What happens to a theme park attraction when it needs to be upgraded? This was the conundrum facing Alton Towers when they were looking to rejuvenate a popular feature called Toyland Tours — which took families on a meandering boat journey through a toy factory.
The Tussauds Group, owners of Alton Towers, assessed their options, one of which was to develop Roald Dahl’s children’s classic ‘Charlie and the Chocolate Factory’, on which they had licensed the IP, into a ride. Thus in February last year they came up with the idea to replicate the theme via two ‘Great Glass Elevators’ and a motion platform as the grand climax of an upgraded water flume ride. This would accommodate up to 36 visitors, who would become enveloped within a disorienting projection cube, or ‘cave’-like environment and be taken on the journey of their lives.
Design director Paul Lanham and his team at Tussauds Studios set to work on creating this Finale within what would be an enlarged building, contracting Electrosonic to convert their ideas into 3D reality by engineering a system using Christie high-definition projectors. By April this year Alton Towers were ready to unveil Charlie and the Chocolate Factory™: The Ride — a multi-sensory £4.5 million indoor journey which takes guests on a mesmerising adventure via a succession of animated and dynamically lit scenes from the book into the heart of the world of Willy Wonka and his Chocolate Factory.
Arriving at the finale, guests step out of the boats into one of two identical elevator chambers — the result of migrating military-quality simulator technology from the visualisation world; this immersive environment would then whiz them on a virtual 3D, 360° panoramic tour before eventually ‘exploding’ through the factory roof .
The Solution
Electrosonic director, Kevin Murphy, whose company became engaged in initial discussions about the feasibility of using high-definition projection in a simulator nearly two years ago, said, “The creative sector has used 'cave' technologies for some time, enabling designers to work within a virtual environment. We are also extremely familiar with simulators in the attractions world. The Charlie finale is an interesting and unique solution combining known technologies into a new theme park environment, and it works extremely well!”
Alton Towers marketing executive Wayne Burton agrees. “We have invested heavily in technology to create a world’s first.”
The concept and development of this highly-specialized audio visual infrastructure on site was overseen by project manager, Philip Hartley of Philip Hartley Associates. So how did he and Electrosonic, who were responsible for all the technical systems, piece it all together?
Kevin Murphy explains that the company hand-picked their technical team of suppliers. “We were clear about who and what we wanted — and that was to achieve high-definition playback.
“We pulled Paradigm AV in at an early stage as we have a lot of respect for them. They already had experience of building a cave and as a result were able to solve the practical problems of screen resolution and narrowing of the edges butting the screens together. They also helped considerably with projector mounting and mirrors.”
The rear projection screens on all four walls and ceiling are the result of an incredible engineering feat by Paradigm within the 6m square and 3.4m high spaces, to create one single 360° and overhead movie screen.
Following comparative tests at their factory to ascertain the most suitable material the Bedford company recommended the Dalite flexible daylight screens to work in conjunction with their own giant foil diverter mirrors and purpose-engineered OPTI screen structures, in what has been their biggest and most challenging project ever. At the same time Paradigm and Electrosonic conducted projector tests and came down in favor of Christie based on a combination of color balance, 2000:1 contrast ratio, brightness and hot spotting issues.
The projection utilizes ten Christie DLP® devices. The four ‘wall’ screens are addressed by Christie’s 5000 ANSI lumens DW3K projectors in 16 x 9 widescreen ratio while the larger 6m x 6m ceiling screen is served by a compact Christie DS +5K 6500 ANSI projector in standard 4 x 3.
The finale also uses five Electrosonic MS9200 High Definition video players running in frame sync.
The other key suppliers were assembled by Belgium company 3DBA . The motion platform, based on electric actuators, was supplied by Rexroth Bosch; it has its own control system that receives initiation commands from the Electrosonic system, while each ‘lift’ is controlled by a separate PC.
Falcon’s Tree House, along with nWave Digital, provided the detailed show content. Overall show control is based on the Medialon Manager, which triggers the animatronics, special effects, CCTV, projection, motion-based FX, DMX lighting, show power relays, video servers and MP3 units. For daily operation a touch screen user interface is provided, and this is available at the (unmanned) AV equipment room, at the ride control room (a separate manned space in the middle of the attraction) and at the ride load point.
The main audio system was designed by Bose, but integrated and installed by Electrosonic. It is based on Bose amplifier and loudspeaker products, and uses Allen & Heath iDR-8 digital mixer-processors.
Paradigm MD, Paul Wood said the finale had represented an incredible challenge for his company, “What we effectively had to do was develop a structure within an existing, enlarged building.”
To achieve the 1mm edge butt they stretched a flexible screen over a blunt, specially coated plastic knife edge, bolted onto a frame that could be continually maneuvered. “With such a large structure which had to support the screens it was essential that the frames of the screens could be manipulated in order to get them into exactly the right position,” said Wood.
It had been Paradigm’s ability to minimize the gaps between each screen that had been the real technological feature of the installation, Philip Hartley believes … building the credibility of being immersed in one of two identical projection boxes.
But the timescales for accomplishing this feat were always challenging, he acknowledges. Hartley admits that his biggest task was in site scheduling — compacting a 15 month project into an eight-month time frame, as one person put it. “There was a drop dead date and we had to pull out all the stops. With Paradigm we made the rigs to contain the projectors on site, choosing foil mirrors because of the weight involved. But we were the first to go in, and the tricky part was putting it all together on a building site, at the same time keeping the screens clean.
“We had most of the screens, support and then the motion platform built, distance-measured, programmed and commissioned inside a month,” he continued. “It says a lot about the capability we have to produce such complex engineering structures in that kind of environment.”
Overseeing the development and eventually commissioning of the ride with Philip Hartley were overall project manager for Tussauds, Doug Bullock and Electronic project managers, Kevin Murphy and Gavin Aldridge.
The Feedback
Philip Hartley summarised, “For a theme park it’s unique to be able to offer this type of 360° x 180° simulator experience in a vertical projection which is entirely seamless. It captures the elevation idea out of Charlie perfectly, and I think there will be other organisations using this type of technology in the future.”
And Kevin Murphy concluded, “As with any new idea, evaluation and trials were necessary to help eliminate some of the uncertainties when using technology. It’s only when the final project comes together, with story, images and motion, that the concept can really be put to the test.”