A show where the equipment gets a top role

If you want to see the latest in analytical test equipment, you could plan a visit to Pittcon, the annual lab science trade show opening next week in Chicago's McCormick Place convention center, and wander among 1,200 exhibition booths displaying high-tech lab gear.

Or, you could just tune in to the next episode of CBS's popular crime drama, "CSI: Miami," where a team of police investigators regularly use gas chromatograph mass spectrometers, infrared microscopes, centrifugal concentration units, and other gadgets to solve the crime du jour.

A host of Massachusetts companies are using "CSI: Miami" as a product placement showcase, contributing thousands of dollars of equipment in an effort to boost employee morale and support the show's emphasis on forensic detail and scientific authenticity. In the process, they hope, they are also raising the profile of their offerings.

"You can spend $10,000 and put an ad in a scientific journal, and it will be read by 20,000 or 30,000 people, and they'll look at it for, maybe, one or two seconds," said Clive Higgins, director of field marketing for Thermo Electron Corp., the Waltham firm that makes a variety of laboratory tools and equipment.

Compare that with the first episode of "CSI: Miami," in which co-star Kim Delaney used a Thermo Finnegan Trace DSQ Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer to analyze a hair from an airplane crash victim. As she prepares the sample, the camera pans lovingly over the Thermo Finnegan logo. "That segment is about 2.6 seconds long," said Higgins. "Multiply that by 20 million viewers. It's the Super Bowl slot for the scientific industry."

So Thermo has helped stock a number of sets on "CSI: Miami," including the autopsy lab, where actress Khandi Alexander, playing coroner Alexx Woods, is frequently seen speaking to the victims she dissects. Thermo's Shandon division has supplied an elevating transportable autopsy table ($2,500); a cadaver lift ($14,000); and the downdraft autopsy table (about $15,000) that forms the centerpiece of the lab. The stainless steel table has power vents that suck fumes downward.

"Dealing with a body that's begun to putrefy can be an unpleasant experience," said Higgins. "With our table, you can lean over the corpse and still breathe."

In fact, "CSI: Miami" and its predecessor, "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" have injected a blast of glamour into what is an intrinsically geeky business. The hardware worship apparent in the shows have helped transform investigators from members of the pocket protector crowd to hero crime solvers.

Deb Cole, head of product placement/clearances for "CSI: Miami," said the lab equipment and its prominent placement support that basic philosophy: "It's a delicate balance between entertainment and forensics. There's a struggle between making what we show authentic and making it entertaining, so viewers don't switch to another channel."

The emphasis on authenticity has given some equipment salesmen a new responsibility: gizmo wrangler. Michele Romero, Los Angeles sales team leader for PerkinElmer Inc., the Wellesley manufacturer of life science, fluid, and electronic tools, recalls how she visited the set to show star David Caruso how to use an infrared microscope to analyze a fiber. "I showed him how to hold the sample holder, how to put the sample in it, how to fit it into the instrument, and where to turn to input information into the computer," she said. "He did pretty good."

Adds Chris Lynch, global product leader for PerkinElmer's proteomics unit, said the training is crucial. "People standing in front of a piece of equipment and doing something unrelated to the science -- that just looks plain stupid," he said.

Sometimes, a piece of equipment shows up unexpectedly. That's what happened with Microcon centrifugal filter units supplied by Millipore Corp. of Bedford. "I was watching the show, and I actually saw them pipetting a sample into a Microcon," said Mark Kavonian, group product manager for the life sciences division. "I was totally blown away."

The only drawback: Microcon filter units are only a few inches long, and don't feature the Millipore name or logo.

Has the Millipore equipment's star turn generated any sales?

"I don't think we've ever quantified that," said Kavonian.

Jeffrey Krasner can be reached at krasner@globe.com.