[quote]With the launch of Aquamagica we present to you the one-of-its-kind international standard entertainment destination in India.” — Kapil Bagla, Chief Executive Officer, Adlabs Entertainment Ltd.[/quote]
Mumbai, India —Aquamagica, India’s first waterpark to meet international standards, is now open adjacent to the Adlabs Imagica theme park.
Themed to the Greek island of Mykonos, Aquamagica rides have been supplied by international water park manufacturers like WhiteWater West and Polin. Aquamagica coupled with Imagica, spreads over 138 acres, making it one of the biggest entertainment destinations in India which will enable Indians to enjoy an international standard experience without the need to travel overseas.
Aquamagica advocates a way of living with its philosophy of ‘Go with the Flow’. Water lovers can experience 14 kinds of water slides and wave pools, including an aqua loop, individual and family slides, natural-light effect rides, rattlers and other water-based entertainment such as a beach front, waterfalls, cabanas and a range of eating options at the park. The waterpark invites visitors to take a 72-feet plunge in water, dare to drop from stimulating slides, laze around in the pool and much more. The waterpark is poised to be a hangout for young party goers, Bollywood and electronic dance music lovers where popular Indian and International artists and DJs will be seen performing through the year under its banner #gowiththeflow on weekends.
Kapil Bagla, Chief Executive Officer, Adlabs Entertainment Ltd. said, “The youth in India have very limited one-stop entertainment venues; Aquamagica aims to be the most-sought after youth hotspot with unique and splendid experiences on offer. For all those who are looking for adrenaline pumping rides, a great day party vibe with variety of food and awesome music, Adlabs Aquamagica is definitely the place to be.”
Environmentally conscious efforts including water conservation have been undertaken in the development of this project. A rain water harvesting reservoir within the grounds caters to the entire requirement of the waterpark. The reservoir has a capacity to store approximately 260,000,000 litres of rain water. This reservoir supplies water to Aquamagica for its daily usage and also recharges ground water which improves water levels under-ground.
Greenhithe, UK (November 5, 2014) — Today, London Resort Company Holdings begins Phase 2 of public engagement presentations on the new Paramount Park London and its accompanying resort. The company will hold these events in communities surrounding the park through November 12.
Valencia, CA, USA (Oct 31, 2014) – Darklight Precision Lighting System announced the company’s name change to Gantom Lighting & Controls. Gantom is now a global company with representation in Europe, Australia, Japan, Hong Kong, Korea and Canada in addition to its established network of representatives and dealers throughout the US. The company has launched a new website at www.gantom.com.
Gantom founders (L to R): Jerry Dong, Quan Gan, Charlie Xu
Darklight began as a manufacturer and supplier of compact LED fixtures to haunted attractions and dark rides in 2010. Founders Quan Gan and his wife Charlie Xu, having operated a successful haunted attraction the prior year, faced many challenges using the available lighting technology that mostly catered to larger and brighter applications. Along with their close friend and multi-talented engineer Jerry Dong, the trio set out to develop Darklight: a versatile and compact lighting product line that was high quality and durable while still being affordable. The progression from napkin sketches in a coffee shop to exhibiting fully functional prototypes at their first tradeshow took less than 3 months. This fast paced development cycle remains a core strength of their business to this day. Now carrying the torch as Gantom, the company will continue branching out to serve the architecture, museum, theme park and theater industries with an ever increasing range of innovative, professional grade products.
Gantom is a portmanteau of “Gan,” the last name of a co-founder, and “phantom” in a salute to the company’s origins in the Halloween attraction business. The rebrand marks a milestone and pivotal year of not only business growth but also personal growth as Gan and Xu are expecting their first child this December.
At the LDI show in Las Vegas Nov 17-23, booth #1665, Gantom will display its established Precision product line while introducing two new products in its premium Gantom line: the Gantom One pinspot and the DMX Programmer app for the iPhone. “We hope that both of these new products will become ubiquitous and ingrained into the vocabulary of lighting professionals,” said Gan.
New products launching at LDI
Gantom One is an LED-based rethink of the standard pinspot fixture that is a mainstay of event lighting. Compared to a traditional pinspot, the Gantom One is smaller, lighter, more energy efficient and offers superior optics. It is hockey-puck sized instead of football-sized, and draws about one-eighth as much power; 4 watts as opposed to 30 watts. Because it uses LEDs the need for lamp replacement is completely eliminated. “They take up less space in inventory and can be easily transported in a small hard case, whereas your traditional bar of 8 pinspots on a giant rack calls for a truck,” said Gan. “For a large event using one per table, it can really add up.” The Gantom One also features an innovative magnetic accessory mounting system that allows the user to easily adjust the optics as needed.
Gantom’s new DMX Programmer app uses the iPhone hardware (Android version to follow soon) to replace an earlier, 4-button device called the DarkBox Programmer which configured addresses and presets for Gantom’s DMX lighting fixtures. The new app offers a more user friendly touch interface to all compatible fixtures shipping from the factory beginning Q4. It is available as a free download from the App Store. “As we continue to launch new products, it just made more sense to take advantage of established mobile hardware to control them,” said Gan. The DMX Programmer app uses a patent pending technology that encodes control signals over the mobile device’s audio port directly to the controlled fixture.
Infrared applications with Disney and BlinkFX
As a licensed manufacturer of devices that feature Disney’s SyncLink Technology, Gantom’s IR Mini-Emitters help enhance the experience of hearing- and visually-impaired theme park visitors as well as foreign guests needing translational services. Handheld and head worn devices, currently in use at several Disney parks, deliver content such as captions and audio descriptions on cue when triggered by proximity to the IR Mini-Emitters. The products have also been licensed and are in use at several national parks and museums.
Gantom envisions this technology being applied for other purposes in the near future such as safety and maintenance protocols and in rides and attractions, but also in non-entertainment sectors such as manufacturing. Get more information at Disneysynclink.com.
In another partnership with BlinkFX, Gantom is developing IR emitters for mobile and wearable devices with built-in, DMX controllable LEDs. The devices have a myriad of possible form factors and applications in entertainment, theater, events and attractions. The IR emitters can be hidden in key locations to trigger special lighting effects on these wearable LEDs. The BlinkFX devices are currently popular as wristbands worn by audience members at various musical events and corporate parties, producing effects synchronized to music. Get more information a at BlinkFX.com.
In 2007, the Saint Louis Zoo mounted a $120M capital campaign, setting in motion a series of major changes and expansions, unfolding through 2017. A 10-year rollout is nothing unusual for this prestigious, Association of Zoos and Aquariums-accredited zoo, where large-scale changes entail a lengthy journey from visioning and master plan, through fundraising, bidding, fine-tuning and construction.
Saint Louis-based JCO was awarded the planning, design and execution contract for three projects at the Zoo. The 10-acre River’s Edge, reconfigured with three new animal habitats, opened in June 2014. The revamp of The Living World welcome center has gradually uncapped new features including retail, food, cinema and classroom space. And the original Elephant House (circa 1918) – it hasn’t housed elephants in many years but served a range of other purposes – reopened in 2008 as Peabody Hall, a dedicated, 5,000-square-foot space for traveling exhibitions.
JCO founder Jumana Brodersen, a former creative director with Busch Entertainment Corp. (now SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment) put all her professional background, and her company’s skillset, into play for these projects. From her years with Busch, she had gained the operator’s perspective along with the ability to design for people, animals and exhibits, and the ability to reconcile vision with the realities and challenges of budget, timeline and construction. These combined with her knack for envisioning a creative solution beyond the initial expectations and getting others to see it, too.
Purina Painted Dog Preserve comes to River’s Edge
The approach to Purina Painted Dog Preserve takes visitors into an octagonal viewing hut immersing them in the midst of the exhibit with unobstructed views through floor-to-ceiling glass. Photo: Saint Louis Zoo.
“What’s ultimately the goal of this project? What is the essence of this project? If this project were a 30-second commercial, what would it be? You go back to the parameters,” says Brodersen. “For River’s Edge, the goals included more animals, enriched animal habitats and enhanced guest experience, as well as improved animal care, infrastructure and operational efficiency.”
“River’s Edge is this big, immersion exhibit with a loop trail,” said David McGuire, AIA William Bernoudy Vice President Architecture and Planning, Saint Louis Zoo. “The donut hole in the middle was where we planned upgraded facilities for Andean Bear Range. We also wanted to expand the Sun Bear Forest, with space to build out for one more animal in the future. Being in the business as long as she has, Jumana recognized how to make the process more efficient at the front end. She was instrumental in helping us make the leap to go outside the original plan.”
Collaborating with Zoo executive staff including McGuire and Jack Grisham, Vice President, Animal Collections, the team exceeded original goals for populating River’s Edge with more animals – adding the new Purina Painted Dog Preserve – and realizing capital and operating cost efficiencies by supporting all three exhibits with one shared, main animal management area. A bonus result was that the Red Pandas, which had been behind the scenes at the Zoo, were relocated to the former Sun Bears area, coming into public view for the first time in their new, larger habitat.
Collaboration of this kind is key to keeping things fresh at the Saint Louis Zoo. “It serves an institution best to work with a variety of design professionals who have animal experience as well with strong support teams to bring fresh approaches to this unique business,” says McGuire.
The Living World and Peabody Hall
The Peabody Hall exterior was authentically restored to its original 1918 charm and beauty. The JCO design team and the Zoo worked closely with preservationists. Photo by Roger Brandt, courtesy Saint Louis Zoo.
“The client’s goal for The Living World was to create a 21st Century zoo arrival experience to start visitors off right, and create positive first impressions,” said Brodersen.
The Living World occupies a 40,000-square-foot building at the north entrance of the Saint Louis Zoo, brings together many elements for welcoming and serving the homo sapiens who visit. An important aspect is the completely redesigned Welcome Center, where Zoo staff help guests plan their visits and purchase tickets. There are also expanded retail and food offerings, special events space, classroom space, the Monsanto education gallery, and digital cinema, plus offices for Human Resources, Marketing and Education.
Some design reconfigurations were implemented when an analysis of guest numbers showed the likelihood of a crowd-flow bottleneck at the entrance, and questions came up about the accommodations for traveling exhibitions.
A sense of arrival: The expansive new welcome center at The Living World at the north entrance to the Saint Louis Zoo. JCO rendering courtesy Saint Louis Zoo.
The exhibition hall was relocated to the former Elephant House, now completely renovated as Peabody Hall. “Having the traveling exhibition space at the front gate was not ideal, and Jumana helped us realize that,” said McGuire. This, in turn, solved the bottleneck issue, freeing up 4,000 square feet at The Living World entrance and facilitating the design of a truly inviting orientation space that does full justice to one of Brodersen’s favorite phrases: “a sense of arrival.”
In collaboration with OWH Architects, JCO delivered an interior renovation of The Living World that is versatile, accessible and airy, and expected to be fully complete by the end of 2014.
Madagascar and MOBOT
The Florida Aquarium in Tampa brought in JCO for a boutique project: Journey to Madagascar, a new themed, immersive environment on its upper level. Ring-tailed lemurs are the stars of the show, with supporting exhibits of amphibians and insects also from Madagascar. JCO’s design scope included the public spaces and the holding areas, collaborating closely with Director of Exhibits & Graphic Design Pete Colangelo, and the animal care specialists at the Aquarium. “Because of the animals’ specific needs in terms of space, feeding, care and comfort when they are out of public view, designing the holding areas can be a more intricate task than designing the guest areas,” noted Brodersen. Journey to Madagascar opened in spring 2014.
For the Missouri Botanical Garden (MOBOT) in Saint Louis, JCO was awarded (via RFP process) the contract to re-imagine the Brookings Interpretive Center, an existing 4,500-square foot building adjacent to the Climatron, a tropical greenhouse and guest favorite especially during the colder months. Expected to open in late 2015, the Center is being gutted and updated with a spread of educational exhibits and interactives designed to extend exploration and learning. “The new, family-friendly, digitally-equipped, year-round space will be configurable for multiple purposes,” says Brodersen. “Being among the plants at the Garden evokes a sense of beauty and curiosity. The Center will augment that with relevant, changing themes and programs networked to the larger community. Guests will have many options to actively participate and create their own content.” Brodersen is working closely with MOBOT’s internal engineering and education departments on the project. • • •
JCO (www.thejco.com) creates immersive environments for theme parks, water parks, amusement parks, zoos, aquariums and marine mammal parks around the world. Services include themed entertainment master planning, attraction design and animal habitat design.
Urayasu, Chiba (October 30, 2014) — Oriental Land Co., Ltd. announced that plans for the further development of Tokyo Disneyland and Tokyo DisneySea Parks have been decided. The plans, outlined in the Oriental Land Group’s “2016 Medium-Term Business Plan” (for the period of March 2015 through March 2017) announced on April 28, include a 500 billion yen (US$4.5 billion) level of investment in the theme park business over the next ten years.
The plan for Tokyo Disneyland Park centers on the redevelopment of Fantasyland,which will nearly double the size of the themed land. Work on implementing this large-scale area development has already begun. In addition to the renovation of the existing Fantasyland, major new attractions, restaurants and shops are being considered for installation in the expansion site.
Under consideration for Tokyo DisneySea Park is the development of a new themed port in the expansion site located south of Lost River Delta. This eighth themed port will include major new attractions, restaurants and shops.
Oriental Land will also further invest in the two Parks in multiple ways: renovation or creation of attractions and entertainment programs; development of hardware that will enhance the Guest experience in the Parks; further improvement of restaurants; easing of congestion; development of measures to protect Guests from hot and cold weather; and other ways of to make a more comfortable environment for all Guests. Furthermore, investment will be made to strengthen the theme parks’ “backstage” support functions and operational base.
In addition to the above investment in infrastructure, Oriental Land will continue to raise the level of hospitality provided by Cast Members, which is vital to the Disney theme parks, by strengthening human resources development and raising employee satisfaction to an even higher level.
Oriental Land’s aim for the two Disney theme parks is for them to continue to be places where Guests will have unforgettable experiences that are unlike anywhere else in the world. Oriental Land will strive to make this a reality through the above investments to maximize the value of the theme parks.
Water goes with everything. Hotels first realized the benefit of adding an indoor waterpark in 1994, further strengthening the bond between hotels and water leisure. In recent years, malls, zoos and even cruise ships have beefed up offerings with slides, lazy rivers and water play structures. We are drawn to the water, it seems, and more visitor destinations are realizing that.
The traditional waterpark is still popular, but the scope of water play is expanding rapidly. Waterparks are popping up in new, unexpected places. Who would have thought the Black Sea region would be an up and coming waterpark market? And the desert of Las Vegas is now home to two waterparks: Wet ‘n’Wild and Cowabunga Bay.
These are prime examples of how the water leisure industry continues to expand even as access to water sources is tightening and conservation efforts increase. The limited supply of fresh water in many parts of the world will only become more important to communities, media and governments. Our industry must be on the forefront of this issue, or it will come back to haunt us later.
As more markets turn to our industry to help them “just add water” it is up to us to do it responsibly and with an eye towards long-term success and sustainability. • • •
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Water: something we can all relate to
Judith Rubin, IPM co-editor
This issue of InPark has a spotlight on zoos and aquariums as well as waterparks. All three types of facilities are geared to families. All are providing ever more integrated attractions and environments. And all are making the most of water features.
Our best zoos and aquariums are always improving, working to create ever-better habitat for the animals in their charge. They also work to foster an emotional connection and learning experience for the humans who visit, to spur and support action on urgent conservation issues and the threat of species extinction.
Water provides a universal connection – something all creatures on Earth need for survival, and seek out for play and respite. As human lives become more urban, and water resources more precious and endangered, both people and animals are affected. There are fewer opportunities to have water experiences in nature.
Waterparks help people fulfill their natural inclination to get in the water to play and relax. Animals have the same needs, and environments that serve animals’ full range of needs and behaviors must include suitable water features. We’re seeing zoos and aquariums accommodate that need more fully, and make the most of the bonding opportunity by designing in ways that people can feel a part of it. Because everyone likes to go for a dip. • • •
Big is a good thing but not the only thing, say the pros at ProSlide
Successful water park owners know that choosing the right anchor attractions plays a critical role in differentiating their park. These high-impact rides ensure parks stand out in a crowded market, attracting guests and driving repeat visits.
But creating a truly iconic ride is not just about putting a big water slide in the park. By definition, your park’s signature attractions must deliver:
-Big impact. Exciting shapes and massive sizes attract guests and build anticipation. Installing them close to roads creates even more buzz.
-Huge thrills. Superior ride performance offers guests high entertainment value and keeps them coming back.
-High capacity. Iconic rides must include design innovations that enable them to handle the huge crowds they attract, consistently and with zero downtime.
In 2014, ProSlide Technology continued to meet the worldwide demand for ever bigger, more impactful anchor attractions.
Hybrid Rides
In 2008, ProSlide invented an entirely new category of iconic attractions by combining two or more stand-alone rides into a single water slide. In 2014, ProSlide has grown their offering by creating a number of unique, pioneering hybrid combinations:
-The first ProSlide BehemothBOWL 40 + TornadoWAVE hybrid was installed at Six Flags Over Georgia’s all new Hurricane Harbor water park. The 54’ high ride carries rafts of 2-4 passengers along a precisely engineered 747’ path of thrills – so precise that guests can move off the wall into a narrow 108-inch (274 cm) enclosed flume.
-Spain’s Aquopolis water park launched the world’s first TORNADO 24 + BehemothBOWL 40 hybrid.
-North America’s first TORNADO 24 + TornadoWAVE hybrid was installed at Water Country USA this past summer.
-And in early 2014, Australia’s Wet’n’Wild Sydney opened with two ProSlide hybrid rides: BehemothBOWL 40 + BehemothBOWL 40 and the TORNADO 24 + TORNADO 24 + TORNADO 24. ProSlide installed 70% of the attractions at this park, including the entire kids area and both towers of rafting rides (the two towers boast a 9,000 rider/hr capacity).
LIM Water Coasters
Another ProSlide invention: water coasters that use advanced linear induction motors (LIMs) to power boats up steeper hills faster. Two new ProSlide HydroMAGNETIC ROCKET coasters were installed in China in 2014 – at Foshan Nanhai Bay & Grand Sight parks.
This patented water ride technology has taken the industry by storm, winning not only IAAPA’s most prestigious Industry Impact Award but sweeping all other award categories as well. ProSlide’s HydroMAGNETIC coasters have picked up 15 first place awards since 2007.
ProSlide TORNADO
When it comes to choosing the right signature attractions, another critical factor to consider is how well they will hold their entertainment value. One example is the ProSlide TORNADO, winner of IAAPA’s 2003 Industry Impact Award and many Best Ride Awards.
Demand for this iconic ride pioneer is still strong more than 10 years later! ProSlide has installed over 20 new TORNADOs in 2014 alone, including at Center Parcs Woburn Forest, Kentucky Kingdom, Wet’n’Wild Las Vegas and more. • • •
ProSlide Technology (www.proslide.com or [email protected]) is an industry leader in water park rides and water park design. The company has been honored with more than 65 awards during 29 years in business. Some award highlights:
-2013: IAAPA Best New Water Ride or Product – First Place for Hybrid: HydroMAGNETIC MAMMOTH + TORNADO 60
-2013 WWA Leading Edge Award – First Place for Splash e Spa Tamaro
-First Place Golden Ticket Award in 2014 for 2014 HydroMAGNETIC ROCKET – Holiday World
-First Place Golden Ticket Award in 2013 for HydroMAGNETIC ROCKET – Dollywood’s Splash Country
-First Place 2014 European Star award for Hybrid: TORNADO 24 + TornadoWAVE at Siam Park
-First Place 2013 Theme Park & Attractions (TPASA) for Most Innovative Rides & Slide Manufacturer
Published by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) and the Economics practice at AECOM, this excerpt highlights the top visited waterparks from around the world.
With WWA returning to Vegas for its annual conference, InPark decided to revisit Wet ‘n’ Wild Las Vegas for a look at what has helped the park succeed
by Judith Rubin, Martin Palicki and Jill Bibby
Last summer, Wet ‘n’ Wild Las Vegas opened and InPark took readers inside for a first look. With the park completing a successful second season, we went back for a second look and conversation with the operators.
But first, a little history
Wet ‘n’ Wild Las Vegas is a partnership between SPB Partners (a private equity fund managed by Roger and Scott Bulloch) and Village Roadshow Theme Parks (for more on Village Roadshow and their expansion plans, read our interview on p.21). Investors include Andre Agassi, Dr. Steven and Karen Thomas (Thomas & Mack Companies) and members of the Binion family. It opened May 25, 2013.
While not formally part of the ownership structure, Kevin Orrock of The Howard Hughes Company and Clark County District F Commissioner Susan Brager were instrumental in the development of Wet ‘n’ Wild Las Vegas. The land is being leased from The Howard Hughes Company LLC and is contiguous to a park controlled by Clark County.
According to Wet ‘n’ Wild Las Vegas General Manager Takuya Ohki, Howard Hughes owns most of the land in this area, and had earmarked a chunk of land for park or athletic field development. With the county seeking a source of tax revenue, the deal with Village Roadshow was a win for everyone, taking half the land off Hughes’ hands for development, and providing tax revenue to the county which doesn’t have to develop or maintain the land.
Presentation matters
Waterslides, says Ohki, are the “eye candy of the park” and a major part of the guest experience. He explained that to help keep the slides looking their best in Vegas’ unrelenting sun, Wet ‘n’ Wild opted to use SilkGel slides from WhiteWater, which come with a 10-year warranty against fading. “We ask WhiteWater to come to us with new technology for the park,” he says. “WhiteWater is a great partner to work with, and we provide a testing ground for them.” The park has recently been testing WhiteWater’s Slideboarding product, which will be available to attendees of the World Waterpark Association’s mixer on Wednesday, October 29th, 2014.
2014 saw Wet ‘n’ Wild also add a major ProSlide feature: the ProSlide Tornado, designed for a shared thrill where guests can ride together and watch one another’s reactions as the raft navigates the slide.
Filtration and conservation
The filtration system Wet ‘n’ Wild Las Vegas depends on is a Defender system from Benson Neptune. According to Ohki, the Defender is more commonly the choice of aquariums than waterparks, which tend to use sand filters. He reports that the Defender system filters to 2 microns as opposed to a typical sand filter’s 4 microns. He finds the performance, in terms of keeping the water clean and clear, worth the higher cost and declared, “I would not build a waterpark without Defender.”
With water being a precious commodity in the desert, the park was designed to minimize water loss. Since evaporation is the primary enemy, the park stores excess water underground as much as possible. And instead of having a 3-4 foot deep pool at the end of slides, the park employs shallower run-outs that hold only about 12 inches of water and are sufficient to slow guests down at the end of the ride. Water that splashes from the run-outs flows through grates and to the filtration system and holding tanks. Ohki noted that the run-outs provide the additional benefit of reducing the height limit to 42 inches instead of the more common 48 inches.
Waterparks serve community interests in more ways than one. “A season pass here is affordable compared to the cost of maintaining a pool at home, and a waterpark is a more efficient use of water resources than everyone having their own pool,” said Ohki.
The tech side
Wet ‘n’ Wild reflects the growing importance of technology infrastructure in parks. Ohki prefers revenue share systems with such vendors as Omniticket, which provides the park’s ticketing suite. “A revenue share gives the developer incentive to keep improving the product,” he says, noting that as a customer, he gets the benefit of feedback from the supplier’s entire client base, which tends to be reflected in software and system updates.
Using digital signage systems for ticketing and in-park purchases allows the park to change prices and other information on the fly. Ohki forecasts that the next round of park efficiency will usher in connected systems controls, rather than individual systems. He points to the Sydney Wet ‘n’ Wild (the newest park for Village Roadshow) as soon rolling out a single wristband for ticketing, queuing, purchases and more. Says Ohki, “We are the next to adopt [a wristband system] after Disney.” • • •
The Details of Defender
Since Wet ‘n’ Wild uses the Defender filtration system, we asked the manufacturer, Neptune Benson’s Director of Marketing, Jill Bibby, to tell us more about the product.
What have the options been for water filtration?
Filtration and disinfection for attractions have changed dramatically over time. In years past, choices were limited to cartridge, diatomaceous earth (DE) and sand filters. Typically cartridge filters are hard to clean, expensive to replace and do not achieve the water quality you get when DE is used. DE, on the other hand, affords good water quality but is messy to work with and requires special disposal. Sand filters tend to be user-friendly but have a large footprint and use extra energy and water for backwashing. For a waterpark in particular, the large number of sand filters required to do the job tends to take up quite a bit of space and consume a lot of water.
How does Defender work?
The Neptune Benson Defender® filter utilizing regenerative media filtration (RMF) technology was an advancement in its ability to remove particles down to 1 micron in a single pass. The RMF system filters on the premise of surface filtration as compared to a depth filtration function with sand filters. With approximately 10 times the filter area in an RMF system, the dirt holding capacity was vastly improved compared to sand filters. Wet ‘n’ Wild’s Lazy River, Wave Pool and Children’s Play Area are all protected by Defender®.
What are the benefits and costs of the Defender system?
The primary benefits of the Defender filter start with a filter room footprint that is roughly ¼ of the space required by conventional sand filters. On a big park, this translates to major construction savings and possibly the option of including more attractions with the space savings. The technology of the design virtually eliminates the costly infrastructure of drainage systems and waste basins as required with sand filters. The unique design and operation of the RMF filter saves millions of gallons of water annually on average size parks due to the regeneration (bumping) process that dramatically prolongs the filter cycle. Some parks may achieve 3 week long filter cycles as compared to 1 day with sand filters. This translates to major savings in water, energy, waste and chemicals.
One of the other areas of financial benefit is the savings in energy, related to the reduced head or pressure loss in the system. In most cases, there is a drop of roughly 10’ TDH in an RMF designed system compared to sand. This is also related to the function of depth vs. surface filtration. Without having to push the water through the sand bed, the system pressure is favorably reduced lowering horsepower requirements and daily power consumption. While there is an up charge for the Defender (RMF) filters, some parks have realized paybacks in as little as one year.
What else should facilities like Wet ‘n’ Wild consider when examining filtration systems?
Parks should think about, and account for, resources like water and wastewater, fuel and chemicals and electricity. The US average for water and sewer costs is $7 per 1,000 gallons. For electricity, it’s $0.08 to $0.12 per kilowatt hour. Fuel and chemicals include gas or oil for heating, chemicals for maintaining the water and storage for those chemicals.
Take a look at your facility’s footprint. Consider the labor costs to build or retrofit, your mechanical room space, backwash holding tanks and whether or not you are looking to earn LEED points or otherwise improve your facility’s environmental footprint. Finally don’t forget to take ongoing equipment maintenance into consideration. The systems you choose can have a dramatic impact not only for today but for tomorrow as well.
![What to look for in your anchor [waterpark] attraction](https://www.inparkmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/CC_WnW-Sydney_1741.jpg "What to look for in your anchor [waterpark] attraction")
