Show control
Leading companies in the industry, such as Alcorn McBride, Gilderfluke & Co., and MediaMation, have developed the hardware and software solutions that make Show Control possible.
Their innovations have played a pivotal role in some of the most complex and immersive attractions worldwide, demonstrating the essential nature of Show Control technology in modern themed entertainment.
This is primarily due to the maturation of the larger information technology (IT) computing industry, which, due to its scale and dominance, has produced standards, equipment and software which is less expensive than older show control equipment and methodologies and increasingly more reliable and usable in entertainment applications.
These early objections have been overcome with the use of full-duplex switched Ethernet running at 1000BASE-T speeds on a dedicated local area network (LAN).
MIDI generally is a simplex asynchronous serial data transmission standard with the circuit being an opto-isolated current loop type.
MIDI, an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface,[4] was originally designed in the early 1980s as a means of controlling multiple keyboard synthesizers from different manufacturers.
It utilizes layer 2 packets to distribute uncompressed multi-channel digital audio in professional installations.
Certain ride systems, once manually started or dispatched, may run entirely on time code nowadays.
An example of the former is Harry Potter and the Escape from Gringotts at Universal Studios Florida and of the latter, Pirates 4-D at Thorpe Park.
The beginnings of show control technology can probably be traced to the use of relay logic in other industries, most prominently elevators.
Entertainment has always borrowed from other industries, and various electrically driven hoists, platforms and stage elevators soon made their way into theatres and amusement parks.
[14] When industrial microprocessor devices began to supplant relay installations, more complex sequences could be realized.
Potentially hazardous events can be redundantly checked against multiple safety considerations before being allowed to start or operate.
A small microprocessor might be a part of the equipment and be used to control variables such as volume, temperature and communications with other devices.
The unifying factor is that the equipment fulfills a single purpose, whether it be an animatronic figure or an entire ride system.
An example of the former was the Richmond Command Cue system, which used an Amiga computer connected to a proprietary frame containing audio control and matrixing, as well as closure capability.
The computer maintained multiple cue lists, and could send MSC messages to other subsystems, such as lighting consoles.
The V-16 was capable of sending cues as serial messages, contact closures, MSC, and could sync to or generate SMPTE LTC.
The Weigl ProCommander HX is a modern example for a stand-alone show controller, which is also capable of audio distribution over Ethernet by using the AES67 Ravenna protocol.
