look behind the style Jim Carstensen’s Fun+Engineering at Alcorn McBride
By Gabrielle Russon
For more than three decades, Jim Karstensen was the mastermind in running the engineering department at Alcorn McBride This is because the Orlando-based company creates audio/video players and show controllers that many theme parks have relied on for years. Behind Carstensen’s electrical engineering genius was not the personality you might expect from someone in the field of technical analysis. His colleagues said that Carstensen was a famous prankster and comedian. “He’s always been like that. He has a playful personality. He’s a great engineer,” said Mike Polder, technical support supervisor.
The memorable Carstensen played the lead role for Alcorn McBride The company’s CEO, Steve Alcorn, calls Carstensen “the company’s technologist.” Loren Barrows, the company’s chief operating officer. added that “His characters are woven into the fabric of our culture.”
As the vice president of engineering for a company with 21 employees, Carstensen oversaw all product development of Alcorn McBride, including its flagship. V16X display controller and the legendary Binloop product line, the newest version of BinloopX just released.
Carstensen reflected on the change in work over the past 31 years: “Everything is much more complicated now. We were originally able to design six ’90s designs in one year. We’re going to make a few different audio players, maybe a video player and a light controller, boom, stuff like that. We can’t do that right now because the technology has advanced so much that it will take much longer. But we can still do it in a short time.”
Big break at Disney
Growing up in the 1960s in the San Fernando Valley, young Carstensen enjoyed inventing electronics. He installed electronics for a haunted house in the backyard that he used to do with friends. The makeshift haunted house is elaborate enough to provide special lighting effects and other jokes. linked to a control panel he built from gouged industrial parts. Carstensen joked that miracles don’t burn out.
As a theme park lover, Carstensen dreamed of doing something park-related for a living. In college, he studied engineering at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. His father, a once Army radio operator motivating troops in Italy during World War II, is working for a production company based in the Disneyland Hotel. His father befriended an employee of Card Walker, then president and CEO of the Walt Disney Company, and this helped his son complete a six-month internship at Walt Disney Imagineering. disney One of the world’s largest entertainment companies is building an ambitious new theme park. Epcotand Carstensen was drawn in to draw schematics and wiring diagrams for the Journey Into Imagination sights.
When the internship ended, Carstensen returned to school, but Disney had to go to great lengths to finish Epcot, which opened in October 1982. Carstensen, who had not yet received a college degree, returned to work for Disney; This time as an assistant engineer, pulling off an 18-hour day at the Imagination Pavilion. “There wasn’t Red Bull back then, but we were very young,” Carstensen said.
That Florida experience changed Carstensen’s life forever in two ways. First, he met his 36-year-old wife, Kathy, at a disco in Buena Vista Lake. The couple now have two grown children, with their first grandchild on the way. Carstensen also met Steve Alcorn working at Epcot. Steve Alcorn worked at the American Adventure Pavilion and helped Carstensen’s group complete fantasy rides.
After completing Epcot, Carstensen returned to California and took the final required courses to complete his bachelor’s degree. He joined the team and eventually landed a job at Lockheed Martin until his old friend Steve Alcorn invited him to join his small start-up. Carstensen joined in 1992 and never left Alcorn McBride.
electrical encyclopedia
in the world of engineering There are many great minds to solve problems and innovate. Not everyone is willing to sacrifice their time as a teacher. which Carstensen’s colleagues say sets him apart. It can be as simple as a warehouse worker.
Curious about what electrical engineering is all about, Carstensen offers beginner courses in its conference room every week. for others Leading Alcorn McBride, Carstensen is the colleague they turn to when they have questions or get stuck on an issue. “He’s an encyclopedia of all things electricity-related.” Carstensen was able to do circuits in his sleep.
“What he loves about his job is working with other employees. “You’ll mostly find him at your desk looking through a microscope or playing with hardware. He really took on the design and fabrication of these complex circuit boards because it’s such a big part of what we’re doing right now.”
Carstensen knows analog electronics, PCB layout, circuit design – every aspect of electrical engineering, says Hunter Olson, Director of Product Development at Alcorn McBride. “He’s definitely a great engineer,” says Olson. Amazed what he was able to do.”
Olson sees Carstensen as a mentor and problem-solving visionary. “Everything I know about electronics I learned from Jim,” Olson says. “Part of his strength is his early understanding. that the product is just a drawing on the computer what must be How to design to do what needs to be done There will be once a year in a project where I realize something I haven’t considered. I went to look at the schematic and found that Jim actually thought about it 12 months ago.”
In addition to Alcorn McBride, Carstensen is teaching the next generation of electrical engineers. Since 2007, Carstensen has been teaching nearby. Valencia College and holds the position of Associate Professor of Engineering
Carstensen inherited radio from his father. Dean of Engineering Paul Wilder computer programming and technology of the college said “What he brings is real attention and mentorship to the students,” Wilder says. “That’s one thing I think makes him a great professor.”
clown
Everyone has a story about Jim. That time he wrapped up a yellow phone book for the worst gift at the company’s holiday gift exchange. Or at that time he saw a dead cockroach in the office. He then set up his own miniature crime scene by making a tiny paper ambulance. and little yellow tape to enclose the remains of insects He used an Alcorn McBride audio player to broadcast the sound of the ambulance.
to welcome Steve Alcorn back to the office after being absent. Carstensen used his own products to animate Alcorn’s office to make it look like an amusement park. There’s swaying, there’s music, and so on. “The upside is that it’s pretty dramatic and shows what I’m missing out on,” says Alcorn. “The downside is they let me clean it all up.”
A walk around Alcorn’s Orlando headquarters reveals numerous signs that Carstensen has left his mark. You can’t miss the fake dog poop beside his desk. (Hopefully no one blames it on the real office dog, Skeeter.) “Little green-clad soldiers everywhere, we suspect it’s Jim. For years they have been appearing and moving from one point to another,” said Alcorn. “Nobody ever caught him. But it looks like it must be Jim’s business.”
That’s part of Carstensen’s charm, a playfulness that fits perfectly with Alcorn McBride’s culture and slogan, “Have Fun, Make Money.”
for young employees Carstensen reproduces in-depth lessons on work-life balance. He goes for a walk every day at 3:00 p.m. to leave work and chat in the Florida sun with his co-workers.
“Every quarterly meeting I always asked him to share words of wisdom,” Barrow said. “He stood up and told me a terrible joke.” Then Carstensen was serious and philosophical. “He reminds us to look at things. always in perspective,” Barrows said. “We’re stressed out, but he’s always telling us, ‘Stop and look around our building, how lucky we are to work in this industry. Working with friends and doing what we do.’”
Carstensen tools are versatile. In addition to being technologically proficient He also helped build a multi-year relationship with Alcorn McBride’s clients.
In the mid-1990s, Disneyland operated. lion parade with innovative music and performers of the time When street music and float music intertwine using Alcorn’s classic Binloop player, Carstensen flew to California and worked on the parade all night on Main Street, USA, to help Disney fix some flaws when the parade opened. one “He has a very laid-back personality, even though it’s stressful. But he was easy to deal with,” said David Froberg, who was then a park technician. Tell about the first days that they work together
Thirty-one years into the job, Carstensen, 64, said he doesn’t plan to retire anytime soon. I wouldn’t be here,” he said. “Every day is fun.” • • •
Gabriel Russon ([email protected]) is a freelance journalist living in Orlando. Previously, she oversaw the theme park business for the Orlando Sentinel, receiving numerous state and regional honors for her coverage of theme park injuries. Economic Challenges Facing Theme Park Employees and the impact of the epidemic on the tourism industry. She is a native of Michigan. She graduated from Michigan State University. She has also worked at the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Toledo Blade, Kalamazoo Gazette and Elkhart Truth throughout her newspaper career.
