring it to me!

Bring it to me, JB, come on.

Come on, bring it here.

Jerome Bettis one yard.

And its a Steelers touchdown.

Bus, 36!

Pete Diana cultivates the trust of his gifted subjects.

The more that you're around them, the more that they see you.

The more comfortable that they get with you and you build up a relationship with them.

Jerome Bettis allowed the photographer into his home to shoot a photo essay, beginning with the moment he woke up on a painful Monday morning after.

I just remember being there and, over top of Jerome, waiting for him to wake up.

And I was the first person he saw early in the morning.

What's amazing to me was when when I followed him, that morning when he walked ahead of me and he went down those steps.

He was like a 90 year old man going down there.

I just I just couldn't believe it.

But.

Turn him this way.

Turn him this way, Troy.

That's it.

Oh, yeah.

Photographers anticipate their own Monday morning after.

Look forward to going down getting the paper, seeing, how they ran your pictures, you know, the headlines and, and the photo page is always, good to look at.

The moment of elation is transitory.

Like the newspaper itself.

You're surprised once in a while, but the next day, it's sitting in a birdcage.

So just wait for the next week basically.

Another Sunday, another sideline, another chance to be in the right place at the right time.

His family's up in his box.

So I knew he's gonna turn this way and point up there.

Pointing the way to a picture perfect day on a sideline Sunday at Heinz Field.

I'm Dave Crawley for OnQ.

Now, one sideline photographer you did not see in Dave Crawley's report is KDKA TV's Dave Forstate, who also works and contributes to OnQ.

But Dave managed to be in all the right places at all the right times to bring us this story.

Now OnQ is OnQs in depth, so we have all of these prepositions OnQs in depth Super Bowl coverage continues tomorrow night.

And here's what's happening.

The Steelers fans are arriving in droves getting ready to take over Detroit.

We'll show you what's happening in the Motor City as we get closer to Super Bowl Sunday.

Also tomorrow, He had a heart attack, literally, when Jerome Bettis fumbled the ball a few weeks ago.

We'll catch up with this Pittsburgh Steelers fan and find out how he plans to stay healthy And calm on Super Bowl Sunday.

And then Friday night OnQ is OffQ with host Chris Moore.

On the panel this week, Fred Honsberger from KDKA radio, a member of the famous Steel Curtain, a man who can claim four Super Bowl victories.

Former Pittsburgh Steeler Mike Wagner, Post-Gazette columnist Ruth Ann Dailey and sports author Jim O'Brien.

Stay connected all this week OnQ.

Tomorrow, by the way, is Groundhog Day.

The word is that if Phil sees his shadow.

Six more weeks of Steeler coverage.

Thank you for watching.

We'll see you back here live at 7:30 tomorrow night.

Stay connected and have a good night.