InPark Magazine Issue #84

issue 84, October 2020 inparkmagazine.com

SimEx-Iwerks helps facilities soar with new FlyRide installs ÂŽ

Warner Bros. World

Touchless technologies

The technology behind Abu Dhabi’s newest indoor theme park

Solutions for parks, attractions and museums seeking to minimize touch interactions for ticketing, touchscreens and more

Meet the press

Learn what drives the InPark editorial inner circle in our third installment of this four-part series Joe Kleiman, news editor

Martin Palicki, publisher

Question from Judith Rubin

Question from Joe Kleiman

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hat’s the special something you bring to the InPark dynamic?

I have the thickest beard. Besides that, it would be the understanding of niche markets within the attractions community - giant screen, museums, and the performing arts - an understanding from working as a manager and director in these markets. I was also an IMAX projectionist and motion simulator technician, and worked with animals in a couple of zoos and a dolphin rescue facility, so those are fields I understand closely as well. All this experience has been put to good use at InPark. Now, if we ever do a piece on rebuilding a 1960s Mustang, I’m calling dibs.

Judith Rubin, editor Question from Martin Palicki

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know you like to bake. What is the perfect recipe for a great article or story (include a shopping list, please!)?

Successful baking involves good ingredients, the right tools and resources, creative experimentation and of course an understanding of who is going to eat the end result. In a corollary to creating a great article or story... Ingredients = information. If you are having trouble making a meaningful statement, then you need more information and understanding of your topic. Dig in, ask more questions. Tools and resources = how you communicate and share the story, including structure, formats and platforms.

Creative experimentation = finding a way to say it that makes people take notice. In the last, eaters = audience. Make the story relevant to them, their needs and the culture of their business.

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ou’ve traveled around the world to visit theme parks and attractions and to meet with themed entertainment designers and manufacturers. What are some of your favorite memories traveling for InPark?

I made a conscious decision a few years back to focus most of my travel each year on work-related trips, adding on side trips when possible for fun. It was a smart decision. In addition to being present at important industry events around the world, there is so much to see and do out there that really helps inform a well-rounded editorial viewpoint.

I’ve been lucky to enjoy several show openings with the ECA2 team in China. The opening of “Fountain of Dreams” in Wuyishan was particularly special. We had an afternoon to explore this rather remote city where almost no one spoke English. Ordering a meal without the use of language can be fun – as long as you keep an open mind!

Last year Alterface organized a press trip to Belgium for the Popcorn Revenge attraction. We got tours of the city, the new Alterface office and Walibi Belgium even opened several of its best rides for us. At the end of the day organizer Anja d’Hondt prevailed upon the kind hotel staff to keep the lounge open for us so we could share our experineces on the new ride. It’s always a treat to socialize with other industry journalists.

Since the three members of InPark’s core editorial team all live in different states, we don’t have traditional office relationships (but our remote working skills have come in very handy this year). It’s always a huge pleasure to travel and see industry colleagues and friends at fantastic sites and events around the world. Whether it’s a WhiteWater rooftop cocktail party in Berlin or dinner overlooking Shanghai Disneyland at TEA SATE Asia, it’s so much more enjoyable because it’s with all the amazing people I’ve come to know and cherish in our industry.

InPark Magazine (ISSN 1553-1767) is published by Martin Chronicles Publishing, LLC. 2349 E Ohio Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53207, USA. Shipping address: 2349 E Ohio Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53207, USA. Phone: +1-262-412-7107. Printing by Johnson Press of America.

Contents © 2020 InPark Magazine. All rights reserved. Nothing in the magazine may be reproduced or used in any manner without the prior written permission of the magazine. InPark Magazine is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts, photographs or illustrations.

Such material must be accompanied by a self-adressed and stamped envelope to be returned.

Postmaster: Send address changes to InPark Magazine 2349 E Ohio Ave. Milwaukee, WI 53207, USA. Subscriptions are available annually for $45 per year ($70 international). Opinions expressed in editorial matter are not necessarily those of InPark Magazine or its publishers, Martin Chronicles Publishing, LLC.

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issue 84, october 2020 2

Meet the press The IPM editors interview one other, round three

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The power of the wearable Connect&GO brings RFID solutions to a Quebec waterpark • by Michael Oliver

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Flights boarding now SimEx-Iwerks installs the FlyRide® attraction in two US venues • by Joe Kleiman Device developments

13 Freetouch™ BYOD technology helps museums and attractions keep interactives in play • by Judith Rubin

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New game in town Former Disney Imagineer Steven Grant leads new Themed Environments Integration program at UF Orlando CityLab • by Judith Rubin Smart park systems

19 Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi delights guests with immersive attractions backed by the latest in show control technology • by Martin Palicki

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Dubai 2021 and beyond World expos upcoming, proposed and planned • by James Ogul

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TEA Thea Awards Digital Case Studies showcase TEA maintains its prestigious awards cycle in an online format • by Joe Kleiman

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Transitions: New faces and roles in the industry Stephane Battaille and Maya Guice • by Martin Palicki

team & contributors

COVER:

Guests on board the FlyRide® attraction from SimEx-Iwerks enjoy the sensation of flying above scenic landscapes.

Photo courtesy of SimEx-Iwerks

PUBLISHER Martin Palicki

DESIGN Martin Palicki

EDITOR Judith Rubin

CONTRIBUTORS James Ogul Michael Oliver

NEWS EDITOR Joe Kleiman

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The power of the wearable Connect&GO brings RFID solutions to a Quebec waterpark

by Michael Oliver

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s one of the largest waterparks in Quebec, Super Aqua Club, located 30 minutes from downtown Montreal, boasts over 45 rides and attractions, including the Tsunami and Tornado thrill rides, a heated wave pool, private beaches and multiple children’s attractions.

Super Aqua Club has been operating for three decades and its new owner Nadine St-Amant, who acquired the park in May 2019 and who actually worked at the park as a teenager, has brought in numerous upgrades, including state-of-the-art technical systems using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) to enhance the guest experience and bring under one umbrella myriad multiple functions such as POS (point of sale). To achieve this, she called upon Connect&GO, a Montreal-based supplier described by Crunchbase as “a global leader in RFID deployments in the entertainment industry.”

RFID technology has come to the fore in recent years, especially in access control at large events (e.g. concerts, festivals and major sporting events) and all aspects of inventory management.

Anthony Palermo, co-founder of Connect&GO, recognized that the technology had untapped potential for attractions, especially with advancements in that field over the last 10 years or so.

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How does RFID work?

Radio Frequency Identification goes back as least as far as WWII when radar, developed in the decade prior, was used to signal the approach of aircraft. In those early days of electronic detection, there was no way to know whether the aircraft was “friend or foe,” until a British radar expert got the idea to equip each RAF aircraft with a transponder (a combination receiver and transmitter) capable of receiving an interrogating signal and sending a specific signal back to the radar transmitter; thus, the transmitter became a “reader” of the identifying signal. This is the basis for RFID technology.

Some 75 years later, and after a long evolution, we now can install the transponder - which, thanks to the miracles of miniaturization and materials development, can be as small as a grain of rice, far smaller than the bulky, radio-sized affairs used in WWII - in a specific material, say a silicone wristband. Encoded in the transponder chip would be just the basic information of an identifying serial number, which would link to data recorded and stored in a back-end computer system, with software specifically designed to handle such data (think of data like access to events and activities, meal packages, locker assignment, as well as dates and times of ticket purchases).

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When a “reader” is within range of the wristband/transponder (and a reader can be a hand-held device, or part of a more permanent structure, like an activity portal, for example), the reader’s signal will activate the transponder, which will send a signal of its own back to the reader, identifying the guest and linking the wristband directly to all relevant data points (i.e., amenities the guest has purchased). So, for example, a guest may enter a particular attraction by merely swiping his or her wristband across a reader. Benefits to the guest: no need to carry a wallet, purse or ID, no tickets or coupons to manage outside those already electronically present in the system. Additionally, since most of this operation is contactless, or, at most, tapping a reader with the wristband, the system provides a measure of protection against picking up a virus.

Deploying the system The fact that this enhanced technology can be delivered in the form of a simple waterproof wristband, with its tiny transponder safely tucked away in its silicone shell, made this new technology appear ideal for St-Amant’s operation. Connect&GO was given the green light to create and install the system.

As “a global leader of RFID deployments” Connect&GO’s project portfolio includes providing access control solutions to major conferences, sporting events, music festivals and more. The company can now boast wristband-wearing clients in 16 different countries and numerous venues and events, both temporary and permanent.

The first step was to develop a smart e-commerce platform for everything. The resulting platform developed by Connect&GO allows the operator to, for example, offer attraction packages, upsell, add meal packages if desired, and instantly offer different deals. Additionally, the e-commerce platform works in unison with a Veloce POS system, allowing all POS to be handled at the front gate. Utilizing a full POS Veloce system across the park, the entire site became hybrid-cashless.

Operators can accept credit cards, cash or RFID wristbands (much like a reusable cash card, dollars can be added to the wristband account itself at kiosks located in the park).

This system also allowed for a full locker assignment via wristband; lockers, while not directly RFIDconnected, use keys that are electronically tied to the wristband.

Along with all of these elements comes access control and the capacity for fully timed ticketing and the ability to log customer

actions and use the data to improve service and boost per capita spending. As Palermo says, “With access control via RFID, we know when people bought tickets, when they came, what times they came.” This allows the operator to reserve a specific number of tickets in advance for specific time periods each day, as well as better manage the customer flow and movement throughout the park. Being able to anticipate the likely number of guests partaking of a particular area of the venue at a particular time allows operators to concentrate staff in those areas and improve customer service.

Guest media takeaways Further, the platform allows the guest to create an individual “My Account” specific to Super Aqua Club. Since, for many guests, documenting their adventures is almost as important as the adventures themselves, Connect&GO has brought this easily within reach by integrating capture/transfer technology from Kool Replay. This allows guests to take and share branded photos and videos into the RFID system. Cameras are installed at various angles and positions along an attraction - say, the Tornado slide. The guest’s experience is videotaped and edited all the way through, creating a personalized video available within minutes after exiting. A preview is emailed to the guest and they can purchase the entire video, if desired, and share it and its branded content with the park logo embedded. The guest becomes the star of their own commercial. In Palermo’s terms, “It gives you the opportunity to re-live the entire experience.”

In addition, roaming photographers take pictures of guests, then, simply by tapping the guest’s wristband with the photographer’s

ABOVE & OPPOSITE: Guests at Super Aqua Club in Quebec, Canada use RFID wristbands throughout the park to access attractions, pay for services and link photos and videos taken of them throughout their visit to their customer account.

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Nadine St-Amant

Anthony Palermo

All photos courtesy of Super Aqua Club

reader device, instantly send the pictures by email, from which point the guest is free to share the picture on social media.

is no question about that! People love it. You can see it in their faces!”

At the center of this fusion of elements is the customizable My Account profile page. As Palermo explains, the profile page “has been exercised by other properties to allow guests to register their profile, allow them to connect a credit card and to link other family members, and it also acts as a hub to receive messages, discounts, and their branded photos from their experiences.”

Surrounding this central element are “modules for ticketing, e-commerce, access control, payments, as well as gamification.”

Customers are rewarded for their degree of engagement through points for various elements of the waterpark experience, e.g., points are awarded for registering an account, for enjoying certain rides, for photos, videos and sharing, all of which can be redeemed for prizes and help build customer loyalty.

That it has streamlined and improved park operations is clear as well: “We really wanted to create a connected experience for our clients, and this new RFID technology has certainly done that.

Now we better know the customer journey of our clients; we can better analyze the touch points for our clients at each step.”

Moreover, with “real time numbers of people inside the site, I can manage my staff much more easily and efficiently.”

Doing business in the pandemic

For Anthony Palermo and Connect&GO, working with Super Aqua Club proved to be a gratifying and encouraging experience.

“Not only is it a waterpark,” he said, “which is a big focus for us, but Nadine understood how many things you can do to connect the experience and went full with it and had a successful year out of it…she really believed in our technology and how it could come through for her guests.”

Any discussion of technology’s interaction with the public today must include considerations about the Covid-19 pandemic. StAmant, like all business owners who deal directly with the public, must contend with “how to get more people into the site, yes, but in such a way that is safe, and also ‘feels safe’ to the guests,” as she says. Given this issue, there could hardly be a better time for contactless, or limited contact technology to come to the fore and offer its solutions to the challenge, in this instance, providing Super Aqua Club guests with a sense of normalcy, coupled with an enhanced waterpark experience.

Whether demanded by a new and harsh reality, or as a more natural byproduct of technological evolution, RFID technology has matured to a point of becoming a common and desired aspect of e-commerce platforms and POS systems with viable and versatile applications for parks and attractions. As Palermo says, at Super Aqua Club “the connection between the video and photo and access control, the real time data, lockers and all the touchpoints of the leisure experience are driven by and demonstrate the power of the wearable.” • • •

With attendance caps in place for the foreseeable future, as well as an abbreviated 2020 season, parks such as Super Aqua Club have been looking to maximize per caps revenue and build strong customer bonds. St-Amant brings a positive mindset to the challenge. She looks at this season as a success, and in great measure because of the new technology employed this year: “For the guests, this new technology not only makes the waterpark experience a better one…makes the attractions better and easier to enjoy, the RFID technology is ‘part of ’ that experience! There

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In this issue, we welcome Michael Oliver as our newest contributing writer. Michael comes to us by way of academia, as a retired literature and philosophy professor whose teaching career lasted some 28 years. Prior to the classroom, his early training and work were in engineering, which took him from nuclear missile silos in North Dakota to the Rhine River, where he worked as a ship’s engineer. Michael brings his dual background and range of experience to write about technology and other subjects for InPark.

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inTHEMED ENTERTAINMENT inWATER PARKS inMUSEUMS

© batwin + robin productions

inAMUSEMENT PARKS

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Flights boarding now SimEx-Iwerks FlyRide® theaters take off in Branson and the Wisconsin Dells

by Joe Kleiman

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he motion simulator ride has been around for over a century.

According to the late film historian Ray Zone, “Hale’s Tours” was the first on the market utilizing motion picture film; it premiered at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair before being franchised worldwide. The concept was simple – riders would board a railroad car positioned on a gimbal, at one end of which a short, point-of-view travelogue film would play. Combined with a rocking motion applied to the car and a wind machine, riders had the sensation they were actually riding the rails.

For close to 80 years, simulator rides in theme parks, carnivals and museums would use this simple concept – vibration of the theater or seats combined with lighting and environmental effects to create the sensation of movement and immerse guests into the experience. In 1985, the game changed as industrial

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flight simulators were modified for entertainment use and the first, influential modern versions of the product emerged. In Toronto, the company Interactive Entertainment, Inc. - which would soon change its name to SimEx - created “Tour of the Universe,” a blockbuster attraction at the CN Tower. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles Don Iwerks was finishing up the custom projection system for Disney’s original, groundbreaking “Star Tours” attraction. He would soon leave Disney to found his own attractions company, Iwerks Entertainment. SimEx and Iwerks would merge in 2002 to become SimEx-Iwerks.

As the motion simulator ride business grew, companies began looking for new ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. Where riders were placed in small capsules with screens at the front, ceilings began to disappear, with dome

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and curved screens enveloping riders’ points of view. The next stage would be to simulate a flight over terrain. While traditional simulator vehicles are positioned so riders look forward or up, the joy of hang-gliding is the ability to gaze down upon the world passing below. Engineers shifted the screens lower and created motion bases where guests’ feet dangle, as if actually in flight on a glider. This type of media-based, simulator attraction is commonly referred to as a “flying theater,” and has proven to be a great crowd pleaser. It has followed a typical path of development through the industry, starting with custom, one-off installations in the biggest parks and gradually coming within reach of regional and stand-alone operators as well.

Continuing its role as a leader in the ride simulation market, SimEx-Iwerks has just opened its first two FlyRide® theaters, both at venues in the US Midwest serving regional tourist markets: Wilderness Resort in Wisconsin Dells, and Beyond the Lens in Branson, Missouri. FlyRide® is based on the SkyRide theater system SimEx-Iwerks first developed for Enchanted Kingdom in the Philippines in 2016 [see “Flying High,” InPark Magazine Issue #62]. It is positioned as an economical alternative to big-budget flying theaters, with a scalable system package supported by a film library that includes licensed content and original films. “We try not to do the big one-off custom product, but rather something that’s replicable worldwide,” says Mike Frueh, Senior Vice President of Licensing and Distribution for SimEx-Iwerks. “For FlyRide, we developed a product that is designed, built, installed and serviced by SimEx-Iwerks, just as we do with our 4D Experience® and motion ride attractions.”

“We’re well known as having the largest ride and 4D film library in the market,” Frueh continues. “We’re doing the same for FlyRide®, which is very appealing to our clients since it means they can get both the system and the content from us, and have access to a variety of content.”

The system FlyRide is a highly customizable system. The seating configuration, screen shape and size, and even the projection are based upon the customer’s needs for the space. Central to the experience are motion platforms, each five seats across. With four platforms spread across each floor, and the ride spread over two to three floors, FlyRides can put through as many as 40 to 60 riders per cycle, though Frueh points out that an attraction can have fewer or more seats, depending on the available space.

The modular nature of the attraction simplifies maintenance and allows operators to adjust to changes in demand by running just a single floor or even just one bench if needed.

As riders buckle into their seats, they notice a closed door in front of them. The “wow factor” takes place as the door opens and the seats suddenly surge forward, causing riders’ feet to dangle while the experience takes them into simulated flight — this is the Rapid Reveal system in action. Electric actuators, which Frueh notes are quieter than other options and therefore better for flying experiences, provide three degrees of motion (3DOF) - pitch, roll, and heave – to simulate the sensation of traveling on an actual aircraft.

Depending on the size and configuration of the theater, images can be projected onto either a giant dome screen or a more

ABOVE & OPPOSITE: Guests on SimEx-Iwerks’ FlyRide® attraction are surrounded by imagery on a giant screen and taken on a flying tour of sites around the United States. All photos courtesy of SimEx-Iwerks unless otherwise noted.

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specialized, curvilinear screen supplied by Strong/MDI. Beyond the Lens features a four-story Vista View curved screen, while Wilderness Resort’s is a five-story high, solid partial dome. Main audio speakers are located behind the screen and for acoustic transparency the Vista View screen has a perforated surface while the dome screen has special patented perforated panels at speaker locations. Keeping most of the dome screen solid reduces light loss and maximizes image quality. Surround sound is created through additional speakers located behind the seats in each launch bay.

The projection systems integrate components from leading manufacturers. Both the Wilderness Resort and Beyond the Lens theaters are projecting at a high frame rate of 60 frames per second, adding to the realism of the experience. Images are played back from 7thSense Delta Media Servers to multiple Christie laser projectors. Wilderness Resort utilizes four Christie D4K40-RGB projectors blended with the Christie Mystique Large Scale Experience software to create a single high resolution image. Beyond the Lens has four Christie Crimson WU25 projectors. Both locations feature scent, wind, and water effects.

The system is operated with a patented SimEx-Iwerks designed control system that can be remotely accessed by authorized technicians for monitoring and maintenance. The ride meets worldwide code requirements and has received approval from major authorities such as TUV and CSEI.

The film library To build a strong aerial content library to support FlyRide, SimEx-Iwerks partnered with an industry master of aerial photography, specialty cinema producer MacGillivray Freeman Films (MFF). Well known as one of the leading producers and distributors of documentary content to IMAX and other giant screen theaters, MFF is probably best known for the 1998 release “Everest,” currently scheduled for a 2021 director’s cut re-release.

The company’s longstanding history of aerial photography goes back to the 1960s and 1970s, when surfing documentarians Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman began producing and shooting aerials for Hollywood blockbusters, including “The Shining” and “The Towering Inferno.” In 1976, the company’s first IMAX production, “To Fly,” opened at the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum, where it continues to play to this day.

Now, with more than 50 films to its credit, MFF has developed an extensive collection from its high-quality source material. The footage covers a rich variety of topics and terrain in celebration of nature, adventure and the great outdoors, making it a natural fit for flying theaters. “Our shots have stood the test of time,” says MFF President Shawn MacGillivray, “They look incredible.”

MFF is in the midst of taking its IMAX film shots, originally captured on 15 perforation 65mm film, the highest resolution film on the market, and digitally scanning them at 16K resolution, providing four times the image detail of most conventional cinemas.

The SimEx-Iwerks ride system tilts seats back before pushing them forward into the curved screen for the show.

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“We’re helping SimEx-Iwerks serve their clients in creating bespoke films that they want for their venues,” says MacGillivray.

“They know it’s about wowing audiences, especially as they experience it for the first time. And the next film has to be even better.” The two FlyRide® venues that just opened both have original films using MFF footage, but each is vastly different from the other.

Wilderness Resort in the Wisconsin Dells took a somewhat different approach with its original show “Flying Wild.” “We wanted footage of the national park landmarks, the Grand Canyon and Tetons, but we also wanted to combine that with footage of the Dells,” says Chris Ebben, the resort’s Director of Attractions. “The Upper and Lower Wisconsin River are separated by a dam. Instead of taking a Duck Boat tour of the Upper River and then relocating to float down the Lower River, we offer a bird’s eye view of the whole thing. It’s something most people won’t experience in a single day.” Footage has recently been shot by Wilderness with the help of MFF and Discover Wisconsin of nearby Devil’s Lake State Park and Door County and scenes from both locations will be in the re-release of Flying Wild November 13th, 2020.

For Robin Turner, owner of Branson’s Beyond the Lens, it was important that “some of the clips in our film ‘Adventure America’ take people where they normally would fly to, but would also take them to places beyond their normal travel.”

Beyond the Lens is what Turner calls “Techno-Tainment.”

Turner, who prior to Beyond the Lens founded the edutainment LBE chain Wonderworks, says the venue concentrates on “being on the cutting edge of what’s next: VR, AR, and other interactive technology. Guests are immersed from the moment they walk through the doors; from photo ops to life-size gaming opportunities.”

Both venues are working on future flying experiences, and both have plans to add a seasonal production in November for the holidays. SimEx-Iwerks is continuing to develop its FlyRide film library with original content from MFF and others. As the number of Flyride venues expands, the supporting content library will continue to grow likewise and differentiate itself from other SimEx-Iwerks content that is more tied to traditional motion simulation and 3D and 4D experiences. “We want to really concentrate on the flying experience,” says Frueh. “We’re also working on a few animated films.”

At the Take Flight attraction within the Wilderness Resort (Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin) great detail has gone into theming the experience from the moment guests enter the attraction.

Guests prepare to board a flight that will take them to various National Parks and scenic destinations around the country.

The pre-show features repurposed airplane seats.

Each bay of the attraction has two ride vehicles with five seats per vehicle. Two bays are located on each of the three floors.

All photos on this page by Martin Palicki

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The Branson Missouri FlyRide is a retrofit installation that was previously a 2,500-seat live performance venue.

The venues Wilderness Resort is a family resort with indoor and outdoor waterparks and other family activities including go-karts and a ropes course. The resort’s $10 million*, 60-seat Take Flight FlyRide attraction is entered through a newly constructed lobby off the main entrance, themed to an airport with windows looking out on the National Parks. New characters have been created that tell the story of a young girl going on a flight.

Eventually, guests reach an airport and sit in actual seats from a Delta Airlines plane for their preshow briefing. “We wanted something the Wisconsin Dells doesn’t have,” says Ebben. “We wanted to draw business onto our property. With these ride vehicles, a family of four or five can have their own vehicle.”

At Branson’s Beyond the Lens, the $8 million*, 40-seat FlyRide theater was constructed inside a retrofitted, 2,500-seat live performance venue. “It’s technology and entertainment in one, and fits perfectly with our theme,” Turner says. The attraction’s theme is based on a Pan Am-inspired vintage air terminal. “We wanted to give the feeling that you can fly anywhere in the world from here,” he adds.

Turner is planning on adding a second theater, this one larger at 60 seats, to the Beyond the Lens attraction in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. “We have the only flying theater in Branson. But Pigeon Forge is a bigger market; it’s not as seasonal and has more visitors. Because it’s at the crossroads of three major highways, 70% of the country is within eight hours of Pigeon Forge.”

Turner continues, “Working with SimEx-Iwerks and MFF has been a very good experience. As they develop the film library, the product only gets better. We’re currently working with them on what the second film will be like for the following year. Underwater products look really great for this format.

I never thought I would be in the business of working with filmmakers, but this collaboration has taken us to a new level of entertainment for our guests.” • • •

For more information, visit simex-iwerks.com/products/flyride

*Costs include FlyRide® system and film production along with other costs, such as theming, building design and construction, not included with the ride system.

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Device developments Freetouch BYOD technology helps museums and attractions keep interactives in play

by Judith Rubin

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few issues currently facing the attractions industry: How to keep experiences engaging and immersive while moving toward touch-free; how to engage visitors who are already deeply engaged with their mobile phones; how to reopen and refresh a facility and its exhibits on a pandemic budget - and what to do with touchscreen interactives in a time when touching common surfaces is problematic.

the technology to quickly create the Freetouch prototype. “The QR/mobile confluence has hit a tipping point that hadn’t existed before,” he says. “You used to have to download a separate app to read a QR code but now it’s built in to the camera app on the mobile device. Snap, tap and you are there.”

Touchless and frictionless

With the launch of his new product Freetouch™ (patent pending), experience designer Darren David offers an umbrella solution that not only addresses the issues but suggests new creative possibilities.

Based on its attributes and the reaction of early adopters and testers, Freetouch seems likely to be quickly and warmly embraced by the attractions industry. The ability to keep existing displays viable is good news for suppliers and operators alike, and the interface should have strong appeal for guests.

As the CEO of Stimulant, David has been on the design and production end of things, creating many interactive exhibits for clients in museums, visitor centers, brand experiences, retail and other public-facing environments. When the pandemic hit, those clients started calling asking for new solutions. Their touchscreen experiences were now potential liabilities. David devised a new, proprietary platform that brings together QR codes, mobile devices, and cloud computing, making the most of advances in

The technology is designed to be what David calls “absolutely frictionless, with no road bumps between the visitor and the experience,” enabling them to interact with exhibits and access their content without touching anything except their own smartphones. It may be the ultimate bring-your-own-device (BYOD) scenario. The visitor points their device at a QR code on the display to initiate immediate control from their mobile web browser, with no downloads, registrations or logins required.

The Freetouch system allows visitors to control attraction touchscreens with their own phone or device. All photos courtesy of Freetouch

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The smartphone then acts as a touchpad or “virtual mouse” with which the visitor navigates the display, cued by a cursor overlay that appears on the touchscreen.

David says, “Once the web app loads, it’s one tap and your phone works like the touchpad on your laptop, something you already know how to use.” Incorporating the phone into the experience has the obvious advantage of letting the visitor stay in a familiar, high-comfort zone. The phone becomes the liaison to the experience and less of a potential distraction from it. It may even deepen the experience and the connection to the story or content because - face it - for many people something only becomes real when they find it on their own phone.

David has endeavored to ensure a “frictionless” Freetouch experience for the operator as well, with attention to cost, installation and simplicity. Based on dialogue with his clients and colleagues in the attractions community (“I talked to about 100 clients and potential clients, large and small”) he “knew Freetouch had to fit into an operational budget and not a capital budget, and be easy to install.”

Installation and business model

functionality of the exhibit; it was really just a perfect tool for this. It’s very simple, just use your cellphone and away you go.”

The Timeline Table has five user stations with room for others to gather around.

Freetouch installs onto touchscreen PCs from a downloadable executable, and has been designed to work even on older operating systems. Freetouch is offering a 14-day free trial and a range of purchase and licensing subscription options, and rolling out a distributor network and creating partnerships with technical integrators.

The Center is also in the process of applying Freetouch to two other interactive exhibits in the museum that allow users to explore archives of Reagan presidential radio addresses and White House logs. Each of those accommodates one active user at a time.

“Our networking infrastructure is built on Microsoft Azure, but the visitor-facing components run in the browser in any device, Apple or Android, phone or tablet,” says David. “We built privacy and security into the system to meet stringent IT requirements.

The development was based on things we’ve learned at Stimulant over the past 15 years building systems like this. It’s been really helpful that we have access to museums and attractions full of touchscreen exhibits where we can can log in and do plenty of field testing.”

Reagan Ranch Center, early adopter of Freetouch Brent Kilpper is Associate Director of the Reagan Ranch Center in downtown Santa Barbara. The four-story, multi-use facility includes a museum that is currently open on a limited basis, accommodating group visits by reservation. The name of the facility refers to the late US president’s favorite rural getaway, a ranch nestled in the nearby mountains. The Center and the ranch itself now belong to the Young Americans Foundation, an educational 501(c)3.

The centerpiece exhibit in the main gallery of the Reagan Ranch Center is the Timeline Table, a popular, touchscreen interactive.

It was extensively re-envisioned and updated in 2019, with the services of Stimulant, and is now also Freetouch enabled.

“We have it up and running now and we’re really pleased,” says Kilpper. “It lets you use a QR code and turn your phone into a tracking surface, and it works fantastically. We retained all

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Darren David

About half of the building’s 20,000 square feet is devoted to museum galleries and at this writing, the Reagan Ranch Center was working toward opening to the general public within a few weeks at about 25% capacity with advance reservations.

“Freetouch will allow us to use the interactive exhibits in the way they were intended to be used while maintaining safety aspects,” says Kilpper. The Center is currently completing a new exhibit (with Stimulant) on the first floor featuring a chunk of the Berlin wall, to coincide with the anniversary of the wall’s falling on November 9, 1989.

Applying Freetouch at the Adler Planetarium The Adler Planetarium in Chicago, established in 1930, was the first planetarium in the Western Hemisphere and continues to be a leader in the field, known for innovative exhibits and display technology. With the physical building closed since mid-March 2020, the Adler has not been able to celebrate its 90th anniversary as originally envisioned, but has continued to serve its community with novel digital offerings as a special committee shapes a strategy to eventually reopen.

With that in mind, they have been trying out Freetouch on various exhibits according to John Beckman, Director, Exhibit Design and Production, who joined the Adler at the beginning of the year. To the Adler, Beckman brings 16 years’ prior experience with the Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago.

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“Darren came along and it occurred to us that it would be interesting and relatively easy to pilot Freetouch on our dozen or so touchscreens, and that it would give us the opportunity to preserve what we’re doing with those exhibits,” says Beckman.

“From an internal point of view it is logistically friendly. It installs easily, most everyone has a good phone nowadays and we have good Wi-Fi. So it is low friction in terms of getting it in on our machines, and for the guest as well.”

Experimenting with Freetouch has also stimulated some creative thinking among Adler’s in-house team. “Looking at this tool and thinking about what a post-COVID society will need has made us think about what other practical options we could bring in, and how we might configure immersive exhibits in future,” says Beckman.

“We’re mostly at a very high concept stage right now, but are working on project proposals for potential renovations when fundraising gets back into a groove.”

The Reagan Ranch Center was an early adopter of the Freetouch technology.

A new creative tool for experience design Beyond the immediate retrofit, how might Freetouch influence experience design development? “Freetouch was designed first and foremost to keep existing experiences in operation, but it does open up a lot of creative possibilities for the future,” says David. “We’re already talking to several agencies that are looking at pivoting some of the concept design phases they were in, changing the interactive model to something touchless. From the experiential side we’re seeing that there are significant features and functionalities to add to the customer experience beyond ‘Hey, I’m afraid to touch this screen.’”

According to David, Freetouch can be used to transform passive displays to interactive displays. “Existing digital signage or wayfinding kiosks could be converted to interactive screens,” says David. “The QR code can also be decoupled from the screen, so a visitor could, for instance, snap a QR code on a pole near them and gain control over a huge display that’s far away.” Scale is no obstacle. “There’s nothing stopping that newly interactive screen from being a billboard in Times Square, a stadium display, an LED wall or a projection on a magic castle. The phone in the guest’s hand gives them superpowers. Basically we’re enabling new kinds of interactivity on existing hardware that were not before possible without new hardware.”

individuals to interact with displays that might have previously been challenging before,” David says.

“A new interface and a clean solution” “This kind of application will definitely apply to broader, interactive user experiences using screens, projections or physical effects,” forecasts Chris Conte, VP New Business Development at Electrosonic Inc. “Anything that creates a new interface is really the key, and the trend moving this forward is the cellphone as the connection point,” says Conte, who has partnered with Stimulant as a content producer on past projects.

“Darren has been very clever in making Freetouch as simple as possible,” says Conte. “You just need some computer chops installation is really a brief process and then it’s done. The QR code enables your smart device to become an extension of the touch interactive. As technical designers, we have been looking for the right solutions to help operators. Freetouch is intriguing because it is so personal - we’re already all comfortable with our phones. It’s also one of the cleanest solutions I’ve seen on the market. It doesn’t require redesigning the experience. I’m excited about implementing it in some existing museums and looking at it for new projects.”

Bottom line: Freetouch was created to enable operators to reopen with their interactives running as before, avoiding extensive technical changes and without taking a big bite out of the budget.

But it’s way more than a COVID fix. “The response has been overwhelmingly positive, people blown away at how deceptively simple of a solution it is,” says David. “We’re talking to some very recognizable household brands and we think you’ll be seeing Freetouch on a display near you very soon.” • • •

It can also be used to enhance accessibility. “Freetouch can help designers provide additional ways for mobility impaired

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Visit getfreetouch.com

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New game in town Former Disney Imagineer Steven Grant leads new Themed Environments Integration program at UF Orlando CityLab interview by Judith Rubin

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here’s a new themed entertainment academic program in town! In August 2019, the first cohort of 14 students began their studies in the Master of Science in Architectural Studies Concentration in Themed Environments Integration (MSAS|TEI), or Graduate Certificate in Themed Environments Integration (GC|TEI), part of the University of Florida’s CityLab-Orlando, located downtown. In August 2020, the second cohort of 20 students began their studies in the program. (More info at https://dcp.ufl.edu/tei/) I was fortunate to be in Orlando in January 2020 for a first-hand experience of this program thanks to Program Director Steven Grant AIA who took the time to show me around, explain the curriculum and let me sit in on an in-person class (things have since moved online due to the pandemic). Grant stepped into the role on the heels of a 28-year tenure at Walt Disney Imagineering. – J.R. Please share some background on the development and structure of the TEI program.

UF CityLab-Orlando was founded by the College’s School of Architecture as an off-campus program offering the Master of Architecture degree. The program began operation in fall 2012.

In 2018 the College actively began the process of developing the certificate and master’s degree programs in Themed Environments by engaging industry leaders to help identify the knowledge, skills and abilities needed in the industry. From those meetings emerged the underlying principles for the program and its exclusive focus on the process of developing themed environments.

The TEI program is interdisciplinary. The TEI student body is made up of students with undergraduate degrees in planning, real estate, architecture, theater, film, interior design, recreation, park & tourism management, communications, hospitality, international studies, mechanical and civil engineering, and political science. The diversity of knowledge and perspectives that our students bring to the program supports engaging conversations and a sharing of knowledge.

In your experience, how does being a working architect in themed entertainment differ from a more traditional practice of the discipline?

Before I was an Imagineer, I had worked in five architectural firms, from the largest AE firm in the world at the time Skidmore, Owings & Merrill - to small practices in Chicago, New York, and Tucson.

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Steven Grant

Architects often lead project teams in traditional practice.

Architecture is one of the many disciplines that support the design and development of themed environments but is not the dominant discipline. The leadership in the design and development of themed environments (especially theme parks) is show-based. If you are good at being a supporting cast member, and not the star, it can be - and was for me - an enriching experience.

Themed environment project teams include disciplines that are not usually part of a traditional architectural project: i.e., artists, writers, theater technical arts. Because of the complexity of the design of themed environments the focus of the TEI program is collaboration (people) and integration (systems).

Are many of your students architects?

About one-third of our students are studying architecture. They are either studying for their Master’s Degree in Architecture, and taking TEI classes to obtain a Graduate Certificate in Themed Environments Integration, or they already have a Master’s Degree in Architecture and have returned to school to focus on themed environments.

How are you training students to understand and function well in this team-oriented, interdisciplinary, showdominated culture of attraction development?

Multi-discipline teams come up with creative designs and solutions to problems. That is why our classes are made up of

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students with diverse backgrounds and disciplines. The classes are engaging and fun. The students are learning from each other.

This provides them with experience working on interdisciplinary teams that they will be a part of when they are in the industry.

Professionals are often trained in silos. That is not how actual practice works. So, we are providing an interdisciplinary learning environment. When you give a diverse team of students a problem to solve, they will always come up with a more creative solution than a team made up of one discipline. They use their diverse perspectives and training to solve it.

Tim Brown in his book Change by Design provides a good description of our goal: “Design thinkers…cross the ‘T.’ They may be architects who have studied psychology, artists with MBAs, or engineers with marketing experience. A creative organization is constantly on the lookout for people with the capacity and - just as important - the disposition for collaboration across disciplines. In the end, this ability is what distinguishes the merely multidisciplinary team from a truly interdisciplinary one.”

The objective of our program is to provide the industry with these types of professionals.

I have been able to reach out to my many friends and colleagues in the themed environments industry for advice on curriculum content and to be guests in my classes. During the first year of the program the students were able to hear from and meet 55 industry professionals during class, and on facility tours. Only in Orlando is this possible!

provide them the education needed to supplement their existing degree so they can be effective integrators and collaborators in the themed environments industry.

We do this by providing them an overview of the Themed Environment Industries, including design and delivery processes, collaboration practices and systems, interrelated disciplines, systems, tools, codes, and standards and fabrication and execution practices. These are explored through reading, writing, team projects, guest speakers, project tours, research, and internship.

Sometimes a student will decide to change focus as a result of what they discover about the industry in the course of the program. We do what we can to help and advise them in such areas as internships and the choice of thesis project.

How do the Orlando location and your background enrich what the program can offer students?

Orlando includes more people and industries that support the global themed environments industry than anywhere else, designing and building theme parks, hotels, resorts, restaurants, and retail around the world. This includes theme park operators and owners with in-house design teams, project management and design companies, fabrication companies, and architecture, engineering, planning, landscape architecture and construction companies.

How do the students balance team culture training with focusing on their chosen specialty?

At Imagineering I worked on many teams as an architect and design manager. I stress to my students that the most important skill you bring to a project is your ability to work on teams. The projects are complex, and the teams are large.

Our students come into the program with an undergraduate degree. Our intent is not to train them in a new discipline but to

TEI has two advisory committees that represent the above industries: the curriculum advisory board and the professional

The August 2020 cohort met regularly online instead of in person.

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Students met in person prior to switching to an online course due to the pandemic. All photos courtesy of Steven Grant

advisory committee. The members of these boards are the best in the industry. The TEI program is a merger of the University of Florida’s academic and research resources with Orlando’s broad themed environments industries expertise.

Tell us a little more about your own background.

I grew up in the Midwest. Disneyland was a faraway place. What I remember about the family vacation to Disneyland in 1965 was riding in the backseat of my family’s non-air-conditioned Rambler across the deserts of the West. Working for Disney would not have been a thought. I had never heard of Walt Disney Imagineering in 1990 when my friend and mentor in Chicago saw a wanted ad from the company in California and suggested that we apply. I applied; four months later I sold my house and moved my family to Glendale, California to work for WDI. You had to transition to remote teaching due to the pandemic. Have you found it necessary to alter the curriculum or your approach?

It has been a challenging year, but I think it has gone well. I had only been teaching for seven months when I had to transition to online teaching. It was just another challenge to add to the others. Since the TEI program is focused on collaboration, I was

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concerned that the new students would not get to know each other as quickly as the first cohort did, but they have.

Zoom has its benefits. The breakout room function is one them.

I can separate the class into smaller groups each week to discuss a team project or focus paper, and then return to the class to present their designs or position on a subject.

The TEI curriculum includes an interdisciplinary project development studio in the summer. Since this was our first summer studio, and it was online, we explored “collaboration over distance.” Prof. Stephen Bender and I led the class.

The Project Development Studio explored how to improve collaboration over distance, resulting in a better shared experience. We explored collaboration at a city scale to the personal scale of sitting in front of a computer at home. The students learned a lot, but it also provided us with lessons learned that we have been able to incorporate into our fall classes.

Our students have wanted to be in the themed environments industry since they were young. They grew up attending theme parks and knowing that there are people who actually design and build them, so the opportunity to study themed environments for them has been a desire for years. Whether the classes are inperson or over distance they are excited to be in the program. • • •

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The Riddler Revolution in Gotham City turns a traditional spinning ride into a thrilling attraction with theatrical lighting, special effects and scenic props at Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.

Smart park systems

Warner Bros. World™ Abu Dhabi delights guests with immersive attractions backed by the latest in show control technology. photos and story by Martin Palicki

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ince opening on July 25th, 2018, Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi has received critical acclaim around the globe for its attention to detail, fun attractions and highly themed environments, and recently received a TEA Thea Award for Outstanding Achievement. In 2019, it was certified by Guinness World Records as the World’s Largest Indoor Theme Park. The Park boasts 29 shows and attractions in 1.65 million square feet of indoor space. Government developer Miral invested $1 billion in the project, which Farah Experiences operates, along with the nearby Yas Waterworld and Ferrari World Abu Dhabi.

Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi is divided into six themed areas: Metropolis, Gotham City, Bedrock, Dynamite Gulch, Cartoon Junction and Warner Bros. Plaza. Key attractions include: • Batman: Knight Flight (opened late 2018) – An intense multimedia ride through Gotham City on a moving robotic arm.

• Justice League: Warworld Attacks – Guests board trackless vehicles that move between various scenes and giant screens for an immersive superhero adventure.

• Green Lantern: Galactic Odyssey – The typically serene flying theater experience is transformed into an adventurous romp through space.

• Superman 360: Battle for Metropolis – A 360-degree theater that utilizes 3D projection to put guests in the middle of Superman’s drama.

• The Flintstones Bedrock River Adventure – A log flume ride through the prehistoric world of the Flintstones.

• Scooby-Doo: The Museum of Mysteries – A trackless dark ride where guests help Scooby and the gang solve a mystery.

• Ani-Mayhem – An interactive dark ride where guests score points by hitting an assortment of targets.

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The Metropolis streetscape at Warner Bros. World.

The park, largely designed by Thinkwell Group, has a major focus on details, and the cast of well-known characters brings a wide variety of fan-favorite IPs to the table. In addition, the Park also has one of the most impressive technological backbones of any theme park in the world, nearly all of it invisible to guests.

The AV, projection, media, lighting and special effects create seamless immersive environments throughout the park. Perhaps most obvious on the rides and attractions, they also are apparent in the park’s many stores and restaurants. And supporting nearly all of them is the centralized management platform called ISAAC from Smart Monkeys.

Hello, my name is ISAAC ISAAC is an acronym for Integrated Scheduler and Automation Controller. “ISAAC is a fully integrated AV/IT platform, which includes centralized scheduling along with the capability of both system-wide log and user management,” said Stephan Villet, Owner, Smart Monkeys. AV and tech systems that rely on networked PCs are familiar in themed entertainment projects – ISAAC builds on this approach without the actual PC hardware.

The PCs exist virtually, in an on-premises cloud-based model “virtualization cluster,” on a robust, industrial hardware platform. According to Villet, this replicates the advantages of networked PCs without reliability risks.

ISAAC’s debut was at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX in 2014. In the terminal, ISAAC manages more than four hours of original, high-resolution, multimedia content in seven display areas, synchronizing multiple features based on intelligence from live data, including flight departure and arrival information, and passenger interactions.

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The deployment of ISAAC at Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi marks the platform’s largest installation to date. “We had spoken to Thinkwell about ISAAC and knew they were working on a project, but we didn’t know the details,” explains Villet. “Once we got the contract we realized the potential to have ISAAC throughout the park.”

Smart Monkeys was subcontracted to Electrosonic, who had been contracted for the Park’s AV network and control package.

Smart Monkeys was tasked with show control programming for everything in the Park, except for specific show programming, which was handled by a team of programmers from a variety of organizations, including Electrosonic.

ISAAC at Warner Bros. World Within Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi, there are 14 ISAAC clusters, although Villet says a single cluster would also work. One cluster controls each of the 13 most high-tech attractions and shows, while the last, largest cluster provides park-wide control for the remainder of the Park. Even though there are separate clusters, the ISAAC equipment operates as one central unit.

Villet says the physical layout is a nod to the past, where every attraction would have its own separate equipment room. Warner Bros. World has equipment rooms for each attraction, but since ISAAC lives virtually, one can access the controls for that attraction anywhere in the Park.

The Park’s attractions are all run off of the Medialon show control product. In a traditional installation, Medialon software is installed on a local PC that controls the show or ride. Since Medialon is platform-agnostic, it easily sits on the ISAAC virtual

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topology. The only change Medialon made was to the licensing system, which previously relied on USB dongles.

maintenance’s park-wide screen. There is no need for the ride operator to call maintenance, as they are directly notified.

“This park-wide installation of ISAAC and Medialon just shows how virtual deployment of show control systems has taken root and is now taking off,” said Eric Cantrell, VP of Business Operations, Medialon Ltd, part of the 7thSense Design family.

Automatic alerts can also be created for standard maintenance activities. When a projector lamp is due to be replaced, an email is sent to the proper individual. Alerts can be configured through a simple web interface by staff and do not require special programming knowledge.

Pros for pros ISAAC provides a host of advantages to the Park’s staff. First, the Park can leverage the virtual machine approach for reliability.

The clusters are composed of at least two combined servers running in a mode called fault tolerance. If one server fails, there is no impact and no downtime, as the other servers take over operations. It’s a similar approach to major data centers and the switchover happens in milliseconds.

Another major benefit is the web application suite that gives users a portal view with any web browser application. Staff can have access to all attraction logs, scheduling, even accessing the Medialon show control and attraction operations panels.

Furthermore, all of it is tracked so management knows who is on the system and where they are.

From a programming perspective, it’s also ideal. When programmers came in to do the specific show programming for each attraction, they did not have to learn ISAAC, they programmed directly into the Medialon show control software, just like they would on a standard PC. Additionally, if fixes or changes are needed down the road, programming can be done without having to physically go into the attraction.

For maintenance staff, there is a park-wide screen showing the entire status of the Park. If there is an issue at an attraction, an alert will directly pop up on the local panel attraction and the

Finally, the client starts to save a lot of money on space, power requirements and capital, because what used to require rooms full of machines now is handled on several small servers.

The future of Warner Bros. World and ISAAC Villet is pleased with the real-world performance of ISAAC at Warner Bros. World. “We had a great synergy with Electrosonic and Medialon and could not have asked for better partners,” says Villet. The system is also capable of easily handling any expansions the Park would like, although no specific announcements have been made.

“This is truly the first time a whole theme park has been designed and built around control systems that run entirely in a virtual environment,” said Cantrell. “The Medialon team was proud to partner with Smart Monkeys and Electrosonic to help create the most technologically advanced theme park possible.”

The Park has continued to attract guests, and the developer Miral already has plans for additional developments nearby. Villet hopes ISAAC will be a part of the growth: “With the success of Warner Bros. World, and additional interest we have seen from other parks, I’m certain ISAAC will help usher in a new IT-driven era of themed entertainment technology control systems.” • • •

Dynamite Gulch features the Fast and Furry-ous suspended roller coaster.

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The Al Wasl dome at Dubai Expo 2020 has projection mapping to highlight and alter the architecture. All photos courtesy of Dubai Expo 2020.

Dubai 2021 and beyond World expos upcoming, proposed and planned

by James Ogul

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xpo 2020 Dubai, the first world exposition to be hosted in the UAE, was to have taken place this year but was rescheduled due to the pandemic. The six-month event will now run from 1st October 2021 to 31st March 2022. The request by the organizers for the expo to be postponed and to keep its original “2020” title was approved by the executive committee and member body of the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), the Paris-based organization that oversees and regulates world expos.

The onset of the global pandemic has not only forced the event to be delayed by a year, but organizers have also had to rethink the logistics behind it in terms of protecting public safety once the gates are open. This includes social distancing and other health and safety measures.

The BIE noted recently on its website that preparations for the event are continuing following precautionary measures established by UAE authorities, stating, “All participating country pavilion construction is set to be completed by the end of 2020,

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with the BIE and its member states, the UAE government and the Expo organizer jointly developing guidelines to ensure a safe and Covid-free Expo site.”

Building construction has continued with new worker safety protocols. In a recent article in Construction Week, the vice president for Worker Welfare at Expo 2020 Dubai, Emma Seymour, was quoted saying: “With tens of thousands of workers to protect, while keeping the UAE’s largest construction project on track in a safe way, we implemented a far-reaching program of precautionary measures across the entire site, in line with guidance from the UAE Ministry of Health and Prevention and the Dubai Health Authority, and the latest information and advice from the World Health Organization.” Expo 2020 has set up three medical and Covid-19 testing facilities on site, which are open around the clock, seven days a week.

Expo “starchitecture” The organizers of Expo 2020 Dubai have moved aggressively to complete their thematic pavilions. When it comes to world’s fairs,

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a six-month expo is the big one - an enormous, global showcase of many things, one of which is architecture. There’s a tendency for it to become a platform for creativity by leading architects around the globe. That’s a substantial part of the aesthetic appeal of a world’s fair for the public; professionally, a world expo project confers status on the designers, organizers and exhibitors.

In past decades, expo buildings were often torn down after closing day. In today’s more sustainability-conscious time, there’s a post plan for the site and for repurposing or responsibly disposing of buildings that is integral to the planning and operational strategy of the event and informs the design from the start. Expo 2020 Dubai is no exception.

The Expo centerpiece, the Al Wasl Plaza, designed by Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (AS+GG) Chicago and Beijing, is complete. According to the firm’s press announcement, “Al Wasl, which is 150 meters in diameter, was designed to have not only the ‘wow factor’ but also to be a central hub during the Expo and beyond. Expo 2020 Dubai worked with AS+GG on the design of the space after the firm beat competition from some of the biggest names in the industry to win the contract.

The plaza is topped by a 65-meter-high domed trellis that was inspired by the shape of the Expo 2020 Dubai logo. The trellis will act as an immersive 360-degree projection surface. As the dome is translucent, the projection will be visible to both those inside and out. The numerous other features of the plaza include restaurants, fountains, and parks.”

Al Wasl Plaza connects the three thematic districts - Opportunity, Sustainability and Mobility - and the other main concourses, including the Dubai Metro link and the UAE Pavilion, through its seven entrances and exits. The Sustainability Pavilion, designed by the New York and Dubai offices of architecture studio Grimshaw, is surrounded by solar tracking trees to provide electricity to the pavilion. It is largely completed and will reopen as a science museum after the expo.

VIP facility. Ambassador Rakolta has said the UAE’s contribution will be supplemented by private sector donations. Pepsi is a confirmed sponsor.

As of September 28, Austria had completed its building construction. The pavilion, designed by Viennese architect Querkraft, consists of 38 cone structures in various heights.

It can be dismantled at the end of the Expo and reassembled elsewhere. Next will be interior fit-out for the pavilion which will take place over the coming months leading to the October 1, 2021 opening.

Finland’s Pavilion, designed by architecture firm JKMM, is 90% complete. As reported in Gulf Today, Commissioner General of Finland at Expo 2020 Dubai Severi Keinala said: “Our decision to postpone the final construction elements of our pavilion was made to ensure the final aesthetic elements are as fresh as possible for the Oct. 2021 opening. In particular, the exterior membrane of the pavilion will be added closer to the opening date, as this white surface is what will bring our Snow Cape to life.”

Work on the structure of the Belgian Pavilion, designed jointly

by Assar Architects and Vincent Callebaut Architectures working with Besix construction company and scenographic designer Krafthaus, is scheduled to finish in December, after which the building will be closed off for two to three months. In March, work will start on the interior finishing and the installation of sensitive equipment and the many plants and trees that will adorn the pavilion. It is planned to be fully completed by the end of August 2021.

Participants’ pavilions near completion

The UK pavilion is looking for music artists to provide source material for its pavilion. The design team is led by Es Devlin and the agency Avantgarde, with Atelier Ten providing sustainability and engineering services. People from around the world are being invited by the UK to collaborate and contribute to a sevenminute long composition by British sound designers Polyphonia.

Talking to Construction Week about the current construction progress, UK Commissioner General Laura Faulkner said: “We have mobilized 100%. The substructure which is critical is 96% complete. The façade is about 50% and the superstructure is about 40% complete.” Faulkner said by December 2020, the pavilion could be viewed in its “entirety,” except for the technology that will go within the exhibition and curation of the visitor journey.

On site construction by international participants is proceeding.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates and U.S. Pavilion Commissioner General, John Rakolta, Jr. has announced that building construction for the pre-fab United States Pavilion is scheduled for completion by November 15. The U.S. Pavilion which has had a troubled funding history is now on track thanks to $60 million in backing from the UAE. Building construction will be followed by interior fit-out. The exhibition is being designed by Thinkwell Group and will consist of six exhibit galleries totaling 16,000 square feet, a performance stage and a

Groundbreaking for the 25-meter high Italian Pavilion took place in November 2019. The pavilion covers an area of 4,900 square meters and is located near the pavilions of India, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Japan and the United States. The pavilion features three inverted ship’s hulls over its roofline and ropes integrating LED lighting technology. Designers are a consortium of Italy’s Carlo Ratti Associati (CRA), Italo Rota Building Office, F&M Ingegneria, and Matteo Gatto & Associati. RAQ Contracting is builder.

The Mobility Pavilion, designed by Foster + Partners (New York) is also largely complete. The pavilion will include a 340-meter track for visitors to see vehicles in operation. The Opportunity pavilion is designed by AGi Architects (Kuwait and Madrid). The adjacent UAE pavilion is designed by Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava and resembles a falcon in flight.

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Site preparations continue in Dubi in advance of the delayed Expo. All photos courtesy of Dubai Expo 2020.

Overall, interior fit-out for all pavilions will require careful planning by each participant given the long delay until opening, with most countries opting not to install all their high-tech show system equipment right away. Ironically for all past expos it has been a rush to the finish line to complete pavilions in time but new thinking is required here to properly pace installations over months of preparation time.

interventions and medical treatments in the coming months.

After all, how far we have come in the few months since Covid-19 was recognised as a global pandemic. That’s why, for now, we are sticking with our expectation of 25 million because the world will be very different in just a few months, let alone the next 13 months that we have until the event time.”

Attendance projections

Upcoming world expos registered with the BIE include the International Recognized Exhibition, Expo 2023 Buenos Aires and the International Registered Exhibition, Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai, respectively a three-month and six-month event.

As for the question of whether the one-year delay will affect attendance, there are currently no revised visitor targets for Expo 2020 Dubai. Pre-coronavirus, organizers had forecast attracting 25 million visits over the six-month expo.

Sumathi Ramanathan, director of destination marketing at Expo 2020 recently stated, “We believe it’s premature for us to be making any meaningful revision to the data, but by quarter one next year we will be able to share the revised visitation numbers.”

She went on to say, “I think more than the revised visitation numbers, what we are really able to see is the appetite and demand for Expo is very strong, particularly from the business community. We will be able to attract a new portfolio of visitors to Dubai because of this event. That will include multinationals, it will include academic institutions, non-profits, a huge number of entities that are interested in technology, in sustainability.”

In summary, plans for Expo 2020 Dubai are proceeding toward the new opening date of October 1, 2021. Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, UAE Minister of State for International Cooperation and Director-General of the Expo 2020 Dubai Bureau, stated, “Expo 2020 Dubai’s core purpose - to bring the world together to develop solutions to challenges that affect us all - will be even more relevant when the Expo begins on October 1, 2021. We firmly believe that we will see huge advances in preventative

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Looking beyond Dubai 2020

Buenos Aires, Argentina has earned BIE approval to host Expo 2023. The expo will run January 15-April 15, 2023. Buenos Aires prevailed over bids from Lodz (Poland) and Minnesota.

Japan will be the host country of Expo 2025. Japan submitted a definitive implementation plan, known as a registration dossier, in January 2020. This dossier is in review to prepare for the formal registration of Expo 2025 Osaka Kansai by the BIE General Assembly. The Expo will open April 13, 2025 and close October 13, 2025. Its theme is “Designing Future Society for Our lives.”

The BIE will be taking bids for Specialized Expo 2027-2028 and World Expo 2030. There are no official bids so far for these two slots although Minnesota, MN (US) and Malaga (Spain) have publicly indicated interest in 2027-2028 and Houston, TX (US) and Busan, (South Korea) on 2030.

Specialized expos Specialized, three-month expos, known officially as “International Recognized Exhibitions,” are sandwiched between the larger, six-month events. Their exhibition area can span up to 25 hectares.

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The BIE requires governments of a country wishing to host a specialized expo to submit a letter of candidacy to the BIE no sooner than six years prior to the date of the event, after which any other country wishing to compete has six months to bid.

In January, BIE Secretary General of the Bureau International des Expositions Dimitri S. Kerkentzes visited the Spanish city of Malaga to discuss preparations for a potential bid to host a specialized expo in 2027. The Mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, previously visited the BIE headquarters in Paris in October 2019 to discuss the project. Following this meeting, the Mayor invited the BIE to visit Malaga to meet with the team working on the potential bid and to visit the site the city is considering for the event. The area earmarked for the Expo project covers an 80-hectare zone in the Buenavista area of Campanillas, located in the east of Malaga.

The state of Minnesota (US) plans to submit a letter of candidacy to host the 2027 Specialized Exposition. Its theme would be “Healthy People, Healthy Planet.” The proposed expo would last for three months opening on May 9, 2027.

After one country has submitted its application to the BIE, all competing countries have six months to submit their own bids.

Applications must mention the host city, the theme, the dates, duration, a guarantee of the fulfillment of its obligations, and the legal status of the organizers.

Houston, Texas may be bidding on World Expo 2030. The Expo Houston Facebook page states, “It has been 35 years since the US hosted a World’s Fair. It’s time to bring the World’s Fair back to America!”

South Korea may bid to host in Busan in 2030. The country has previously hosted two three-month expos: Taejon 1993 and Yeosu 2012. The proposed expo would run from May to November 2030 with the theme, “Sharing the Wisdom of Human Coexistence and Prosperity – Connecting Human, Technology and Culture.” • • •

World expos World Expos, known officially as “International Registered Exhibitions,” take place every five years and run six months with no limit on size. A country must submit its bid to host to the BIE between six and nine years before the proposed opening date.

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Since retiring from the US State Department in 2011 after a 30+ year career in world expos, James Ogul has remained on the scene in an advisory and consulting role. He writes regularly for InPark Magazine about world’s fairs. His book, “Tales from the Expo” is free online at inparkmagazine.com.

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The Fram Museum lets guests experience life on a historic Norwegian sailing vessel. Photo courtesy of The Fram Museum.

TEA Thea Awards Digital Case Studies showcase Fram Museum, Pageant of the Masters and The Google Assistant Ride TEA maintains its prestigious awards cycle in an online format

by Joe Kleiman

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ach year, the Themed Entertainment Association recognizes those projects that showcase “excellence for the creation of compelling educational, historical and entertainment projects” with the annual TEA Thea Awards.

To honor the recipients this year, TEA has been presenting a seven-session series, TEA Thea Awards Digital Case Studies, running through mid-November 2020. Here we look at three of the project presentations.

Visit the InPark website for additional coverage of the 26th annual Thea Awards recipients including honorees Nancy Seruto of WDI, the Christie Eclipse projector, Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds: The Immersive Experience, The Cool Planet Experience and more. And in this issue, see Martin Palicki’s article on Warner Bros. World Abu Dhabi.

Exploring the frontier: The Fram Museum In December 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first person to reach the South Pole. The ship that took him to Antarctica was the Fram. Put to sea in 1892, she was already a tried and true vessel, having played a key role in the exploration of Greenland and both polar regions. In 1935, the

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restored ship was placed inside an A-frame building, becoming the centerpiece of the Fram Museum in Oslo, Norway.

In the latest refurbishment to the museum, Sarner International was brought on board to add a vivid new dimension to the visitor experience, under the guidance of Fram Museum Director Geir Klover. Central to the vision would be projections on the interior of the A-frame, giving the illusion of being in the icy polar waters for those on the ship’s deck. According to Sarner’s Ed Cookson, the solution involved 10 projectors mounted to the masts of the ship itself and hidden in the rigging, blended into a 270° 10K image.

In addition to the projections, three floors of interior sections of the ship were fitted up to help visitors get an authentic sense of life onboard underdecks, drawing on stories of the actual crew of the Fram. According to Cookson, the concept was to “pack the ship full of provisions and tools and personal belongings, but most importantly transform that ambience of being expeditionready with atmospheric lighting, audio, and smells – really try to capture the excitement as if the ship had just launched and was off on one of its expeditions.”

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Klover indicated that the upgrade has been a success in terms of enhancing the visitor experience as well as helping the museum achieve a more revenue-based model, and that a new phase of development is planned.

Honoring the classics: Pageant of the Masters “Laguna was known as an arts colony going all the way back to the 1880s,” says Diane Challis Davy, Director/Producer of the Festival of the Masters in Laguna Beach, Calif. During the Great Depression, an art festival arose in the town, and in order to draw visitors, it expanded to include concerts and embark on the creation of living pictures – the recreation of classic paintings and sculptures using real people and theatrical sets.

The Pageant of the Masters, as a professionally produced event, was introduced by director Roy Ropp in 1935 and is the 2020 recipient of the annual Thea Classic Award, honoring a project that has stood the test of time. In 1936, Ropp introduced The Last Supper as the finale to the Pageant. According to Challis Davy, “with the exception of a few years, we’ve been doing The Last Supper as our finale ever since.” Challis Davy also shared a secret to the live presentation’s success: “To give the illusion of a flat painting, we eliminate all natural shadows from the scene.”

“We simply could not do it without our volunteers,” says Sharbie Higuchi, the Pageant’s Director of Marketing, Public Relations, and Merchandise. In addition to appearing in the tableaus, volunteers take on a number of technical roles, including set fabrication, painting, and costuming. “It takes over five hundred of them in order to put a show on and they come from all over Southern California. We have had a lot of attention from other theatrical producers from within the entertainment industry who wanted to recreate or reproduce the Pageant of the Masters.

However, they find out really quickly that it’s simply just not financially possible because you need that volunteer support to make it happen.”

Google installed their temporary dark ride at the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Photo courtesy of Google.

Connecting people through technology: The Google Assistant Ride In 2019, Google designed and built from the ground up a bespoke dark ride as part of its exhibit at the annual Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a novel achievement that differentiated Google’s presence from that of the other exhibitors. And they did it at warp speed: 12 weeks from design to build to opening, according to Anne Kelly, the lead producer on the project. “Everything that normally was a year was now a month, everything that was a month was now a day,” says Kelly. A key tool in succeeding with the accelerated timeline was previsualization.

According to the TEA’s Thea Awards Committee: “With only four days of physical operation at one of the largest trade shows in the world, The Google Assistant Ride carried more than 25,000 guests through a custom, 30,000-square-foot show building and delivered an exceptional, ride-based attraction experience with theme-park-quality animation, special effects and show lighting. The 15-minute experience included a threeminute puppeteer interactive preshow and a five-minute ride incorporating extensive use of animatronics, an original song, fog and scent machines as well as on-board video to demonstrate Google technologies.”

Marcelo Alba, Creative Strategist, Events and Experiences at Google, points out, “The story is built around a family.” The ride follows a father trying to purchase a birthday cake for the family’s grandmother. Throughout the day, he is guided in the right direction by Google’s new Google Assistant. The attraction maintained a unique design aesthetic. Although influenced by research trips to Disneyland, the ride had a distinct Google feel.

According to Alba, “Everything from the character design to the song design had to be uniquely us.” • • • We will continue our coverage of the Themed Entertainment Association’s Virtual Case Studies series in our next issue. Complete coverage of the series is also available online at inparkmagazine.com

A performer receives final adjustments at the Pageant of the Masters.

Photo courtesy of Pageant of the Masters.

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Transitions 2020 Industry professionals exploring new outlets interviews by Martin Palicki & Judith Rubin

Stephane Battaille From project management to management

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tephane Battaille joined Belgium-based company Alterface in 2008. Over the past twelve years he has held several roles within the company, most recently assuming the role of CEO from company founder Benoit Cornet. His project management and technical experience have informed his progression into this executive role.

What brought you to work for Alterface initially?

I was working as a research engineer at the University of Louvain La Neuve, in the same University lab where the core system of Alterface, the Salto Software, was created.

A few years after Alterface’s creation, still in start-up mode, the company needed to have a project manager to work on their growing projects. With my background in electromechanics and computers I was able to embrace the many technical aspects that compose an interactive media based ride. At this pioneering stage of interactive attractions, project management required a deep hands-on approach as almost every element of the rides had to be invented.

What are some of your favorite projects you’ve worked on?

Dragon Wild Shooting (opened in 2013) at Lotte World has been one of my fondest experiences ( it was also my last project as project manager). I personally learned so much during the different phases of the project in the contact of the extraordinary team that The Hettema Group had assembled. On top of the great working experience, for me the end result is a hidden gem in terms of guest experience.

Maus au Chocolat (2011) at Phantasialand is one of my proudest personal achievements, as it was a major technical achievement for Alterface at that time.

What has kept you with Alterface for so long?

I was hooked on Alterface from day one! To be able to conceive and produce cutting edge systems designed to entertain people remains a passion ever since. Working with a large pool of talented and deeply passionate people in their different fields is what keeps it exciting over the years. The influx of colleagues has allowed me to change roles over the years, moving from project

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management to technical team management, then operation organization and finally company strategy.

What do you hope to accomplish as CEO? Throughout my time at Alterface, I have felt the extraordinary potential of Alterface and this team. There are so many ideas that we would like to implement. My goal as a CEO is to create an environment in the company that promotes creativity but provides enough scalability so we can realize all the projects we have in mind.

The industry is in a strange time now…what do you think the future looks like from your viewpoint in Belgium?

It is difficult to comprehend what things will look like and what the short-term and long-term impacts on our industry will be.

What is certain for me is that people will continue to need escape from normal life and that themed entertainment will continue to create amazing experiences in many forms. It will take more time to get there as I am afraid that the impact of COVID will remain for quite a long time.

We are now seeing our customers requesting more and more deviceless interactivity. Having started the company focusing on deviceless interactivity, human detection and gesture recognition systems, this is quite interesting to return to our roots, but with the experience we gained over the years in creating many different interactive systems. For us, the technology or device itself is not important, the only focus should remain to design an application which is intuitive, straightforward and engaging for the user. •

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Maya Guice Relevance and authenticity

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quick glance at the resume for Maya Guice (like “nice,” but with a G) and one can’t help but notice the breadth and depth of her experience in marketing, communications and business management. Her career has taken her from Los Angeles to Europe, and now back to southern California as she takes on the role of Marketing Director for BRC Imagination Arts, soon to celebrate its 40th year in business.

What attracted you to BRC? Many people with my mixed professional background land in the experience business having never heard of it before. I can say that I had the same experience, discovering BRC almost by accident. As soon as I started to dig into BRC’s work, however, I realized that I was very familiar with many of BRC’s projects. I was immediately intrigued and impressed – who wouldn’t want to work for a company that translates brand and cultural stories into transformative, human experiences!?

Although marketing has become my core focus, I’m a generalist at heart. I always look for a role that allows me to grow while adding value. So when looking for new marketing opportunities, I was really looking for something that would allow me to touch all aspects of marketing, including social media, content production, PR, and events. As soon as I read BRC’s job description for Marketing Director, I knew that this would be the perfect role for me, balancing creativity with business acumen, and communications with analytics.

I’ve also discovered that I share a lot of BRC’s values – sustainability, collective advancement, transformation, creative excellence – and have found a job that allows me to have an impact on the world: every experience and attraction is an opportunity to tell stories that bring people together and inspire a more peaceful, sustainable and hopeful world. Suffice to say that this has proved to be an incredible fit.

What have you observed in both the US and Europe with how the entertainment world is evolving?

A Los Angeles native, I’ve lived in both London and Berlin. I’m always shocked at how entrenched American culture is in Europe and all over the world, really. That said, I think that while many trends in entertainment still emerge from the US, the internet has democratized access to content creation and distribution tools, effectively blurring the lines between professional and amateur entertainment. Internet connectivity and infrastructure continues to improve all over the world and the ability to influence and entertain is now fair game.

I also believe that experiences are not only the future of entertainment but the leisure industry as a whole. Whether you’re

sharing a piece of history, driving fan engagement, selling a bottle of scotch, or marketing a TV show, the ability to create a truly authentic, emotional and immersive guest experience has become the new measure of cultural relevance and resultant success.

For this reason, what has generally been considered a marketing problem is now acknowledged as a business problem. This is why we’re seeing so many companies begin to dip their toe in the experience and immersive entertainment space.

Fundamentally, it doesn’t matter what business or region you’re in, or what communities you serve, the brands that prioritize their customer’s dreams and desires are the ones that will survive.

Good brand experiences celebrate the corporation; great brand experiences celebrate their guests. This will always be true.

In what ways do you think experience designers can impact the arts and cultural spaces?

I spent about 90% of my teens and early twenties in the dance studio, so I am very familiar with the obstacles encountered by not only dancers but performing artists in general. In college, I self-designed a performing arts administration major and have a very specific memory of reading an article that highlighted the problem of the performing arts’ diminishing audience. One issue that the author pointed out is that it’s very hard to innovate and digitalize the performing arts experience: you sit in a theater and watch a show. The raw experience of seeing a performer pour their guts out on stage is almost impossible to duplicate online.

I think that experience designers bring a very unique perspective to what constitutes a show and can help the arts community think beyond the proscenium stage. How might we use technology to make performances multi-sensory? How might we create deeper fan engagement? How might we be entrepreneurial?

BRC has done incredible work in the culture sector, helping museums, venues and attractions adopt a more entrepreneurial mindset. We help these cultural organizations create experience platforms that can accommodate a variety of interchanging entertainment formats, whether it’s a masterclass, immersive

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experience, or live performance. This strategy has helped the cultural institutions we work with adopt an ‘always on’ mentality and feel better prepared to survive the present shutdown. For instance, despite the hiatus of live performances at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, the tour experience still makes it possible for fans to safely visit the “mother church” of country music.

How is the art of marketing changing during this pandemic? How should companies be marketing themselves?

When the pandemic hit I think many marketers asked themselves: Should we carry on or hit the pause button? If we don’t acknowledge the virus will we appear completely tone-deaf ? If we do, are we shamelessly inserting ourselves into the moment?

The pandemic has caused everyone to carefully reconsider what matters most, with a new appreciation for the people and communities closest to us. Purpose has taken center stage.

Marketers will need to lean in close and listen to the new expectations and the needs their customers have not only right now, but after the pandemic. What new stories are emerging and how are they being told? What values have emerged as most important? The marketers who are listening to and prioritizing the needs of their customers will always be in the best position to respond.

As someone new to this industry, what is your perspective on BRC and what they have accomplished over the past 40 years?

After I was hired I had a call with BRC Executive Creative Director and Vice President, Christian Lachel. He started to walk me through the company’s more recent projects and I was

stunned into silence. While I thought I had a good idea of BRC’s work, I quickly realized that BRC’s capabilities and expertise surpassed even my wildest expectations! I continue to be blown away by the scale and scope of what BRC has been able to accomplish over the past 40 years on an almost daily basis.

I had the luxury of spending my first month at BRC digging through the digital archives and became very familiar with BRC’s portfolio. BRC is very unique in their ability to masterfully blend storytelling, creative technology, business intelligence, imagination, and heart to create some of the most incredible attractions and experiences in the world. Projects that opened 30+ years ago are still engaging and culturally relevant today. This speaks to BRC’s core competence in storytelling and the team’s ability to artfully craft peak human experiences. I can’t wait until it’s safe to travel again so that I can experience this incredible work firsthand.

I was also surprised to meet so many BRC employees who had been on the team for 25+ years. A week after I started, Vice President and Executive Producer Marci Carlin celebrated her 35th anniversary with the company. BRC has a powerful culture of family. The experience and attractions business requires long, demanding hours, so this culture and a high degree of trust are critical to fostering tight and highly collaborative teams.

Tell us about the rebranding effort you will be leading at BRC. Well, I can’t disclose too much at the moment! Suffice to say that it will be an inspiring new chapter for BRC. 2021 is our 40th anniversary year and there will be no shortage of exciting news coming out throughout the year. •

InPark Magazine’s 2021 Publishing Schedule #86 - Looking forward to 2021 2020 was an interesting year. We look at the technologies and advancements allowing parks to survive and thrive in 2021.

#88 - Waterparks continue to entertain - plus, our European review We look at waterpark attendance figures, review new projects from Europe and more.

#87- A special focus on technology and the Asian attractions landscape We highlight the Asian attractions industry and the latest in technology.

#89 - IAAPA Expo: The year in review and looking ahead In anticipation of the IAAPA Expo, we review some of the greatest projects, products and people from themed entertainment.

Published: March 2021

Published: June 2021

Published: September 2021

Published: November 2021

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