Serving the themed entertainment community

Latest News

  • UAE’s First Cinesplash Theater Coming to Yas Waterworld
  • Mad Systems Welcomes John Biesek
  • MediaMation Announces New CEO and Partnership to Expand Global Growth
  • Application Deadline for Design of UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai Extended to April 30
  • Water Odyssey introduces new Massive Splash
  • Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi Grand Opening Scheduled for July 25
  • Euro Attractions Show 2018 Set to Host Largest Exhibit Space in Event History
  • Alcorn McBride Equipment Updates Meteor Crater Interactive Discovery Center
  • Home
  • Latest News
  • Online Issues
    • 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
  • Resources
  • follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linked
    • Youtube

One System to Run it All

May 28, 2015 Joe Kleiman #57 - International 2015, 2015, Asia, Headlines, Technology & Media, Theme Parks, Uncategorized, World markets 0


One System to Run it All

FUNA’s integrated audio system for Chimelong Ocean Kingdom brings autonomy to world’s longest theme park parade route

by Joe Kleiman

To meet the challenge of large crowds in one of Asia’s largest parks, Chimelong Ocean Kingdom enlisted FUNA to create a single multi-purpose park-wide sound system that provides background music, controls audio for a nighttime lagoon show and the largest parade route in a theme park, and handles park-wide paging services. Because of the challenge inherent with the length of the parade route, FUNA developed a unique automated audio system linking floats with land-based speakers as part of the project.

 

Granular Audio Zones

The audio system at Ocean Kingdom as a whole is composed of a number of small, individual parts that could conceivably act as their own individual sound zones – what Scott Arnold, Vice President Design & Engineering of FUNA International, Inc. calls “granular.” Together they form a single cohesive audio system. “We can make a large venue into a single audio zone or break it into multiple zones,” elaborates Arnold. Within the park, an entire restaurant might be considered a single audio zone, while the stores on Ocean Avenue (the park’s main entrance thoroughfare with an overhead LED canopy) are set up with multiple zones, allowing for audio to blend as one walks between stores. Zones are also determined by the theme of the area.

“Throughout the park, everything talks to everything,” says Arnold, referring to all the various components of the system. “There’s a main brain running the entire park, then each different audio aspect has its own brain communicating with the main brain.”

At the center of the park lies a large lagoon, known as Hengqin Ocean. During the day, the lagoon is encircled by a parade. At night, it hosts a show called “Glorious Sky Over Hengquin,” featuring large scale fountains, lighting and projection effects, audio, fireworks, and stunt performances. Traditional installations may have separate speakers set aside for the parade and lagoon show. In Ocean Kingdom, FUNA devised a way to integrate all the audio needs into a single system.

FUNA’s approach to Ocean Kingdom was based on their work on audio and other systems not just for other entertainment projects, but also for more than 100 cruise ships. According to Arnold, “Ships have many similarities and some differences from a theme park park-wide audio system. Ships require significant zoned audio and paging systems just like theme parks. While the level of redundancy for ships is higher due to safety and regulatory restrictions, theme parks still require a certain level of redundancy. Both ships and theme parks have cost and space limitations of varying degrees. Since this was a new project being built from the ground up, we were able to take the same approach that we have with the some of the ships we have worked on, with a single system providing multiple functions.”

FUNA Half Page Magazine Ad

Show Sounds

For the lagoon, FUNA took a cue from cruise ship showrooms, which often are used as multipurpose venues, housing everything from Broadway-style shows and concerts to film screenings and cooking demonstrations. Each speaker tower surrounding the lagoon is its own zone, allowing it to play in sync with the other towers for the “Glorious Sky” show, run audio unique to a passing float during the parade, play the background music of the themed zone the tower is adjacent to, and join with other speakers throughout the park as part of a park-wide paging system.

This system is a departure from traditional methods, which often rely on pucks embedded into the concrete along a parade route to track float locations. One of the restrictions of this system is that parade units need to travel in a prescribed order. With Ocean Kingdom’s parade route being the longest in any theme park, it became cost prohibitive to install pucks in the park, so FUNA devised a system which not only allows the parade floats to sync with surrounding land-based speakers, but allows the floats to operate in any order without jeopardizing the parade soundtrack.

Each of the eight parade floats features its own audio track, which then syncs with the land-based audio system through a combination of systems on each float, primarily GPS and RF, which broadcast the float position to the main park control system. Each float is given its own designation as it drives into a zone, so while it’s playing its own music, the land-based speakers lower the background music for the thematic zone they’re in and begin playing the float audio as well. If a float becomes inoperative during a parade, the system keeps going.

funa parade 2

Redundancy

Redundancy is built into the system. “If we lose an amp, the system flags the problem right away and notifies the system technicians,” says Arnold. If for some reason the main brain were to have a fault, “Instantly, a backup processor kicks in to take its place. It takes milliseconds, and guests won’t even be able to tell.” Likewise, if a gardener cuts into a buried speaker line with a shovel, the system knows right away there is a problem and flags it immediately. “With this technology the park is not dependent on a problem becoming noticeable before it is rectified. Many time issues can be corrected before they become evident to a guest.”

Since each float’s position is carefully monitored, the speed of the parade does not become an issue of keeping the parade in sync with land-based speakers as with other theme park parades. There are also separate smaller vehicles and dancers accompanying each float. By creating a zone around each float, the land-based audio system knows exactly how long to run the audio for that particular unit.

As part of the redundancy, the parade is also overseen by an operator in a control booth. The operator both instigates the parade audio and terminates it once the parade ends by pressing a single button. Between those two steps, everything is autonomously controlled by the audio system. Should the need arise, the operator, who monitors the parade through a series of cameras placed along the route, can also manually stop the audio associated with a float should it become disabled. This allows the parade to continue with the other floats while maintaining audio and show integrity.

At the heart of the audio system is the Q-SYS CORE from QSC. According to Arnold, “We take off-the-shelf hardware and then create proprietary programming around it.” Connecting the system is a fiber optic network. Every equipment room has two separate data lines coming in from two different brains, helping to ensure self-recovery if needed.

Planning for the Future

Because theme park shows run every day, year round, it was important that the park-wide audio system have both a high level of reliability, provided by the system’s redundancy, and flexibility, which FUNA has provided through its multiple zone and audio usage strategy. This is especially important considering the needs for when a venue changes its function. The lagoon sound system is a perfect example of this, with its four functions – nighttime show, parade, background audio, and paging system – and its flexibility to change as the programming and environment change over the years. In addition, the lagoon audio can be split into four different zones, with a parade unit being placed in each zone as an individual show element.

One of the key aspects of devising the sound system was allowing for connecting the theme park with other resort properties both existing and ones yet to be built. Both the system within the park and any system deployed property wide needed to be world-class and highly flexible for expansion. Arnold speaks to the future of the system: “There are always advances in tech, but the backbone is fiber and fiber is not going away anytime soon. What we do with the fiber may change, but we added in extra fiber capacity for expansion and future technology. Networking gear is industry standard now and could be changed out to something more advanced when it comes along – it is not proprietary. Ocean Kingdom currently has the most up to date hardware and software. If at some point technology advances and new features are needed, you are changing the comparatively inexpensive equipment, not digging up sidewalks to get at the fiber.”

Since the resort opened, two new hotels have been added, while a new themed zone within the park, a new circus venue, and a safari park with both daytime and nighttime safari options have been announced for the next few years.

On the expansion, Arnold says, “Should we be asked to include another park or attraction or hotel we absolutely can. It will operate as its own entity, but it would use the existing master control for maintenance. The system we installed is ready to attach to future projects.”

In addition to being ready for expansion, Guangdong Chimelong Group, under the leadership of Mr. Su Zhigang, was adamant that the park-wide audio system for Ocean Kingdom be world-class. “Mr. Su entrusted FUNA to deliver on this technology,” explained Scott Arnold, “We appreciate that trust and delivered a system that is appropriately technologically advanced, yet simple to operate and maintain.”

Share this:

  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Print
  • Google
  • Email
  • Pinterest

  • Chimelong Ocean Kingdom, FUNA, parade audio, park audio
  • tweet
Related articles
  • Miziker Entertainment wows industry audience as producer of  24th Annual TEA Thea Awards Gala at Disneyland Resort
    Miziker Entertainment wows industry...

    0

  • Universal Parks & Resorts: Big names in Beijing
    Universal Parks & Resorts: Big...

    0

  • Day Two of TEA Summit To Showcase 2018 Thea Award Recipients
    Day Two of TEA Summit To Showcase 2018...

    0

  • PGAV: The Power of “We”
    PGAV: The Power of “We”

    0

More in this category
  • UAE’s First Cinesplash Theater Coming to Yas Waterworld
    UAE’s First Cinesplash Theater...

    Apr 24, 2018 0

  • Mad Systems Welcomes John Biesek
    Mad Systems Welcomes John Biesek

    Apr 24, 2018 0

  • MediaMation Announces New CEO and Partnership to Expand Global Growth
    MediaMation Announces New CEO and...

    Apr 24, 2018 0

  • Application Deadline for Design of UK Pavilion at Expo 2020 Dubai Extended to April 30
    Application Deadline for Design of UK...

    Apr 19, 2018 0


Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.





Current Issue

  • #72 – Dubai/Museums
    #72 – Dubai/Museums

    Apr 05, 2018 0

  • Issue 72 Editorials
    Issue 72 Editorials

    Apr 05, 2018 0

  • JRA: Exhibiting signs of laughter
    JRA: Exhibiting signs of laughter

    Apr 05, 2018 0

  • Dynamic Motion Rides: Flying for all
    Dynamic Motion Rides: Flying for all

    Apr 05, 2018 0

  • Liberty Science Center: To the stars
    Liberty Science Center: To the stars

    Apr 05, 2018 0

  • Dubai Expo 2020: Sustainability, mobility and opportunity
    Dubai Expo 2020: Sustainability, mobility and opportunity

    Apr 05, 2018 0

  • Dubai 2020: The Expo
    Dubai 2020: The Expo

    Apr 05, 2018 0

  • Dubai 2020: The tourist destination
    Dubai 2020: The tourist destination

    Apr 04, 2018 0

  • Talking about transformation
    Talking about transformation

    Apr 04, 2018 0

  • Loren Barrows: Alcorn’s New COO
    Loren Barrows: Alcorn’s New COO

    Apr 04, 2018 0

  • Universal Parks & Resorts: Big names in Beijing
    Universal Parks & Resorts: Big names in Beijing

    Apr 04, 2018 0

  • PGAV Destinations & zoOceanarium: Gateway to the ocean
    PGAV Destinations & zoOceanarium: Gateway to the ocean

    Apr 04, 2018 0

  • Alcorn McBride: Tech talk
    Alcorn McBride: Tech talk

    Apr 04, 2018 0

  • WhiteWater: Of Epic Proportions
    WhiteWater: Of Epic Proportions

    Apr 04, 2018 0

  • Experiencias Xcaret Group: Xenses and sensibilities
    Experiencias Xcaret Group: Xenses and sensibilities

    Apr 04, 2018 0

  • Taylor Jeffs on Goddard Group name change
    Taylor Jeffs on Goddard Group name change

    Mar 03, 2018 0

  • Anthony Esparza talks about his transition from SeaWorld
    Anthony Esparza talks about his transition from SeaWorld

    Mar 02, 2018 0

IPM Interviews

  • 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...
  • PGAV Destinations & zoOceanarium: Gateway to the ocean
    PGAV Destinations & zoOceanarium: Gateway to the ocean

    Apr 04, 2018 0

    Projected opening for the new aquarium is 2019. The annual...
  • Taylor Jeffs on Goddard Group name change
    Taylor Jeffs on Goddard Group name change

    Mar 03, 2018 0

    Taylor Jeffs speaks to InPark about The Goddard Group's...
  • Anthony Esparza talks about his transition from SeaWorld
    Anthony Esparza talks about his transition from SeaWorld

    Mar 02, 2018 0

    "I brought a creative spirit that connected people, and an...
  • Dubai Entertainment, Amusement and Leisure Show: DEAL Makers
    Dubai Entertainment, Amusement and Leisure Show: DEAL

    Feb 14, 2018 0

    In April 2018, the Dubai Entertainment, Amusement and...
  • PGAV: The Power of “We”
    PGAV: The Power of “We”

    Feb 13, 2018 0

    Team culture is basic to the company culture of PGAV...
  • Efteling: Magic Castle
    Efteling: Magic Castle

    Feb 13, 2018 0

    "What the fantasy does to its surroundings and what it does...
  • Joe Fox: Everyday Joe
    Joe Fox: Everyday Joe

    Feb 13, 2018 0

    Joe Fox has been a familiar face behind the scenes at TEA...
  • MOTIONGATE Dubai: Dreams in motion
    MOTIONGATE Dubai: Dreams in motion

    Feb 13, 2018 0

    The DreamWorks zone lets guests choose between four highly...
  • TEA Summit: Lessons of collaboration
    TEA Summit: Lessons of collaboration

    Feb 13, 2018 0

    We asked each of the conference chairs to share a taste of...
  • JRA’s Clara Rice on the company’s 30th anniversary
    JRA’s Clara Rice on the company’s 30th...

    Dec 04, 2017 0

    JRA Director of Communications Clara Rice speaks about the...
  • Leader of the pack: IAAPA
    Leader of the pack: IAAPA

    Nov 06, 2017 0

    "I – quite frankly – want to make a difference and give...
  • Recipe for a dark ride: Jora Vision
    Recipe for a dark ride: Jora Vision

    Nov 06, 2017 0

    Today, designing and building dark rides has become one of...
  • Year of the Dog: Peanuts and Cedar Fair
    Year of the Dog: Peanuts and Cedar Fair

    Oct 24, 2017 0

    As a family-friendly IP, Peanuts offers just about...
  • PIXOMONDO’s David Garber on The 5 Spot
    PIXOMONDO’s David Garber on The 5 Spot

    Sep 05, 2017 0

    InPark speaks with PIXOMONDO's David Garber on specialty...
  • Uniquely European
    Uniquely European

    Aug 27, 2017 0

    The close relationship between vendor and client has helped...
  • Dubai Parks and Resorts: Operationally speaking
    Dubai Parks and Resorts: Operationally speaking

    Aug 27, 2017 0

    "We partnered with leading studios to create a unique...
  • IAAPA rolls out welcome mat in Berlin
    IAAPA rolls out welcome mat in Berlin

    Aug 09, 2017 0

    InPark speaks with Karen Staley, IAAPA Senior Vice...
  • The Integration of Things: InPark goes to InfoComm
    The Integration of Things: InPark goes to InfoComm

    Jul 31, 2017 0

    We put on our themed entertainment goggles and plunged into...
  • IAAPA leadership speaks out during AAE 2017
    IAAPA leadership speaks out during AAE 2017

    Jun 28, 2017 0

    PHOTO: June Ko, Paul Noland, and Wuthichai Luangamornlert...
  • IPM EXCLUSIVE: Interview with AECOM’s Brian Sands and Chris Yoshii on the 2016 Theme Index
    IPM EXCLUSIVE: Interview with AECOM’s Brian Sands and...

    Jun 12, 2017 0

    Ultimately, for a park to be successful, it must analyze...
  • Vekoma: Heavy Metal
    Vekoma: Heavy Metal

    May 30, 2017 0

    "There will always be parks that want to aim for records,...
  • Six Flags: Behind the headsets
    Six Flags: Behind the headsets

    May 30, 2017 0

    Last year, Six Flags began redefining the coaster...
  • Pirates, Treasure & WDI’s Luc Mayrand
    Pirates, Treasure & WDI’s Luc Mayrand

    May 30, 2017 0

    InPark Editor Martin Palicki sat down with Luc at the 2017...
  • CharacterZ: Costumed Entertainment on the Big Screen
    CharacterZ: Costumed Entertainment on the Big Screen

    Apr 17, 2017 0

    “Working in the industry can be dysfunctional at times,...
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

Copyright 2015 InPark Magazine / All rights reserved
Press f for fullscreen.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.