Serving the themed entertainment community

Latest News

  • CT & Co. to support marketing on two upcoming releases from Giant Screen Films
  • Dark Slope secures seed funding and opens new free-roam multiplayer VR adventure to public
  • Immotion Group expands VR partnership with Merlin Entertainments
  • Teachers from around the globe meet at Space Center Houston for conference on space education
  • IAAPA EMEA holds Winter Conference for first time in Canary Islands
  • Nancy & David Wolf Holocaust & Humanity Center, co-designed by Berenbaum Jacobs Associates and JRA, opens in Cincinnati’s Union Terminal
  • Barco introduces Medialon Showmaster version 2.7
  • Legacy Entertainment’s ROAD RAGE at Trans Studio Bali billed as world’s first “stunt show dark ride”
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Online Issues
    • 2018
      • #76 – Year End/Trade Show Round-up
      • #75 – IAAPA 2018
      • #74 – EME/Waterparks
      • #73 – Asia and Technology
      • #72 – Dubai/Museums
      • #71 – MENA/Entertainment
    • 2017
      • #70 – IAAPA 2017
      • #69 – Game Changers
      • #68 Going Global: Technology on the International Stage
      • #67 – Experience Design: Many Faces Many Places
      • #66 Theatrical Influence and Convergence
    • 2016
      • #65 IAAPA 2016
      • #64 Waterpark, Zoo & Aquarium 2016
      • #63 Technology 2016
      • #62 International
      • #61 Museums and Expanding Markets
    • 2015
      • #60 – IAAPA 2015
      • #59 – Zoos/Aquaria and Waterparks 2015
      • #58 – Technology 2015
      • #57 – International 2015
      • #56 – Museums 2015
    • 2014
      • #55 – IAAPA 2014 / Tenth Anniversary
      • #54 – Waterparks, Zoos and Aquariums 2014
      • #53 – Technology 2014
      • #52 – International 2014
      • #51 – Museums 2014
    • 2013
      • #46 – Museums 2013
      • #47 – International 2013
      • #48 – Technology 2013
      • #49 – Waterparks 2013
      • #50 – IAAPA 2013
      • 2013 Wrap-Up
    • 2012
      • #45 – IAAPA & WWA Wrap-Up
      • #44 – IAAPA
      • #43 – Waterparks
      • #42 – Technology
      • #41 – International
      • #40 – Museums
  • World markets
    • Asia
    • Europe & Middle East
    • Latin America & Mexico
    • North America
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About
    • About InPark
    • Privacy Policy
  • Resources
  • follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linked
    • Youtube

Cincinnati Zoo Installs DEVA Units for Media Delivery and Environment Sensoring

Apr 18, 2018 Joe Kleiman Attractions, News, North America, Technology & Media, World markets, Zoos & Aquariums 0


Cincinnati Zoo Installs DEVA Units for Media Delivery and Environment Sensoring

 

The Cincinnati Zoo features a world-class menagerie of animals from far and wide, including lions, monkeys, manatees, and a baby hippo named Fiona that has recently stolen the hearts of its 1.8 million annual visitors. Emphasizing an innovative approach, the Cincinnati Zoo emphasizes education, outreach, conservation, and giving every visitor a unique experience with wildlife that they would not have anywhere else. What the zoo lacked until recently was a reliable audio system for delivering messages throughout its sprawling campus.

“Innovation is one of our core values and something that we take very seriously,” says Chad Yelton, Vice President Marketing & Communications, Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens. “It informs everything we do, from our sustainability program and our green initiative to how we build habitats, to the people that we hire and every event that we put on here at the zoo. The desire to innovate drove our search for a better audio and security solution, and that search led us to DEVA.”

In addition to providing pristine sounding music throughout the zoo campus, the new multi-point DEVA system also helps with communication and messaging challenges: “With as many guests as the zoo attracts, we recognized the need for the paging system that could clearly and effectively deliver messages throughout our space,” says Dutch Mulholland, IT / AV Director of the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Gardens. In his hunt for a practical solution, Mulholland discovered power of the DEVA wireless multimedia device.

Mulholland’s first exposure to DEVA was at InfoComm three years ago. “I immediately saw the potential of all this in a wireless unit,” he says. “I saw it again there last year and was really impressed with its current capabilities, so we decided to investigate it as a possible solution for our security messaging needs.” Mulholland in his team built a heat map of their wireless access point coverage in the zoo and correlated that with projected DEVA coverage and determined that it would be a viable solution.

Coverage is king

For the zoo and Mulholland, coverage is key. “We wanted to have as close to 100% coverage as possible with our audio messaging,” he says. This made DEVA’s wireless capabilities a key selling point. “With our old conventional sound system for emergency paging, it was always a fight to set up wiring, and then we’d deal with having squirrels chew through our cables, or even the horticulture destroying a lot of the cables that are in the ground,” he explains. “We wanted to get away from having our amplifier and signal processing off somewhere and go with something that was all in one and had zero cabling going to it.”

Starting with only two DEVA units to see how they would work with the zoo’s existing network infrastructure. “The first two Devas were a proof of concept, and ran them for a year and tested them on our infrastructure. They worked flawlessly, so we moved ahead with more of the product.” The zoo went up to 50 DEVA units, just in time for its major Festival of Lights holiday event.

Ringing in the Festival of Lights with DEVA

“Festival of Lights is an event that has been going on for 35 years,” says Yelton. “It started out as a small event with a bunch of luminaires lighting the pathways and a couple trees that were lit. Now we have over 3 million lights and displays of all kinds.” With the expansion of the lighting display and growing audiences, the zoo was keen to improve how it distributed its audio during the event.

“One of the big pushes this year was to make sure that our sound quality throughout the park was on point,” Yelton says. “Having music playing really helps give you that warm holiday feeling, which was really important to us to capture.” Playing music with DEVA is both significantly easier to use and more versatile than the antiquated playback system that predated it, which involved starting separate CD players in multiple locations around the zoo.

“With DEVA, there’s so much control and convenience—each unit can be powered on or off at the touch of a button, all remotely,” Yelton says. “We do a tree lighting every year to kick off the Festival of Lights that uses its own music separate from the park music. That used to require having to make phone calls to have music turned on or off by people in different parts of the park. Now we can do that at the touch of an iPad via the web app, which pretty incredible.”

The future is remote

The DEVA Control Panel app is key to unlocking the unit’s flexibility and remote control features. “The app is really great,” says Mulholland. “In the past, we had to go to a closet where our switches and amplifiers were just to turn a zone down or mute it. If we had a problem with something, we wouldn’t know about until it was too late, allowing amplifiers or speakers to burn up. With this app, not only does it allow us to customize our volumes in each zone remotely, which saves a lot of time, but it also allows us to monitor the Devas’ performance.”

Following the Festival of Lights, the Cincinnati Zoo plans to deploy an additional 50 DEVA units throughout the park, including 10 DEVA HD units. “Distributing the additional 50 units around the zoo will allow us to set the base volume of each even lower, ensuring that you visitors won’t be overwhelmed even if they’re standing right below one of the speakers,” Mulholland says. “We will use the DEVA HDs specifically for some of our key exhibits.

Scratching the surface of DEVA

DEVA has already had an immense impact on zoo with this year’s Festival of Lights. “The guests were more in tune with everything because there was good quality sound from DEVA working in concert with the quality lighting,” says Yelton. That impact is sure to grow with the full complement of 100 DEVA units soon-to-be positioned about the park and the power of DEVA System Manager. “With the DEVA app allowing us to mute and unmute, control volume, and deliver specialized playlists and Bluetooth, we’re totally set.”

But the zoo has only scratched the surface of the capabilities of the versatile DEVA. “Our concern here at the zoo has always been the safety of all of our guests, employees, patrons, neighbors,” says John Lusignola, Senior Security Operations Supervisor. “In addition to improving our emergency audio messaging capabilities, DEVA’s camera will allow us to have wireless video surveillance in some areas that might not otherwise have been possible due to limitations with running cabling. Video combined with motion detection and lighting makes DEVA a powerful tool for ensuring a safe zoo experience.”

Share this:

  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Pinterest

  • audio messaging, Cincinnati Zoo, DEVA, media delivery, motion detection, SECURITY, zoos
  • tweet
Related articles
  • The zoovolution
    The zoovolution

    0

  • Busch Gardens Tampa Bay granted American Humane Seal for positive treatment of animals
    Busch Gardens Tampa Bay granted...

    0

  • WEEKEND VIEWING: InPark explores IAAPA 2018
    WEEKEND VIEWING: InPark explores IAAPA...

    0

  • WhiteWater unveils new look reflecting commitment to “create places where fun thrives”
    WhiteWater unveils new look reflecting...

    0

More in this category
  • CT & Co. to support marketing on two upcoming releases from Giant Screen Films
    CT & Co. to support marketing on...

    Feb 20, 2019 0

  • Dark Slope secures seed funding and opens new free-roam multiplayer VR adventure to public
    Dark Slope secures seed funding and...

    Feb 19, 2019 0

  • Immotion Group expands VR partnership with Merlin Entertainments
    Immotion Group expands VR partnership...

    Feb 19, 2019 0

  • Teachers from around the globe meet at Space Center Houston for conference on space education
    Teachers from around the globe meet at...

    Feb 15, 2019 0


Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.





Current Issue

  • #76 – 2018 Year end/Trade show round-up
    #76 – 2018 Year end/Trade show round-up

    Dec 19, 2018 0

  • The zoovolution
    The zoovolution

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • Legends, camels & ACE
    Legends, camels & ACE

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • World’s fairs: 2020 vision
    World’s fairs: 2020 vision

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • Can you tell me how to get to SésamoAventura?
    Can you tell me how to get to SésamoAventura?

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • Mad Systems: The future is now
    Mad Systems: The future is now

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • WWA 2018 shows waterpark markets are diverse and strong
    WWA 2018 shows waterpark markets are diverse and strong

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • Time for a change
    Time for a change

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • On-brand museums
    On-brand museums

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • HollandWorld Redux
    HollandWorld Redux

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • Two Bit Circus: When maker culture met the LBE
    Two Bit Circus: When maker culture met the LBE

    Dec 18, 2018 0

  • IAAPA Expo 2018 roundup
    IAAPA Expo 2018 roundup

    Dec 14, 2018 Comments Off on IAAPA Expo 2018 roundup

  • “Are you guys crazy?”
    “Are you guys crazy?”

    Dec 14, 2018 0

  • Oceaneering’s trackless vehicles become self-driving as well
    Oceaneering’s trackless vehicles become self-driving as...

    Dec 14, 2018 0

  • Building a cartoon network
    Building a cartoon network

    Nov 07, 2018 0

IPM Interviews

  • The main Attraktion!
    The main Attraktion!

    Feb 10, 2019 0

    Beyr established Attraktion! Group after an 18year tenure...
  • Mad Systems: The future is now
    Mad Systems: The future is now

    Dec 18, 2018 0

    InPark reported on the launch and revisited with Ensing for...
  • Time for a change
    Time for a change

    Dec 18, 2018 0

    InPark checks in with industry leaders who are heading back...
  • Michael Mercadante: Giving back
    Michael Mercadante: Giving back

    Nov 05, 2018 0

    Michael Mercadante, President of Main Street Design, Inc....
  • JCO: Theming beyond the theme park
    JCO: Theming beyond the theme park

    Nov 05, 2018 0

    JCO, based in St. Louis, MO, specializes in master planning...
  • The Hettema Group: Inside the experience designer’s studio
    The Hettema Group: Inside the experience designer’s

    Nov 05, 2018 0

    Founded by Phil in 2002, The Hettema Group has gone on to...
  • AAE Wrapup: IAAPA in Hong Kong
    AAE Wrapup: IAAPA in Hong Kong

    Sep 14, 2018 0

    Estimates indicate the Expo attracted more than 9,000...
  • Mack Solutions: Designing Rulantica
    Mack Solutions: Designing Rulantica

    Sep 14, 2018 0

    With a unique theme and detailed storytelling, the park is...
  • Weber Group: Meet the partners
    Weber Group: Meet the partners

    Sep 14, 2018 0

    The new Weber Group is managed by four partners, all of...
  • IAAPA, BRPH, accesso: Faces and places
    IAAPA, BRPH, accesso: Faces and places

    Sep 14, 2018 0

    "The beautiful thing about the creative and entertainment...
  • Expo 2023 Argentina Buenos Aires: Exclusive interview with Mr. Hernan Lombardi
    Expo 2023 Argentina Buenos Aires: Exclusive interview with...

    Jun 01, 2018 0

    The number of visits to Expo 2023 Argentina Buenos Aires is...
  • A Bid for Expo 2027 Minnesota
    A Bid for Expo 2027 Minnesota

    May 11, 2018 0

    "We have chosen an ideal location conveniently located...
  • nWave: Visioning forward
    nWave: Visioning forward

    Apr 30, 2018 0

    "nWave keeps pace with evolving markets and evolving...
  • ACE and Technomedia: A match made in Asia
    ACE and Technomedia: A match made in Asia

    Apr 30, 2018 0

    On February 2, 2018, Technomedia and ACE formed a strategic...
  • JRA: The strength of storybuilding
    JRA: The strength of storybuilding

    Apr 30, 2018 0

    In his role as senior designer at JRA, Colin Cronin has...
  • Panasonic: The psychology of imaging
    Panasonic: The psychology of imaging

    Apr 30, 2018 0

    Vice president and director of Panasonic Hollywood Labs,...
  • Barco: Show control 101
    Barco: Show control 101

    Apr 30, 2018 0

    In this exclusive interview with InPark, Eric draws on his...
  • Hasbro: Toy Stories
    Hasbro: Toy Stories

    Apr 29, 2018 0

    The international attractions industry and the public alike...
  • Special Interview Section: Creating change
    Special Interview Section: Creating change

    Apr 28, 2018 0

    InPark speaks with industry leaders taking on new...
  • Laura Marakowits: A mega maverick
    Laura Marakowits: A mega maverick

    Apr 28, 2018 0

    In addition to heading up Themed Entertainment &...
  • Brian Morrow: Creative Reality
    Brian Morrow: Creative Reality

    Apr 28, 2018 0

    Following a successful 12 year career at SeaWorld Parks &...
  • Greg MacLaurin: No instructions
    Greg MacLaurin: No instructions

    Apr 28, 2018 0

    "I was specifically hired to provide interactive design for...
  • Nol Van Genuchten: Triotech’s showman
    Nol Van Genuchten: Triotech’s showman

    Apr 27, 2018 0

    After years with Cirque du Soleil, Nol founded Creative...
  • Michael Daut: Building a bigger Mousetrappe
    Michael Daut: Building a bigger Mousetrappe

    Apr 27, 2018 0

    Michael Daut recently joined media-based experience design...
  • Loren Barrows: Alcorn’s New COO
    Loren Barrows: Alcorn’s New COO

    Apr 04, 2018 0

    An eight-year team member of Alcorn McBride, Barrows...
PLN5165_IAAPA_ORLANDO_BANNERS_INPARK_160X600

Categories

  • IPM Interviews
  • Theme Parks
  • Museums
  • Water Parks
  • Attractions
    • Haunts
    • Zoos & Aquariums
  • World markets
    • Asia
    • Europe & Middle East
    • Latin America & Mexico
    • North America
  • Technology & Media
  • Business
    • Events
    • People
  • World Expos

InPark Magazine

2349 E Ohio Ave
Milwaukee, WI 53207 USA
262.412.7107
mpalicki@inparkmagazine.com

View our Privacy Policy

Copyright 2018 InPark Magazine / All rights reserved