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The world's first ever soccer-themed visitor attraction,
Soccer Circus, has selected Medialon Manager show
control for its winning new enterprise. Housed within a
multi-activity visitor center at Xscape in Glasgow,
Scotland, it is a unique concept providing a visitor
experience based around soccer.
The developers have invested in excess of six years and
£5 million in R&D for the new attraction.
Soccer Circus has been developed by former football
manager and international footballer Kevin Keegan,
Scottish entrepreneur Peter Barr, project director Clive
Mockford, and principal engineers David Birchall and
Alistair Harrison. “The project has been very thoroughly
researched, and we believe we have a soccer-based
attraction that is second only to the thrill of taking
part in a professional match,” says Keegan.
Soccer Circus is centered on football skill games
intended to allow everyone to play. Visitors are guided
through a series of interactive and fully automated
games that use real footballs. The Soccer Circus
experience begins when a team of up to four visitors is
registered on a central database system and issued with
a non-contact game access card used by the team captain
to identify the team as they travel through the
attraction and play the games.
Visitors enter the Training Academy where three games
develop and test basic football skills ranging from
dribbling the ball to tight control and pinpoint
passing. A projected scoreboard shows dynamically
changing game data such as the score, time remaining and
the player and team names, combined with video footage.
Custom game music is mixed with an interactive audio
commentary reflecting each player’s performance. A
light show runs synchronous to the game to create a
totally immersive player experience.
Once all of the team members have played the game then
the individual and team scores are recorded in the
central database. One of the Training Academy games,
Pass and Receive, includes an automated video capture
system. Each player’s performance is recorded to a
Windows Media video file and referenced to the central
database. After completing all three Training Academy
games, the team is shown a projected video presentation
of each member playing the games with an assessment of
the player’s performance from the coach.
The second half of the attraction is a team game,
Powerplay.
The team moves forward through an atmospheric tunnel
where an audio and lighting show simulates the
experience of walking up the players’ tunnel and out
onto the pitch of a professional football stadium.
Housed in a totally immersive, theater-like arena, the
team is presented with a number of life-sized player
targets, which retract below ground when struck.
A full lighting show synchronised to the game music adds
to the atmosphere of the event.
After completing Powerplay a projected video
presentation replays the game action recorded by two
cameras in an automated video-capture system, with
commentary from the coach.
Finally, each member of the team is given a souvenir
scorecard for the visit. The team’s position in the
Soccer Circus leagues can be viewed on one of a number
of TFT screens located in the café bar area. Players
can retrieve their video clips and scores through the
Soccer Circus web site.
Six Medialon Manager PRO licenses control four Ektacom
StreamCoders, 12 ArtNet DownLynx DMX units, 17 Barco
IQG500 projectors, two Barco RLM R6+ projectors, 17
Barco LC42 TFT screens, and three TVOne C2-7100
Universal Video Scalers. Medialon also exchanges data
with 20 Beckhoff TwinCAT Modbus TCP PLC Windows CE
controllers. All data is related directly to the
central Soccer Circus SQL Database.
In addition, 45 multi-instance Medialon Display Player
boxes (MDPX) provide video and audio replay either as
part of the interactive games, or as dynamic signage.
Five more Medialon Manager panel licenses are used as
remote user interfaces to the show-control systems from
various locations around the attraction.
Medialon Manager connects to all of the devices across
an attraction-wide Ethernet network.
As a result, no hardware expansion cards are required
within the PCs running Medialon Manager. This
distributed control strategy was developed during the
early stages of the project to ensure that the systems
would be future proof and not rely on manufacturer-specific
hardware
A further six PCs, preloaded with the Manager project,
are available on standby as back-up systems. The whole
procedure of switching to a backup machine takes less
than three minutes and can be implemented by a non-technical
operator.
Medialon Manager was primarily selected for its
networking, database compliance, and easy GUI creation.
Manager networking embeds native network connection and
data sharing, allowing the creation of powerful
client/server applications without the burden of complex
programming.
In addition, no other control software offers such easy
integration with standard databases: programming video-server
control using clip names retrieved from an external
database filled in by users gives incredible power and
facilitates the programming process. Also, the embedded
Graphical User Interface (GUI) programming tool has been
designed for fast and easy programming of the control
panel and touch screen.
Other Medialon Manager features also come into play for
Soccer Circus: timeline synchronisation with the ability
to make quick, easy and accurate changes; position
tracking on the timeline; embedded linear and logical
programming; the ability to use a variable as a
parameter in a command cue for incredible power in
show-control programming; no need to compile programs
before they run; adaptation to any communications
protocol; native IP control support which permits
control of a wide array of software; use of pre-designed
or custom user interfaces; free user-interface design
software to easily deploy multiple control interfaces,
such as touch screens, over a network.
The entire attraction system was designed, prototyped,
manufactured and delivered in-house by the Soccer Circus
engineering team led by Director of Research and
Development, Clive Mockford. “Working in close
collaboration with Medialon throughout the project, from
concept through to delivery, has been a key part of our
success,” commented Clive. “The Medialon team in Paris
has been excellent, providing high-quality technical
advice and development work to tune the Medialon
products to meet our needs. We believe the project has
taken the concept of integrated systems engineering in
this market to a new level.”
“Soccer Circus has been one of the most challenging and
interesting projects involving Medialon show control,”
notes Medialon Project Manager Benjamin Saint Girons.
“Because of the high level of technical performance of
our products the Soccer Circus project team has been
able to develop a system that achieves unique levels of
control, integration and creativity.”
Design Engineering Manager David Birchall led the
control-system development work. “We have been working
with Medialon Manager since 2001,” he reports. “The
product has enabled us to produce a truly flexible and
elegant control solution. With an entirely IP-based
system, we can connect to and control every device
within the attraction from any of the Manager licenses.” |
