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Behind the scenes in the Vulcania theme park near Clermont Ferrand in
France’s central Auvergne province, Medialon Manager controls the
exciting new Magma Explorer simulator ride which takes visitors on a
spectacular journey into the inner life of a volcano. Vulcania is
located close to the Puy-de-Dôme in a chain of long-dormant volcanoes.
Park visitors become Vulcanauts when they board the futuristic Magma
Explorer vessel to take a virtual trip into the depths of a volcano,
through the magma chambers and back to the surface through the volcano’s
pipe.
The ride begins with a preshow where the Vulcanauts are welcomed by a
volcano expert who appears on a large plasma screen and describes the
experience about to take place. After entering the ride through
automated doors they view on all four sides and above them projected HD
images of the volcano’s interior while standing on a motion-base
platform which dynamically rises, trembles, rolls and stops;
accelerations and decelerations can reach 1G. Special effects are added
by infrared beams, lights and multichannel sound.
Medialon Manager was selected by integrator Electrosonic Ltd. in the UK
which handled the ride’s entire AV installation. Electrosonic’s project
manager for the Magma Explorer was Rob Stallard. Paul Notebaart of Hugo
Janzen AV Projecten B.V. did the Medialon programming.
“The complexity of the system had to be translated to a simple, easy-to-use
interface” which made Medialon a logical choice," says Notebaart.
Medialon’s embedded GUI programming tool has been designed to allow fast
and easy programming of control panels and touchscreens inside the
software itself."
In addition, “most subsystems have their own safety system and
everything is connected to the building management system. This way the
ride can be stopped in case of emergency and visitors can leave the
Magma Explorer safely,” Notebaart explains. Medialon’s ability to use
variable as a parameter in a command cue gives incredible power to
show-control programming. The cue remains the same but the value sent
depends on another process.
Medialon manages the entire attraction via an Ethernet network. It
controls three dual-output Seventh Sense HD servers for the main show;
an Electrosonic multichannel SD server for the preshow and main show; a
PC to manage the Bosch Rexroth motion base; five Projection Design F30
video projectors for the main show; one 60-inch NEC plasma screen for
the preshow; four 40-inch NEC LCD screens for the main show; four
three-meter wide LED text displays for the main show screens; and an
Allen & Heath iDR audio controller for the main show.
A Medialon Show Control system also handles the management of
temperature effects, sends DMX lighting commands to a dimmer, controls
the movements of the gates and front and exit doors and interacts with
the building management system.
Options available to technicians include the ability to display
customized messages on the LED screens to welcome company seminars held
at Vulcania, track the life of the video projectors lamps, and test the
lights used on the show.
“The Medialon Manager interface for the operator is very convivial and
easy to use,” added Jérôme Dehodencq, Event & Stage Design Manager for
Vulcania. |
