New tech for museums, parks & rides #53 • volume 10, issue 3 • 2014 www.inparkmagazine.com 18 Tommy Bridges, industry connector 22 The theme park brains behind Caesars’ High Roller 24 Las Vegas reinvents itself www.inparkmagazine.com 1 © SHOW: ECA2 - PHOTOS: JULIEN PANIE THINK SPECTACULAR! SPECIAL EVENTS I THEME PARKS & PERMANENT SHOWS I EXPOS & PAVILIONS “WINGS OF TIME” I SENTOSA ISLAND, SINGAPORE. STARTED IN JUNE 2014. TEL: +33 1 49 46 30 40 I CONTACT: [email protected] I WWW.ECA2.COM I FACEBOOK.COM/ECA2PARIS www.inparkmagazine.com #53• volume 10, issue 3 Wings of Time 6 ECA2 creates new Sentosa spectacular• by Martin Palicki IAAPA Beijing 10 Asian Attractions Expo: Martin Palicki reports Civil war surround 13 BPI produces video diorama for Kenosha museum • by Martin Palicki Leave it to Holovis 16 Modern tools of simulation & visualization• by Stuart Hetherington Building Bridges 18 Tommy Bridges = technology + opportunity • by Judith Rubin Caesars’ High Roller 22 Theme park savvy reinvents the wheel Tomorrow’s Vegas 24 The new investments: Joe Kleiman reports RFID changes everything 29 Disney’s MyMagic+ gets off to a strong start • by Martin Palicki The museum network 31 Artifact Technologies introduces Mixby platform• by Joe Kleiman Immersion with dinosaurs 33 Movie Park Germany opens The Lost Temple • by Judith Rubin Gamification and dark rides 36 Innovations from Triotech, Sally & Alterface Projects • by Joe Kleiman staff & contributors advertisers EDITOR DESIGN Alcorn McBride 35 © SHOW: ECA2 - PHOTOS: JULIEN PANIE Martin Palicki mcp, llc Alterface Projects 29 Artifact Technologies 34 CO-EDITOR CONTRIBUTORS Judith Rubin Stuart Hetherington All Things Integrated 19 Super 78 Boston Productions Inc. 14 CONTRIBUTING EDITORS ECA2 2 Joe Kleiman SALES Mitch Rily Martin Palicki Holovis 5 THINK SPECTACULAR! Kim Rily IAAPA Attractions Expo 28 SPECIAL EVENTS I THEME PARKS & PERMANENT SHOWS I EXPOS & PAVILIONS Medialon 20 Polin 32 COVER: Tommy Bridges, executive VP of All Things Smart Monkeys 21 “WINGS OF TIME” I SENTOSA ISLAND, SINGAPORE. STARTED IN JUNE 2014. Integrated, stands in front of the widescreen digital signage his company installed at Hard Rock Hotel & Super 78 back Casino Las Vegas. Full story on p 18. Photo credit Triotech 27 Judith Rubin. WhiteWater West 12, 37 Zebec 15 TEL: +33 1 49 46 30 40 I CONTACT: [email protected] I WWW.ECA2.COM I FACEBOOK.COM/ECA2PARIS www.inparkmagazine.com 3 Themed entertainment’s Sin city: the remix great new storytelling tools Judith Rubin, Martin Palicki, IPM co-editor IPM editor elcome to InPark’s annual Technology issue, here is one thing I greatly admire about Las Vegas: Wexploring visible and invisible realms - such Tthe city is able to reinvent itself constantly. While as binary, electronic, electrical, audiovisual, digital, the city rose out of gambling fortunes, the 2013 engineering, networking, storage and control Visitor Profile Study commissioned by the Las Vegas - associated products and processes, and their Convention and Visitors Authority shows that only application to storytelling for visitor attractions. 71% of visitors gamble during their visit, part of a downward trend spanning several years. Only about You can hardly build an attraction or put up a 15% of visitors come for the purpose of gambling. structure without these ever more sophisticated Roughly 20% arrive for a convention, and 41% (the products and processes. They are critical to telling the largest group) come purely for a vacation. stories, realizing the concepts, building the buildings and running the show. Appreciate your great new Vegas is responding to these trends much as it did storytelling tools and appreciate the technical 20 years ago when it began building theme parks specialists who are there to harness those hardware and themed resorts. While that trend wasn’t long and software components to help deliver a seamless lasting, the city didn’t flinch. Properties doubled- storytelling experience. down on their core business: promoting gambling and providing cheap everything else. More recently, Just as the movie sector is remaking many classic a wave of luxury experiences and high end venues pictures with the new tools of cinema, theme parks have taken over, catering (wisely) to that large chunk are re-inventing visitor attractions with the new tools of visitors who are either in town seeking a pampered of interactivity, immersion and media production. getaway or impressing clients on a corporate expense account. It’s not just a matter of staying on the level of tech the average visitor now expects, but a matter of Today, Vegas is starting to feel more balanced. The differentiation. The features of specialty cinema are introduction of media-enhanced visitor attractions, being incorporated into the multiplex and that’s a such as the High Roller observation wheel, is able to clear signal to theme parks to up their game when provide the entertainment options and excitement it comes to media based attractions. Transmedia has that any visitor to a vacation destination expects. been embraced, with IP owners holistically visioning Downtown is catering to local entrepreneurs and their properties rolling out in many platforms. The visitors alike; the city is beginning to recognize its theme park platform must bring something unique own cultural identity in the context of the bigger Las to its dimension of the unfolding story. • • • Vegas destination image. While Vegas is only one town, it is a model for InPark News Editor Joe Kleiman reinvention. Right now, Sin City is experiencing ([email protected]) corresponds for IPM online and in print, specializing another renaissance, driven by demand and powered in design and technology for attractions, by technology. Every themed entertainment and museums and giant screen cinema. cultural attraction professional should take note. • • • He lives in Sacramento with his dog, Bucky. InPark Magazine (ISSN 1553-1767) is published five times a year by Martin Chronicles Publishing, LLC. 2349 E Ohio Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53207. Shipping address: 2349 E Ohio Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53207. Phone: 262-412-7107. Fax: 414-377-0769. Printing by Short Run Printing Contents © 2014 InPark Magazine. All rights reserved. Nothing in the magazine may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the magazine. 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Opinions expressed in editorial matter are not necessarily those of InPark Magazine or its publishers, Martin Chronicles Publishing, LLC. 4 www.inparkmagazine.com www.inparkmagazine.com Turn-key immersive and interactive attractions Interactive Dome Rides Scalable Dome Theatres Ultra Realistic Gaming Solutions Immersive Tunnels and Theatres To see our latest dark ride in action visit us on Booth 4883 at EAS 2014 www.holovis.com London Los Angeles Shanghai www.inparkmagazine.com www.inparkmagazine.com 5 Sailing the www.inparkmagazine.com www.inparkmagazine.com ©ECA26 Wings of Time by Martin Palicki here’s a scene in Wings of Time where the show’s starring The catwalk behind the set leads to the rear projection house Tbird appears on a giant water screen and appears to fly The off into the distance. It is convincingly real. The ability to convey depth on an oftentimes-challenging water screen Journey surface is one of many treats showcased in ECA2’s latest “The idea of a outdoor production on Sentosa Island. journey is central to the story,” said Smith. “Because Called in by Sentosa to redevelop their Thea Award honored show everyone is a visitor here, Sentosa is Songs of the Sea, ECA2 built on the basic structure of the original show always a journey for people, and this helps to create an entirely new production, taking advantage of the latest the audience to connect with the show.” in show technology. The foundational concept for Wings was to visit all the continents “Songs of the Sea ran for seven years and had over eight million visitors,” - an idea both visually strong and easy to communicate. The team explained ECA2 CEO Jean-Christophe Canizares. “Sentosa didn’t want selected places and times from around the world and found ways to the show to become dated. It was time to refresh the offering.” support the story with technology. To create bigger and better effects, Wings of Time combines existing As the story goes, the teenagers meet Shahbaz, a bird who, intrigued technologies in brand new ways. All the effects used already by their curiosity about the world, helps transport them through time existed (many in ECA2 productions), but for this new show they and space. He takes them to visit his garden of origins, and to various needed to become bigger, more surprising, more spectacular. And times and locations in history, some more specifically referenced than while projection has long been a part of the company’s signature others. The European industrial revolution is one of the more dramatic multimedia spectaculars, combined with a host of other effects such scenes in the show. Projection mapping on the triangular surfaces as pyrotechnics, water features, lasers, lighting, sound and flames, shows machines and gears developing, while rear-projected lasers Wings would be the first time that video mapping came into the slice through the surrounding mist in the shape of giant mechanical mix. presses, moving up and down with the beat of the music. The Venue and Staging “This show forced all of us to think outside of the box…literally,” said Wings of Time plays two shows nightly on Sentosa Island, Singapore’s Smith. With the multiple projection surfaces and image sources, the playground, which is also home to a casino, multiple resorts, a Universal show allowed Smith to escape from the traditional frame and move Studios park and a wide array of attractions and entertainment.