He’s who you call when you need an explosion
Baltimore firm creates smoky, noisy and flashy spectacles for any occasion
As Ravens fans well know, NFL players don’t merely jog onto the field at the start of games. Their introductions require a certain panache.
Enter Joe Suehle and his Baltimore firm, Image Engineering, which designs and runs the sorts of pyrotechnics that have become a familiar part of the NFL spectacle. The firm also creates high-tech visual effects for other sporting events, concerts, TV shows and big celebrations — including, of course, the Fourth of July.
Image Engineering created the fiery backdrop for the grand entrances of former Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis at M&T Bank Stadium. Ditto for the 60-foot flames at Kansas City’s Arrowhead Stadium, and the fireworks after touchdowns were scored at Super Bowl 50 in February. Image Engineering’s clients include nearly a third of the NFL’s 32 teams.
Lewis and his dramatic dances are retired, but the Ravens remain clients.
“What Ray did was elevate that whole [pregame] thing to make it an iconic feature of the game,” said Suehle, Image Engineering’s CEO. “But it’s still very much a feature — the flames and the smoke and the pyrotechnics, all choreographed.”
The family-run company handles fireworks shows at Orioles games. It produced the confetti drop at the Scripps National Spelling Bee in May, and the laser effects and video graphics at the city’s Power Plant Holiday Light Spectacular from 2011 to 2013.
Pop concerts are a specialty. “We’re out on tour with Twenty One Pilots for 14 weeks — lasers and cryogenic effects,” Suehle said. “You get those big plumes of what looks like white-colored smoke or fog effects. We’ll be out with Demi Lovato and Nick Jonas.”
The company also has worked with “Saturday Night Live” and other shows.
A native Baltimorean, Suehle started the Dundalk-area firm, which was incorporated in 1992, with his two brothers, who are equal equity partners. The brothers got their start by staging haunted houses at Halloween for churches and fire halls in the Essex area.
“It really evolved from a passion of doing the type of work we do today, but on an amateur basis,” Suehle said. “It was the show-business aspect of this that had a real allure.”
The $6 million-a-year business and its 25 employees are approaching a particularly busy day. “We’re really slammed for the Fourth of July,” Suehle said. “We’ll be doing fireworks in six or seven places and we’ll be doing some laser displays.”