Bemusement - The Attractions Industry Blog

Monday, June 22, 2009 Waterparks: Chemicals and Safety With all the water safety instruction supplied by such institutions as the International Association of Amusement Park and Attractions, World Waterpark Association...

together with the information provided by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, I would hope that the type of incidents that occurred Thursday at the Pirate's Cove Children’s Theme Park and Rainbow Falls Waterpark in Elk Grove, Illinois would be minimized. In this instance, both facilities are operated by the Elk Grove Park District, a division of a municipal government that is charged with public safety. The June 18 Chicago Sun-Times reports that three children were hospitalized with inhalation injuries caused by a chemical reaction in the water around 1:00 PM Central Daylight time. The story quotes Elk Grove Fire Chief David Miller saying the parks “ran out of their normal chlorine and somehow it got mixed with another chemical they didn't know would create a reaction. They picked it up at some additional supplier because they didn't have enough chlorine." And simultaneously, the same two chemicals were being mixed at Rainbow Falls park but no gas was released - according to news coverage in the June 18 Chicago Daily Herald because the materials didn't mix together completely. Apparently, if the combination of chemicals did heat up enough, it could have caused a fire. Just imagine that possible scenario with the several hundreds of people at the two parks on a warm June day. To me, this story screams the need for facilities to review their staff training and step up their vigilance on the safe use of chemicals. The injuries were minimized this time, but we need to learn from the incidents. All employees may not appreciate the potential dangers of the chemicals in their workplace. It may be time to find new and fresh ways to keep staff educated on preventing chemical hazards to the best of everyone's ability, and the proper procedures to follow in the event that such a mistake should occur again.
Posted By Greg Van Gompel -- At 1:32 PM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Amusements Parks, Attractions Business, Legal/safety, Waterparks Tags chemicals, legal, safety, waterpark
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Saturday, June 20, 2009 InfoComm's Audiovisual Marketplace: The floor according to Steve Friday, June 19 was the last day of InfoComm 09. This year, the world's largest pro audiovisual marketplace celebrated its 70th anniversary and reported respectable numbers: 28,000 attendees and 850 exhibitors. Exhibitors scramble to get new products, upgrades and prototypes ready in time for this important marketplace.

As a technical designer and consultant, it's extremely useful to me to know about things that are in the pipeline, even if the cool new stuff hasn't yet been field-tested, because we're designing facilities two and three years out. That taste of a product that may not be fully deliverable today but will be in the future, especially from a company that we trust, lets us plan for our clients. That's what I had in mind when I walked the floor today, and here are some impressions. Desperately seeking 16:10 aspect ratio InfoComm 09 saw the premiere of Evans & Sutherland's new AK digital laser video display. It is a flatscreen version of the company's dome laser system featured at the Samuel Oschin Planetarium in Griffith Observatory. In general I have been critical of today's much-hyped digital cinema systems and like the presentation nerd that I am, went up and stuck my face into the screen. I was pleasantly surprised: Although it wasn't as bright as I thought it could be, there was no dot-matrix or screen-door effect. Even just a foot away from the screen, I couldn't see the projection process (although I could see the remnants of the screen, which appeared to be silvered.) More dynamic imagery would show it off better, and some computer graphics. By and large, projector manufacturers are missing a very obvious bet. Our laptops are widescreen now and have been for a few years... so why, why, why are they still coming out with 4:3 ratio products (Sanyo, for example) when widescreen ratios are 16:9 or 16:10???? One of the few manufacturers that gets it is the company simply named “projection design” (they like it all lower case) – whose projectors, with the exception of 3D models, all had the widescreen aspect ratio. To Canon's credit, they also had projectors with the widescreen ratio as well as the historical 4:3 format. Canon's LCOS (liquid crystal on silicon) created a great image and in their side-by-side test display, comparing the company's LCOS and LCD projectors, the LCOS color appeared to be more realistic. DLP's new 3D chip looks promising for entertainment, gaming and product development applications. Their no-lamp (LED) light source projection engine also seems viable. It will be interesting to follow LED projection engines for brightness and color saturation. Bob Schluter, president and chief engineer of Middle Atlantic Products subsidiary ExactPower, showed off the company's new power distribution system. I found it to be a well-engineered product from a great engineer who listens to and understands the needs of the AV industry. Audio: A dearth of demos There were some new configurations and flavors in audio DSP (digital signal processing) boxes, and everybody seemed to be hawking a steerable line array, but we didn't find anything really new in the audio department. Unfortunately the presentations in the audio demonstration rooms were not up to the caliber of displays at past NSCA shows – in spite of there being so much total floor space, there were not enough dedicated rooms to provide the quantity and length of audio demos that would truly serve attendees. Now that NSCA and InfoComm are joined at the hip, InfoComm needs to learn from what NSCA and AES have done in the past. During a recession, a trade show organizer can command a lot of square footage for its money, and InfoComm's total floor area was quite generous with a lot of it unused. I would like to have seen it allocated differently. There could have been more audio demo rooms and the floor could easily and painlessly have been compressed by incorporating the lighting pavilion and eliminating some of the many lounge areas. Video vapors InfoComm's video conferencing pavilion has grown quite a bit but alas, a good chunk of that growth is vendors pushing prefabricated or pre-engineered non-solutions that fail to achieve the core goal of good video conferencing design: eye-to-eye contact. Three cameras and three displays don't automatically make it better. First and foremost, your system must get the camera and display set up for a face-to-face meeting. Some 10 years ago, at TiLE in London, we were treated to the introduction of a reflective Pepper's Ghost type conferencing display that presented life-sized, full body images floating in space from the far end, and more such systems were in good supply on the InfoComm floor this year. One exhibitor went so far as to speak of having patented the process, but when questioned further retreated to say they'd only patented the element of using a Mylar screen. While the process may have improved in such things as image resolution, it still fails to deliver a good communication experience and belongs more in the realm of entertainment than in the boardroom. The venerable Pepper's Ghost illusion has been successfully adapted for theme park attractions and museum exhibits, but it is awkward here. Missing the Dopplers As president of the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) I am pleased to note the following TEA members were exhibiting at InfoComm (advance apologies to anyone who I may have inadvertently left out – I tried to crosscheck but may have missed someone): Alcorn McBride, Community Professional Loudspeakers, Electronic Theater Controls (ETC), Electrosonic, Evans & Sutherland, Gilderfluke, Martin Professional, Medialon, Middle Atlantic Products, and Tannoy. While wandering the floor, I even ran into Steve Birket of Birket Engineering, TEA’s Eastern Division President; could he be checking out the lighting pavilion? It was hot in Orlando, but the trip to InfoComm is always worthwhile. We caught up with old friends and made some new ones, and we found some cool stuff. Surprisingly absent from the floor, however, were the Doppler projection systems. [Editor's note: satire ahead!] These are a promising new advance still in the prototype stage, developed by a few enterprising and imaginative industry members. After numerous conversations with students who were concerned about crossing projection beams of cross-firing displays, these innovators began experimenting with two projectors and offsetting them front to back. They discovered that this unique (and somewhat counterintuitive) setup has, under certain circumstances, the ability to transmit the projected image to the screen before it ever leaves the projector - hence the name Doppler projection. This has numerous advantages, including significant energy savings. Since the image arrives before it has left, no light is required, therefore no lamp is needed, and no power. Once perfected, it will in fact be the ultimate Green projection system. So who will be the first to have a working unit ready for next year's show? InfoComm will return to Las Vegas in 2010, June 9-11. See you there. See also: Technology for Entertainment, Education and Business: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm 09 Audiovisual and Acoustics Engineering: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm The Business of Audiovisual Technology: Steve Thorburn's InfoComm diary, day three
Posted By Steve Thorburn -- At 11:34 AM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Trade Shows Tags a/a, audiovisual, AV, electrosonic, infocomm, Orlando
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Friday, June 19, 2009 The Business of Audiovisual Technology: Steve Thorburn's InfoComm diary, day three Get a bunch of techies together in Orlando in June and their thoughts turn naturally to the invention of fantastic new personal air conditioning devices...

From AV to AC Commiserating about the heat and humidity on the way to dinner Wednesday evening, we were treated to a description of such a device by our friend and colleague Fred Ampel of Technology Visions, with whom we've teamed up the past few years to create the Immersive Audio Experience booth at InfoComm (no IAE this year, but the team will be back soon with its successor). (See: Sound Out the Possibilities in the Immersive Audio Experience at InfoComm 08) The “Personal AC Bubble,” as Fred and some buddies imagined it earlier that day, would be a freon-charged “cone of cooling” made of electrically reactive plastic that would enclose most of a person but stop short of the feet. It would have a zipper closure and secure around your ankles with velcro. Its thermally reactive superconductor would enable it to immediately lower the air temperature within it by 20 degrees (Fahrenheit), with a simple push of the “panic cool” button. Birth of the cool? It would be nice if the new products on the floor were as inventive as Fred's imaginary personal cooling device but that's fantasy vs reality. After teaching the first half of the day, we began the tour, already feeling somewhat jaded because earlier reports lacked buzz. Perhaps the most exciting thing we discovered (so far) in the world of black boxes was the expansion of Extron's control systems, making the company a true number three in the arena of control, positioned with AMX and Crestron. Another big three for the books. At the AMX booth, our first scheduled meeting of the day, while looking at their version of a digital signage videowall, we saw Robert Simpson of Electrosonic stop and view the wall – a dramatic coincidence in view of his company's pioneering and influential efforts in video wall displays early in the game some 15 years ago - an observation lost on most of those around us. From there we trekked to the end of the hall and began working our way through, stopping at the Wolfvision booth, where we were pleased to see their continual improvement of an already excellent line of document cameras. One of the other cool things we saw today was the display at the booth of Cool Components, which makes excellent housings and fixtures to prevent heat buildup in equipment enclosures – great for racks and teaching lecterns. Ergonomics of visualization Speaking of teaching lecterns, Thorburn Associates associate principal Jim Horn is the kind of teacher who encourages student participation and as a result his session, “Building the Perfect Teaching Station,” enables people in the university field to compare notes and captures a snapshot of market needs and conditions. Two of the issues that emerged when Jim taught the class Thursday morning: 1. Shrinkage, aka disappearing inventory. As teaching stations become more sophisticated, it is increasingly important to secure their components. Wireless microphones and remotes are particularly vulnerable to wandering off unintentionally with absent-minded professors. Methods used to counter this tendency to vanish include requiring users to check them in and out, and locating a charging station in the podium. To help keep track of projectors and DVD players, which tend to mysteriously disappear, especially around the Super Bowl or other major televised events, some schools use a screamer alarm linked to a sensor and automatic email notification. 2. Although the use of AV in the classroom is widespread, relatively few people know the basic formulas for calculating optimal sightlines and distances relative to image size: the four-six-eight rule originally presented by the late Dr. Kim Milliken (right), pioneer designer of projection screens for visual displays. A great friend and educator, Kim received InfoComm's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2002. It works like this: image height multiplied by six equals the maximum distance to the furthest viewer. (The ratio is dictated by image height as opposed to width because it relates to text size.) In situations where the screen is destined for use as a movie or television display, multiply by eight. In situations with complex visuals such as maps or X-rays, multiply by four. The ergonomics of visualization also call for the bottom of the image to be approximately 1 meter above the floor. We're dedicating this column to Kim Milliken, whom we fondly remember and miss. In the spirit of Kim's exemplary optimistic outlook on life and the industry, and having covered only about 20% of the InfoComm floor so far, we're hopeful that our quest for inspiring and inspired new products will yet be a rewarding one. Stay tuned for our Friday report and the rest of the story. See also: Audiovisual and Acoustics Engineering: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm Technology for Entertainment, Education and Business: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm 09 Themed Design: Seven Steps of Tech Design Success Themed Design: Modern Building Design Demands Partnership between Tech Designers and Architects
Posted By Steve Thorburn -- At 8:12 AM \| Comments (3) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Themed Design, Trade Shows Tags a/v, audiovisual, AV, electrosonic, infocomm, milliken
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Thursday, June 18, 2009 Audiovisual and Acoustics Engineering: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm “Audiovisual System Integration Issues for Owners/Facility Managers” was the session I taught from 8-10 am Wednesday here in Orlando at the InfoComm show, annually the largest pro audiovisual marketplace on the planet...

By Steve Thorburn. Like most sessions at InfoComm, my class was originally set up in response to suggestions from attendees, who are regularly solicited for input on what would be relevant to their needs. I have taught this one (among others) for many consecutive years and it still draws very well. Next door, Thorburn Associates president Lisa Thorburn (right) was leading the session “How to Issue an RFQ/RFP,” (see: How to Issue an RFP/RFQ : The Basic Tools of Project Development) also with a good turnout. Although these sessions are targeted primarily to owners, they attract quite a few vendors as well. Naturally, being in search of work, the latter attend partly in order to meet the former. This year, relatively few of the roughly 60 participants in Lisa's session identified themselves as owners. It could be that fewer owners are at the show this year, or that some are concealing their status in order not to be solicited – either way, a sign of the times. Can You Hear Me? There's a gripe I hear in my AV class year after year. It typically comes from a frustrated person at an educational facility, who can't get a room acoustics problem resolved or an area upgraded because certain decision-makers can't be swayed or convinced. The resistant person or people may be engaged in a power play, oblivious or resistant to technology. (In my experience, the anti-tech people don't exist in corporate America anymore – realizing the buggy was gone, the powers that be got rid of the buggywhips.) An adage that bears frequent repetition in our business is that a room with bad acoustics can't be fixed by sound reinforcement technology – it will still sound bad. Acoustics are best applied at an early stage of the design process – that's when they'll be the most effective and cost the least. We lunched with our longtime colleague, producer Ammiel Najar of Graphic Films. Ammiel specializes in giant-screen film, and in the 1990s he and I were on the founding board of the Large Format Cinema Association, which merged a few years ago with the Giant Screen Cinema Association. I was preparing for my Wednesday afternoon session - a four-hour class about basic principles of acoustics that I have been presenting at InfoComm for numerous consecutive years. Ammiel related a story about developing the campus of the USC School of Film and Television, for which project he was transition coordinator in the 1980s. They paid careful attention to acoustics, surfaces and surface treatments, Ammiel recounted, and they were so successful that the fire department required some modifications – the installation of fire annunciators - because the soundproofing of the classroom walls was so effective that students inside wouldn't be able to hear fire alarms ringing in the halls. Can You Hear Me Now? Designing rooms for videoconferencing and teaching a class on the subject, which he will do Friday morning at InfoComm, has made Thorburn Associates senior consultant Lance Sturdevant (right) extremely sensitive to human communications issues. Lance observes that most people like to establish eye contact with the other person during conversation, and that traditional videoconferencing makes this goal somewhat elusive because of the camera position. (He's also irritated by people who text-walk.) Exploring on the trade show floor, Lance pointed out the “telepresence” videoconference equipment that was featured in several booths, which uses tilted screens and concealed cameras to deliver high-res, life-sized images of conferees and closely simulate the experience of being in the same room with them. An advantage of videoconferencing, video chatting and video phoning is the ability to watch the person's face and especially their lips, if one is hard of hearing. The so-called “granny-cam” video phone is catching on in certain demographics for this reason – elderly people who may not be conversant with email or texting, may take readily to the granny-cam to stay in touch with friends and family. For the past two days we have been immersed in the educational program, but Thursday and Friday we'll be getting onto the trade show floor, and will commence to share product news: mainstays, upgrades, innovations, and vaporware. Images: top left Steve Thorburn, top right Lisa Thorburn, bottom right Lance Sturdevant See also: Technology for Entertainment, Education and Business: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm 09 Themed Design: Seven Steps of Tech Design Success Themed Design: Modern Building Design Demands Partnership between Tech Designers and Architects Reconciling Architecture and Acoustics in the LEED Era
Posted By Steve Thorburn -- At 12:45 PM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Trade Shows Tags audiovisual, AV, infocomm, videoconferencing
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 Technology for Entertainment, Education and Business: Steve Thorburn Reports from InfoComm 09 Our marketing and business development specialist Meg Barham, part of Thorburn Associates' team attending InfoComm, took part in Bill Sharer's Advanced Integrated Systems Sales class yesterday and Monday. Not many years ago, this was a four-day session, recently shortened to three, and now to two days...

By Steve Thorburn InfoComm is being prudent in an uncertain economy, but we think this excellent sales class is all the more relevant and valuable in such times and would like to see it expanded back to the full four days. Nonetheless, Meg (incidentally the only female of some 15 students) gained a lot from her two days, especially the role-playing exercise where, in groups of three, participants take turns presenting, reacting to and evaluating one another's sales presentations. People with all levels of experience attend Sharer's sales class so there's quite a range of styles, skills and backgrounds to learn from and share dialog with. And it's useful to observe the different ways we approach the industry. Most of Meg's fellow students were integrators, meaning they supply and install products. Some represented design/build firms, which work on both the design and installation sides of a project. In contrast, our company is design/consulting only – our involvement with the provision, installation and commissioning of equipment is supervisory only, as an owner's rep. One thing we could all agree on was that it's a bad idea to sacrifice quality for low price. Both InfoComm's IPD (Institute for Professional Development) and “Super Tuesday” curricula used to be more extensive, but are now juxtaposed with one another and with other events. These programs were originally designed to give veterans of the industry generous training opportunities in a window of time prior to the trade show floor opening (it opens today, June 17) - a real boon to companies' senior staff who can't spare time off the floor during the show. IPD used to be held twice a year: a midwinter training event in February, and the pre-trade show event in June. Alas, the midwinter session is another casualty of schedule compression – and one that we would very much like to see restored. For some university people, February is an ideal time to take a few days for training, whereas in June many of them can't get away because of summer construction projects at their facilities. (OK I'm a little cranky about the truncated schedule, but my company's relationship with InfoComm dates back over 17 years of active teaching and participation in committees so I feel qualified to comment.) InfoComm has a full schedule of educational sessions on show days also (managed by Bill Thomas and his crew), and seven of those sessions are conducted by Thorburn Associates' senior staffers: myself, Lisa Thorburn, Jim Horn, Derek Meares and Lance Sturdevant. (see: At InfoComm, Thorburn Associates' Seven Sessions) This team is the eyes and ears of Thorburn Associates at InfoComm. We're here to network, listen and learn as well as teach, and to keep our company up to date on products and technologies at what is the world's largest pro AV show, and you will be hearing more from us in the next several days (the show runs through June 19). Tomorrow: Report from the trade show floor, some educational sessions, and more. See also: Themed Design: Seven Steps of Tech Design Success Themed Design: Modern Building Design Demands Partnership between Tech Designers and Architects Reconciling Architecture and Acoustics in the LEED Era
Posted By Steve Thorburn -- At 1:49 PM \| Comments (2) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Trade Shows Tags audiovisual, AV, infocomm, thorburn, trade show
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Thursday, June 11, 2009 Themed Design: Building a Brachiosaur- Video It’s not every day you spot the largest animal to walk the earth trying to break into a building, least of all an august institution such as the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. But watch the video, look again, this is no 50 tonne felon …

As a child my year was not complete without my mum taking a couple of friends and me down to London for the day to visit the Natural History Museum. The NHM is many people’s choice as the capital’s most beautiful building and also houses one of the world’s great collections: insects in their millions, fossils by the tonne and a shop selling those little rubbery monster things you stick on the end of your pen. It was always the dinosaurs towards which we gravitated: the enormous Diplodocus in the entrance hall towering over visitors as they enter, the Iguanodon with his pointed thumb, the Ankylosaur’s massive armoured back on which one could still make out the fine texture of the creature’s skin and of course the great predatory therapods with their still razor-sharp teeth. In truth the NHM’s display is in need of a revamp and a rethink but the fossils themselves retain their power to amaze. As Mira Cohen neatly pointed out in her recent post, Developing Uniquely 21st Century Museum Experiences , kids like “real” stuff, things they can’t see at home, things that are unique to museums. And it was the skulls, the fossilised eggs and the tracks these reptiles left in the mud that transfixed me. These things were actually alive and walking the earth, they were not constructs of some science fiction writer’s imagination but were real, living, breathing animals. I always found this amazing and seeing their skeletons up close was, to this child at least, awe inspiring each time. The mind boggling numbers fascinated me too: dinosaurs died out around 65 million years ago and such numbers have their own intrinsic thrill, hinting at the sheer vastness of prehistory. This summer sees the “Walking with Dinosaurs” tour hit the UK ( Themed Entertainment : Animatronic Dinosaurs and Proto-Feathers ) and the major daily papers are engaging in a marketing blitz to accompany the show (“Prehysteria”?). The Brachiosaur at the Children’s Museum of Illinois was not walking – indeed it arrived in pieces, by truck- but nonetheless created its own arresting spectacle as it was put in place on the museum wall. The building it seems, is literally bursting at the seams with dinosaurs and I can only imagine how many young children in the vicinity are badgering their parents for a visit... See also: Museum Design: The World's Largest Brachiosaurus at The World's Largest Children's Museum T-Rex Appeal : Prehistoric Production Notes from Walking with Dinosaurs
Posted By Charles Read -- At 10:17 PM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Themed Design Tags childrens museum, Design, dinosaur, fabrication, Inidanapolis, Natural History Museum
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Monday, June 08, 2009 World Expos: US Congress Favors USA Pavilion at Shanghai The following was received today from Ruder Finn Public Relations , which represents the USA Pavilion group headed by Nick Winslow and Ellen Eliasoph. Winslow's group, which also includes BRC Imagination Arts and Norm Elder, has the official nod from the US Federal government...

(including a letter of support from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ) to develop the official US presence for the 2010 Shanghai world's fair which opens next April. What does this mean, exactly? The USA Pavilion group has made significant fundraising progress - sponsors include 3M and Yum! Brands - but still lacks the full amount needed to go forward. It's a huge challenge to raise the entire $61 million needed to build the pavilion entirely from sponsorships. A financial contribution from the Fed would really grease the wheels and be consistent with what most countries do when they participate in a world expo. However, while not delivering actual money, the Congressional resolution detailed below should give a boost to the situation. On a larger scale, the news is also encouraging because it signals a major, positive shift of attitude on the part of the US government towards expos. Hopefully the US will now also decide to rejoin the International Bureau of Expositions, which membership was allowed to lapse in recent years . “We are pleased to share with you the latest sign of support for the USA Pavilion at the Shanghai Expo: a resolution from the United States Congress, 'Encouraging the United States to Fully Participate in the Shanghai Expo in 2010.' Commenting on the Resolution, Frank Lavin, Chairman of the Steering Committee for the USAP stated, 'We are delighted with the strong support from the U.S. House of Representatives. This resolution reminds us that as Americans learn more about the Shanghai Expo, they tend to support it. We are grateful that the U.S. Congress has adopted this resolution and we believe it will be an important boost to our efforts.' In the Resolution, The House of Representatives-- (1) expresses its support for a full United States participation in the Shanghai 2010 Expo, including the construction of a national pavilion to showcase United States innovations and culture; (2) expresses its sense that United States participation is an important application of `soft power', affording other nations and millions of citizens an opportunity to appreciate United States technological innovations, cultural traditions, participation in peaceful and beneficial global events, and national respect for other nations and cultures; and (3) encourages relevant stakeholders, including private companies, individuals, and the United States Government, to work together to ensure full United States participation in the Shanghai 2010 Expo For full Resolution, please see: Text of H. Res. 509: Encouraging the United States to fully participate in the Shanghai Expo in 2010 See also: US Government Supports 2010 World Expo USA Pavilion Initiative Good prognosis for US pavilion at Shanghai 2010 World Expo: YUM! Brands Inc. To Sponsor USA National Pavilion at 2010 Shanghai World Expo Chinese-American Community Group to Sponsor The USA National Pavilion at the 2010 World Expo
Posted By Judith Rubin -- At 2:32 PM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Expos Tags Expo, Shanghai, winslow
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Thursday, June 04, 2009 Museums: Developing Uniquely 21st Century Museum Experiences Just the other day, I saw the future. I was invited to view the goings-on at Robert C. Fisler School at a site visit sponsored by Apple Computer. Robert C. Fisler was the first K-8 in Southern CA to integrate the use of Apple laptops 24/7 for all 2-8th graders. What did I see?

By Mira Cohen. I saw: Fifth graders creating podcasts based on interviews and photos of their trip to Sacramento. A middle school media class working in collaborative groups to create short films which were then transferred into the English teacher’s classroom where the same students were then guided through the creation of scripts for the their films. Second graders creating digital storyboards. Neat stuff. My initial impulse was parental: to find a way to pick up and move to Fullerton, CA so my own kids could attend a school that integrates the collaborative use of technological tools seamlessly into established curricula. Then I put on my professional museum educator's persona, and began to muse about the impact of sophisticated, creative and technologically advanced techniques in formal education on museums and other forms of informal education. What is the role of the class field trip, or for that matter, the family museum visit when learning at school is cool? What do museums have to offer? Do museums need to move backward or forward to meet the needs of digital kids? Do we need to: a. Move backward to the days when museums acted purely as repositories for the displays of selected collections of objects and artifacts? b. Focus on staying ahead of the technology game by integrating bigger, more exciting, more exceptional uses of technology that are not integrated into school and daily life? c. Both a and b? You probably guessed that my favorite choice is “c.” You may choose, of course, to: a. agree b. disagree c. re-write the question In a digital age, museums have an opportunity to play what may seem like two opposing roles that actually fit together. 1. Authenticity role. As more information is instantly available, museums house the real deal and have an opportunity to create and meet a growing need to experience in person objects and artifacts that have been digitally experienced. Kids want a satisfying answer to the question “Is it real?” whether it’s Spock’s costume, Dorothy’s Ruby slippers, a moon rock, a Picasso painting, or a Dead Sea Scroll (right). There is still something profoundly meaningful about an object that has been saved, preserved, studied, respected, admired, or condemned for its original purpose - five years ago or 5,000 years ago. Any ten year old knows. Real dinosaur bones are real and fake ones are fake. And they all want to see the real ones. It matters. It just feels different. Who has interpreted it? Why has it been considered important? Who should interpret it? Who contributes to the debate? These are important but different questions. Is it “real” still comes first. 2. Can't-get-it-at-home role. By the same token, when digital kids experience technology in a public space; they will expect to get something different than what they can get at home, at school, or at their fingertips just about anywhere. New ways of utilizing technology to enliven and enhance the story will pull young visitors into the museum. This is the summer blockbuster effect. While the two roles may seem disparate, what they have in common is that they both allow museum visitors to gain experiences they cannot have outside of a brick-and-mortar museum. Now is the time to seize the opportunity to draw upon the most awe inspiring artifacts from the past, the creative energy of the present and the tools of the future to develop meaningful and uniquely 21st century museum experiences. Images: 1. Bottom left - A segment of the Dead Sea Scrolls- Book of War- 11Q14, Scroll type: Non-biblical text, Date: 1st century CE (20-50 CE), Language: Hebrew, Discovered: Cave 11, 1956. - Photo courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority 2. Top right - probably not Mira Cohen. See also: Bridging the History/Art Divide: The Multi-Disciplinary Museum of the Future Museums: What do Kids Want? Themed Attractions: Visitors are Immersed, Educated and Engaged at Air Force One Discovery Center
Posted By Mira Cohen -- At 9:32 AM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Science Centres Tags apple, authenticity, digital storyboards, education, field trip, future, podcasts, real
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Tuesday, June 02, 2009 Museum Design: Blistering Barnacles, it's Tintin and Magritte! There are famously not any famous Belgians. However, today sees the opening of a museum each for two of the Kingdom’s most celebrated sons: the acclaimed artist - and painter of floating pipes - Magritte and that intrepid boy reporter and comic strip character Tintin.

The Magritte museum , based in Brussels, will house over 250 works on 3 floors and is to be the biggest collection of the great surrealist’s work in the world. The many iconic images he has left us have been hugely influential. His delicate yet unsettling portrayals of ordinary objects juxtaposed in unusual contexts, and his fine draftsmanship distinguish his work and place him, along with Dali, among the most important of the surrealists. René Magritte's genius was perhaps all the more remarkable for the fact that he found painting a difficult endeavour with an apple bobbing around in front of his face as he stood at his easel. The Tintin museum is the €15m (£13m) Musée Hergé, designed by Pritzker-winning French architect Christian de Portzamparc (Herge being the creator of the quaffed and cherubic journalist) and is in Louvain-la-Neuveis, 20 miles south of the capital. It is to be “a microcosm of the adventures of the comic books”. These books, which relate the derring-doo and escapades of Tintin, his dog Snowy and his cantankerous friend Captain Haddock have sold over 200 million copies and the museum is set to be the first to permanently showcase the work. With a major Spielberg movie due out in a year and perhaps more filmed adventures to follow, the museum, which is financed by Herge’s second wife, seems destined to succeed. Ten thousand thundering typhoons! Image: Entrance to the new Hergé Museum in Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Nicolas Borel / Atelier de Portzamparc See also: Museums: An Outpouring in Paper and Pencil - Visitors to Calif Academy Get to the Point on Climate Change Museums: Jonathan Katz, exec producer of groundbreaking “Altered State” exhibit (Cal Academy of Sciences) to speak May 30 at JFKU “Risk” colloquium At the New California Academy of Sciences, Cinnabar's Climate Change Exhibits Speak Up About State's Environment and Future
Posted By Charles Read -- At 4:15 PM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Themed Design Tags art, Design, gallery, herge, magritte, tintin
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 Museum Design: Who is this Man? A photograph caught my eye today. It shows a man on the roof of a men’s lavatory in a California State Park. Why is he there? Why is he in black and white? Is he spying on someone through the skylight?

On closer investigation, we find that the man is not on the roof because of some inappropriate interest in men's hygiene. Neither is he a miscreant cat burglar nor indeed a member of LA’s finest out on an entrapment mission. No, this lanky fellow is none other than Jonathan Katz, CEO of Cinnabar Inc. and lifelong conservationist. Whilst many in the last few years have put on the Green mantle as it has been fashionable or politically expedient to do so, Katz, who executive produced “Altered State” and other natural history exhibits for the internationally acclaimed standard-setter in green-built museums, the California Academy of Sciences, has always walked the walk and talked the talk - as evidenced by this photo of 30 years ago. The picture dates from 1979 when Mr K (an enthusiastic bicyclist who retains his athletic physique today) organized a Solar Technician Training Project for the California Conservation Corps, during which period he was part of Jerry Brown's gubernatorial administration. They built solar hot water panels and installed them on state parks buildings around the Golden State. Interesting to note that Katz’s commitment to a low-carbon lifestyle stretched to his wardrobe: check out those solar flares… See also: Museums: An Outpouring in Paper and Pencil - Visitors to Calif Academy Get to the Point on Climate Change Museums: Jonathan Katz, exec producer of groundbreaking “Altered State” exhibit (Cal Academy of Sciences) to speak May 30 at JFKU “Risk” colloquium At the New California Academy of Sciences, Cinnabar's Climate Change Exhibits Speak Up About State's Environment and Future
Posted By Charles Read -- At 12:47 PM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Science Centres , Themed Design Tags california academy of sciences, environmental, green, katz, lavatories, solar
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Sunday, May 17, 2009 Amusement Parks: Going for a Thong The themed entryway into a Disney park, Universal’s Islands of Adventure, SeaWorld, Alton Towers or indeed any well-designed amusement park property contains images, signs, sounds and symbols that promise thrills and high adrenaline experiences and build a heightened sense of anticipation in the visitor. Guests at Love Land, “China's first sex theme park,” will be greeted by a pair of huge, disembodied legs...

Perhaps there will also be the cheery faces and extended hands of amusement park employees at the gate – but there will also be this arresting view: a set of lady’s legs and hips with a red thong, revolving on a circular platform. No upper body. She’s big on the derriere this girl, no décolletage to speak of, indeed no head… Love Land's leggy icon will certainly build a sense of something powerful in the park-goer and perhaps make him (or her??) receptive to the Chongqing based amusement park’s other attractions, the naked sculptures and exhibition of the history of sexual practices in various countries. One high spot promises to be, as a story in The Guardian immodestly relates, the “oversized replica of a set of genitals” leading to the question of what is the optimum size for a set (pair? package? portfolio?) of genitals. Long live astounding cultural differences! See also: Amusement Parks: Let's talk about Marty Sklar Amusement Parks: Between a Rock and a Hard Rock... Amusement Parks: What do you mean we don’t have all the rights in the former Hard Rock Park?
Posted By Charles Read -- At 3:58 PM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Amusements Parks, Attractions Business Tags China, entrance, marketing, sex theme park
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Tuesday, May 12, 2009 Museums: An Outpouring in Paper and Pencil - Visitors to Calif Academy Get to the Point on Climate Change For the new California Academy of Sciences, my company, Cinnabar Inc., produced the exhibit “Altered State,” which focuses on climate change and California.

By Jonathan Katz, executive producer, “Altered State” The exhibit has been very well received by the public and garnered a critical writeup in the Los Angeles Times (A Museum That Shouts Climate Change) and quite a bit of coverage in the industry media as well. Defining an interactive as a venue with a screen is limiting, and most often puts the museum at a comparative disadvantage. Although “Altered State” contains several high-tech interactives of which we are very proud, “Share Your Ideas,” one of the outstanding successes, is decidedly low-tech, involving little more than paper and pencil. It's located at the center of “Altered State,” within the Arena for Engagement where the content focuses on communities, families and individuals, so it was an obvious site to invite folks to contribute to the exhibit. In this simplest and most direct of interfaces, visitors write and sketch their own suggestions and ideas for conserving energy, reducing carbon footprint and combating climate change. Pencils and slips of paper about the size of luggage tags are supplied by the Academy for this purpose. Visitors hang their completed entries on hooks for others to view. People respond to the succinct format: each individual entry has the feeling of a work of art. This community outpouring of messages on a vital topic that touches us all has been so successful that the museum has had to work to keep up the supply of pencils and paper. In search of a sustainable source for the tags, the Academy's creative services department recruited their printer, Paragraphics, to cut them from make-readies (paper that has been test-printed on one side). Interactives in the built environment should be literally active, having some quality of physicality. Visitors have to move their arms, their legs, their bodies, and their minds. The idea for “Share Your Ideas” arose from conversations with our lead exhibit developer Darcie Fohrmam, Emily Routman and myself. We had been looking for simple and direct ways for visitors to contribute content, and had noticed lots of informal efforts at other museums, i.e. sticky notes on foamcore, to let visitors leave messages and comments. We wanted people to see their work in its rightful place, so the design of hooks in rows was used to make the display self organizing, yet give each contributor the freedom to choose where on the board to place their tag. The simple act of writing and mounting the tag for others to see is a meaningful experience for the visitor. But the tags themselves – already numbering in the tens of thousands - will also go on to help spread the word in various ways. Some will be scanned and posted on the Academy website. Others will be used to aid classroom projects. The tags are being saved by Carol Tang, director, visitor interpretive programs for the Academy, as the basis for a research paper (educators interested in obtaining access to the tags can email Ms. Tang: ctang@calacademy.org). This prolific outpouring will not go unheard. Photos: Joe Fletcher See also: Museums: Jonathan Katz, exec producer of groundbreaking “Altered State” exhibit (Cal Academy of Sciences) to speak May 30 at JFKU “Risk” colloquium Eco-friendly Immersive Theater Launched at New California Academy of Sciences Digital Innovator Mindi Lipschultz Creates Interactive Media Experiences for New California Academy of Sciences Rana Creek Raises the Roof on the California Academy of Sciences At the New California Academy of Sciences, Cinnabar's Climate Change Exhibits Speak Up About State's Environment and Future
Posted By Jonathan Katz -- At 6:55 PM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Planetariums, Science Centres , Themed Design Tags california academy of sciences, cinnabar, climate, katz
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Saturday, May 09, 2009 Special Venue Media: Musings on the Fulldome Market "So, what's the fulldome market like these days?" That's a question we hear at Loch Ness Productions pretty often--and it's a serious topic of conversation any time two or more fulldome theater folk (or those who want to be in fulldome) get together. In the past year I've had conversations with several media producers at various meetings who expressed some interest in "getting into the fulldome market."

By Carolyn Collins Petersen, Loch Ness Productions They asked many good questions, but it quickly became apparent that their queries belied a mindset of movie producers looking for new venues to repurpose content into. They reminded me of an article in a musician's magazine called Keyboard about concerts in planetariums. The person writing the story seemed to assume that planetariums were like night clubs and that the "club manager" would put up a tip jar for the road-show musicians who were performing on the planetarium "circuit." Clearly the author had not researched what planetarium facilities did (and do) in real life. Certainly planetariums have hosted concerts, but that's not their main raison d'être. And, there was (and is) no "circuit" that hopeful musicians could "break into" for performances. It's a useful illustration of how people who aren't familiar with the planetarium/fulldome theater often make assumptions that don't fit with the actuality of the place. The fulldome market has important differences from other media markets. To have a good chance at success in this one, a producer must learn and take many factors into account: subject matter/concept, target audience, specialized formatting, production, budget and distribution potential. Based on a number of actual conversations I have had, here's an imaginary (but) typical dialog between me and a hopeful fulldome producer (HFP): HFP: So, I've got this content/project/movie that would go really well in fulldome. I need to get some idea of the market. Me: What’s the show concept? HFP: Well, it's a kiddie show based on a cartoon/puppet show/play that I saw at a festival last year. Me: Is it about science? Astronomy? Educational? HFP: Well, no. Does it have to be? Me: Given that nearly all the fulldome theaters out there are in schools, colleges, museums or other educational or cultural facilities and whose mission statements are to bring astronomy to public audiences -- that's the first question they're going to ask about your content. HFP: Schools? Me: Yes. They are still very tuned into getting content that helps them teach science -- particularly astronomy. They also don't have a lot of money -- most of them don't charge admission or if they do, it's very low. HFP: Oh… well…what about the big theaters? Me: In the fulldome world, "big" is a theater dome 15 meters in diameter or more, and so far there are only about 100 big theaters of that size throughout the entire world. Sure, most do buy content; some produce their own. The big domes are more able to afford license fees or pay gate-share. HFP: Only 100? How many fulldome theaters are there altogether? Me: If you include portable fulldome video planetariums with inflatable domes as theaters, about 500 or so. That’s in the entire world. HFP: This project is going to cost me a million dollars to put together because it's all animation and I have celebrity voices and so on. I need to make that back somehow. I've been told that I can make a half million dollars in gate-share the first year if I have the right property. Me: Well you might, but that depends on a number of factors: how much you want to charge for your content, how long you license it for, whether or not it’s something that theaters might want, and so on. Maximizing distribution and revenue in fulldome is complicated. Not everybody who might be interested in buying or leasing your show charges admission so you can't do the gate-share model with everyone. And what resolution can you make it available in? Will you allow your content into smaller theaters with lower resolution projection systems? Do you know about the different resolutions and formats that fulldome producers have to work with? Do you know what the fulldome theaters want and/or need? Are you considering the overseas market and language translations? HFP: Ummm... hmmmm.... You can see that this conversation is going right to Rude Awakeningville for the prospective producer or even the new fulldome theater operator who hasn't researched the "market" for fulldome shows. The Market Has Answers That theoretical conversation is useful to spur a discussion of essential issues in fulldome marketing. Those issues are as follows: • the numbers of theaters (as of this writing, there are about 550 fulldome theaters "out there"; • the breakdown of those theaters into various categories (school, museum, public) -- and whether they charge for admission or not; • the resolution those theaters can project; • the numbers of those theaters that can afford to buy content; • the content that's available – and at what prices; • the content that's appropriate for a given theater's usage and audiences. You can slice and dice a number of different scenarios, but no matter what you do, you come up with a pretty small market compared to the numbers of regular movie theaters out there, or even the specialty theaters like IMAX. To my mind, the biggest factor to consider when thinking about producing fulldome content is that last category: the content that's appropriate for a given theater's usage and audiences. Simply put -- and as the conversation above indicates -- fulldome theaters are largely used to communicate about the science of astronomy. They're associated with that topic and it's why facilities install them. So, the content is still largely tracking that need. Yes, there is other non-astronomy content out there, but it's still mostly science. This may change as we bring more new artists and producers into the medium, and I've seen a couple of interesting efforts by people who do understand the domed medium and what it can lend to a project. But, to any folks coming into the scene from other media, I suggest that it's best to really study what content out there already, then figure out how to approach the market with your content. That's not to say you shouldn't try new things. But be aware of the constraints that buyers face when getting content for their theaters. Price is important, of course. Find out what content these places are buying (and at what price point). And be prepared for a bit of reverse sticker shock -- particularly if you are used to working with budgets of at least a million dollars for content and licensing it out for high prices. The fulldome community isn't set up to afford high license fees. Prices for existing show licenses range from the low thousands of dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. All that being said, the fulldome market is growing. The beauty is that it will continue to evolve, and I can't wait to see where all of us who produce for fulldome will take it next!
Posted By Carolyn Collins Petersen -- At 10:32 AM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Planetariums, Science Centres Tags astronomy, fulldome, marketing, Planetarium
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Thursday, April 30, 2009 Amusement Parks: Let's talk about Marty Sklar Marty Sklar has been with Disney for 53 years. Five decades. Half a century. Longer than I've been alive...

In my role as publications editor for the Themed Entertainment Association, I've been privileged to work with him in small ways, mostly in connection with TEA's annual Thea Awards. (As a Thea Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, he is a permanent member of the Thea Awards Committee.) Like many of you, I've also enjoyed his presentations at the IAAPA show in the past few years (always to a packed house) and carefully perused his “Mickey's Ten Commandments.” Mr. Sklar is the epitome of graciousness and he graciously assented when we asked if we could print the letter he sent around to various colleagues simultaneously announcing his retirement from Disney and the book he is now writing (see Marty Sklar Announces Retirement from Disney). This is a book the industry will eagerly await - I'm ready to pay for my copy now! Did you work with Marty Sklar? Were you influenced by him? If you have thoughts or anecdotes to share about the man, his career and his achievements over a remarkable half-century in the land of the Mouse, please do share them here by posting a comment . And if you're looking for Mickey's Ten Commandments, they're reproduced all over the place, but here is a link: Mickey's 10 Commandments, by Marty Sklar. All images courtesy Disney.
Posted By Judith Rubin -- At 9:24 PM \| Comments (2) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Amusements Parks, Attractions Business, Themed Design Tags Disney, imagineering, marty sklar, TEA
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Monday, April 13, 2009 Museums: Subverting the Dominant Paradigm - What's it all about? Talk business in any industry and there is sure to be a wide variety of new-fangled phrases, euphemisms and cobbled together sound-bites infecting the lexicon. Management speak is a global phenomenon and board rooms the world over resonate with ideas being run up flag poles, paradigm shifts, blue sky thinking and thrusting young managers running with balls, hitting home runs, herding cats etc...

Language is of course dynamic and often beautiful: it evolves, it assimilates, existing words morph into new ones and new words enter the dictionary each year. What riles aesthetes about buzzwords (“buzzword”, ironically is itself considered a buzzword) is the laziness inherent in their creation. In business they are often coined to cover a lack or meaning (management consultancies are infamous for this), to obfuscate or to simply divert attention from an unpalatable fact. The British Government recently decided to start a process of “quantitative easing” by which they mean the printing of new money. Those extra syllables and the puzzling phraseology neatly cloaking a veil of smooth business efficacy over a rather mundane (though probably necessary) economic strategy. In the attractions industry we have our own share: “edutainment”, “eatertainment”, “shoppertainment” and the much in-vogue “staycation” are just a few. At a recent conference, the occasional and unfortunate occurrence of illness and nausea on thrill rides was referred to as “protein spill”. As in “Last night I drank way, way too much. I still have protein spill on my shoes” “Staycation” is of course the buzz word de nos jours. There is increasing evidence that both here in the UK (see Stay-at-home Britons become culture vultures ) and in the US ('Staycations' helping to keep turnstiles going at local attractions ) the effects of the credit crunch on segments of the attractions business are being mitigated by the phenomenon of people holidaying closer to home and of visiting their local attractions as opposed to travelling abroad. In Britain, “Figures released …by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport show that attendance at museums and galleries in the past six months has continued to rise… Many historic destinations, too, have seen a surge in visitor numbers.” And for an example of buzzword evolution in action, some of the more dire prognostications have given rise to an even newer – not leading edge but bleeding edge- buzzword, as pointed out in the LA Times today : “And while people are staying home like last year, the grimmer economic outlook has gotten some to call this year's phenomenon a naycation. Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University pop culture professor, said there's a clear difference between a naycation and a staycation, and it's all in the attitude. The naycation, Thompson said, implies a more dismal response to the economy. "If last year you went on staycation, you stayed home with a good attitude," Thompson said. "With a naycation, you stay home and grumble." There you have it. I am off for a daycation … Image: Managment consultants. The man in the middle has just arranged his first date for 18 months . His friends are pleased for him. This represents a substantial paradigm shift in his love life.
Posted By Charles Read -- At 8:50 PM \| Comments (2) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Museums Tags buzzword, staycation
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 Amusement Parks: Between a Rock and a Hard Rock... As a followup to the (Hard Rock Park) story, Judge Carey made a decision yesterday via a telephone conference saying that he would not finalize the sale as requested by the park's new buyers...

Steve Baker, president of the park's new owners, said it just offered the new owners a chance to more quickly to make-over the park. Of course, HRP Creative believes that the judge's ruling means the party's will have to work out some licensing agreement at least for this year, but I think the road ahead will be troubling for the park's founders. You see, the founder's have now shown that there's money that could be made by the licensing of the intellectual property rights of the former park. I foresee a possible action by the Chapter 7 Trustee or the creditors of HRP Myrtle Beach Holdings for fraudulent conveyance of those IP rights from HRP Myrtle Beach Holdings to HRP Creative. This case will be given credence if it can be shown that Mr. Goodwin was the decision-making executive for both entities at the time of the transfer. Stay tuned to this one. See: Amusement Parks: What do you mean we don’t have all the rights in the former Hard Rock Park? See also: Amusement Parks : Hard Rock Park to be sold for $25 mln FPI MB Entertainment LLC Enters Into Contract With Bankruptcy Court Trustee to Purchase Assets of Hard Rock Park Hard Rock Park Explodes Onto the Vacation Scene And more from Greg Van Gompel: Amusement Law: There’s more than bad guys lurking around the corner at a Wild West Show
Posted By Greg Van Gompel -- At 12:58 PM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Amusements Parks, Attractions Business, Legal/safety Tags hard rock park, HRP Creative, steve baker, Steve Goodwin
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Friday, March 27, 2009 Amusement Parks: What do you mean we don’t have all the rights in the former Hard Rock Park? An interesting legal question is being discussed in the federal bankruptcy court in Delaware today. The park’s former CEO and two other founders of the park formed an entity called H.R.P. Creative Services Co., LLC in Florida...

and had the former Hard Rock Park assign the right to trademark the park’s ride and attractions to H.R.P. Creative Services. According to a business article published yesterday in TheSunNews.com: “The former CEO of Hard Rock Park is asking the park's new owners, who purchased the property out of bankruptcy last month, for an annual $500,000 licensing fee and royalties, according to documents filed in federal bankruptcy court in Delaware. Steven Goodwin, the former CEO, said in an e-mail to the park's new owners, FPI MB Entertainment, that the park is still the intellectual property of a corporation he formed. He is asking for 1.5 percent of the park's revenues above $50 million, according to court documents.” Based on the fact that the current owner of the former Hard Rock Park, FPT/MB Entertainment LLC, has filed a Motion to Enforce the Sale Order in bankruptcy court, I assume that this transfer of rights may have caught the new owners off-guard. It's a fact that just because the Seller is willing to sell doesn't mean all the critical vendors are part of the package. A useful precaution for the buyer is to ask to view and photo copy all the leases and contracts critical to operating the business such as phone, garbage, cleaning, hauling, major vending lines, office equipment, intellectual property, computer system, warranties, heating/cooling and electricity. You analyze and break down each agreement, contract and lease and find out exactly what the Seller has committed to in its business. Sometimes a critical vendor may have a “no assignment” clause written into the contract that will need to be negotiated before the purchase. You also pull all financing liens and other public filings made by the Seller to find out if there may exist a conflict on ownership of inventory, equipment or assets. H.R.P. Creative may well be arguing today that it owns the Trademark for the name “Bohemian Rhapsody™,” for example, and has the right to license this Trademark to others. This right is separate from and has no relationship to the physical operation of the park, its rides or attractions but if the park wants to use these Trademark names in the park, it needs to license the use of these Trademarks. These Trademarks do not encumber the physical assets of the park. I imagine FPT/MB Entertainment will implore the bankruptcy court that the names of the facilities and rides are material terms of the Purchase contract. A contract that the court itself confirmed. FPR/MB Entertainment bought the park through bankruptcy free and clear of all liens and encumbrances, including the encumbrance of the Trademark names. They may also argue that it is grossly unfair that the former CEO knew that the names for all the rides and attractions were assigned to a company in which he had an interest and did not disclose this fact to anyone until after the sale completed. They will ask the court to stop the former CEO from unfairly profiting from his silence or his lack of cooperation. Another possible argument, though less convincing, would be to claim that even if the former CEO has the Trademark to these names, that he abandoned the trademarks when he allowed the park to file bankruptcy. It will be interesting to find out what happens today, but no matter what the court decides, this situation provides us all a great example that when purchasing any ride or used piece of equipment for our business, make sure you have all the facts about the ownership and history of the ride or equipment before you sign on the dotted line. Update: Amusement Parks: Between a Rock and a Hard Rock... See also: Amusement Parks : Hard Rock Park to be sold for $25 mln FPI MB Entertainment LLC Enters Into Contract With Bankruptcy Court Trustee to Purchase Assets of Hard Rock Park Hard Rock Park Explodes Onto the Vacation Scene And more from Greg Van Gompel: Amusement Law: There’s more than bad guys lurking around the corner at a Wild West Show
Posted By Greg Van Gompel -- At 5:54 PM \| Comments (1) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Amusements Parks, Attractions Business, Legal/safety Tags hard rock, hard rock park
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Friday, March 20, 2009 Themed Entertainment : Animatronic Dinosaurs and Proto-Feathers Prehistoric beasts are big business, whether eating lawyers at the local cinema (Jurassic Park’s T-Rex showing questionable or admirable taste depending on your point of view) or wowing crowds at our major museums in skeletal form.

This week has seen the long awaited arrival on British shores of the animatronic stars of the “Walking with Dinosaurs” show , the live event inspired (and co-produced) by the BBC as a follow up to its immensely successful TV series of the same name. Having received critical acclaim in both Australia and the US (seen by 2.4 million people since 2007, it has grossed over $110 million /£77 million in ticket sales) the new show promises an even more impressive experience. From a business perspective of course, the BBC’s globally recognized and respected brand allied with the enduring appeal of dinosaurs plus the proven success of the TV show might seem to have been obvious ingredients for a hit arena show. But it is worth remembering how ground-breaking this unique production is and how, as the Guardian points out, “The real heroes of the 96-minute show are, arguably, the engineers, skin makers, painters and animatronic experts who created the dinosaurs”. As if to herald the arrival of the show, Palaeontologists have announced two fascinating discoveries this week, each revealing just that little bit more about prehistoric worlds: 1. Fossil hints at “Fuzzy” Dinosaurs. Remains of a dinosaur found in China bearing rudimentary feather-like structures have shed further light (and perhaps muddied the waters) on the evolution of feathers (see below). The discovery hints at both warm-bloodedness and a world of vibrant coloured dinosaurs. 2. The remains of a massive sea reptile (top), a species of short necked pliosaur, were found on a remote artic island. Estimated to have weighed 45 tonnes and boasting a massive head packed with foot long teeth this super-predator roamed the oceans some 147 million year ago. How long before those animatronic experts are working on a feathered T-Rex? See also: T-Rex Appeal : Prehistoric Production Notes from Walking with Dinosaurs High-Tech Animatronics bring Dinosaurs to Life Images: bottom, copyright Nature and top Artist's impression of a 45-tonne Pliosaur attacking a Plesiosaur. Photograph: Atlantic Productions
Posted By Charles Read -- At 6:37 PM \| Comments (2) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Tags animatronics, Design, walking with dinosaurs
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Monday, March 16, 2009 Amusement Law: There’s more than bad guys lurking around the corner at a Wild West Show If you enjoy amusement parks, you have probably experienced those funny and sometimes scary Wild West Shows. Wild West themed areas in amusement parks can be found throughout the world.

From Australia and the Far East to Europe and the U.K., entire parks are devoted to the West. There is something about the Wild West that catches everyone’s imagination. The Wild West skits vary from park to park. One Park may offer gunfights, another park has bank robberies, this park has saloon fights while a different one has train robberies. It’s a great way to have the guest interact in the entertainment experience, or is it? Certainly Michael Stabile, owner of Wild West City, near Cranberry Lake, NJ thought so, since the Wild West was the theme for his park. The park entertained people for 50 years with the bad guys and good guys who were shot in the park’s skits jumping up at the end of the skit. On July 7, 2006, Scott Harris, one of the park’s actors, was not so lucky. CAT scans confirmed that Mr. Harris was hit during the park’s Sundance skit with a live bullet. The shooter was a 17-year-old juvenile who accidently loaded a .22 caliber revolver that the park owned with real bullets instead of blanks. Shortly after the incident, a Sussex County prosecutor wondered why live ammunition would be there. A Sussex County grand jury was convened and in June 2008 it handed out a 25 count criminal indictment. It answered the Sussex County prosecutor’s question when it charged Adalberto Morales of bringing two boxes of ammunition into the changing area, one with the blanks and one with live rounds he had fired at a shooting gallery that the juvenile mistakenly loaded in the revolver. Now Mr. Stabile, the two corporations owning the park, Cheyenne Corporation and Western World, Inc., and the park’s General Manager, Nathan McPeak are facing various charges of firearms violations, aggravated assault, and conspiracy. The main contention in this case is that the park is being charged with violating New Jersey state firearms law (Title 2C, Chapter 39 together with Chapter 58) that requires even owners and users of antique firearms to obtain gun permits. This requirement seems to cover any type of historical re-enactors from Wild West lawmen through Revolutionary and Civil War soldiers. The park’s contention is that the park and its employees do not need permits to carry handguns on the property. The prosecutor is countering that an exemption for carrying handguns on private property does not extend to employees. Looking at the New Jersey definition of firearm found at N.J.S.A. 2C:39-1, a “Firearm” as defined as "any handgun, rifle, … or any gun, device or instrument in the nature of a weapon from which may be fired or ejected any solid projectable ball, slug, pellet, missile or bullet, or any gas, vapor or other noxious thing, by means of a cartridge or shell or by the action of an explosive or the igniting of flammable or explosive substances. It shall also include, without limitation, any firearm which is in the nature of an air gun, spring gun or pistol or other weapon of a similar nature in which the propelling force is a spring, elastic band, carbon dioxide, compressed or other gas or vapor, air or compressed air, or is ignited by compressed air, and ejecting a bullet or missile smaller than three-eighths of an inch in diameter, with sufficient force to injure a person." This definition of a firearm could fit any number of midway games or entertainment props including a slingshot game, midway shooting gallery, a midway game using a pellet gun (shooting out a star comes to mind) or an antique replica that shoots blanks. Why does this incident matter to the amusement industry? Because it allows you an opportunity to look at your own attraction and find out where you may have situations that may need to be addressed. Due to the expansive definitions that states may use to define a firearm and their individual permit requirement, you may have areas in your attraction that needs to be addressed. Does your attraction have a shooting gallery that propels objects to a target? Do you have some type of a old West or Wild West show, robbery or hold-up? What type of weapons do you use? What is your plan, process and procedure on loading these weapons? What type of checks and balances do you employ? Have you checked whether or not these instruments, props or game pieces need a permit to be operated? Don’t get caught in your own shoot-out at the O.K. Corral with your local prosecutor and enforcement officers. See also: Amusement Law: Legal Learning at WWA and IAAPA Halloween Risk Management for Amusement Parks: Curbing the Scary Specter of Legal Liability Amusement Law : How IALDA Serves the Amusement Park Industry, Legally Speaking
Posted By Greg Van Gompel -- At 1:12 PM \| Comments (0) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Amusements Parks, Attractions Business, Legal/safety Tags actor, amusement law, guns, performance, safety, wild west
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend

Thursday, March 05, 2009 Museums: Unique Underwater Museum for Egypt's Famed Ancient City In the news this last week, The UNESCO backed giant underwater museum, designed by French architect Jacques Rougerie, a specialist in water based construction, is to be located on the site of Cleopatra’s Palace in Alexandria and is set to break ground/water in 2010 and be completed in 3 years.

( images above & below copyright Jaques Rougerie Architects) Fiberglass tunnels will connect aboveground galleries, near the New Library of Alexandria, to the underwater viewing facility, where antiquities would be visible in their natural resting places at the site of Cleopatra's legendary and now sunken palace. This incredible museum will be the first genuine underwater museum, in the sense that visitors will not need diving gear to view the exhibits as, for example they do at Israel’s “underwater museum” at the ancient port of Caesarea, which is in effect more of a (fascinating and unique) dive site. With funding yet to be secured and the not inconsiderable engineering obstacles – including low visibility and powerful currents around the tunnels- to be overcome this ambitious project has a long way to go, but the developers sound confident that such challenges will be met.
Posted By Charles Read -- At 7:40 PM \| Comments (4) \| Trackbacks (0)
Categories Attractions Business, Museums, Themed Design Tags architects, construction, Design, egypt, jaques rougerie, underwater
	(What are these?)	Recommend to a Friend