Three days to go before I leave the shores of this island and head to some warmer climes. Dallas Fort Worth is the destination for the next FunFear road trip. I am heading to HAuNTcon 2013 to explore some amazing haunts and attractions in the pre show tours and then on to network with operators and suppliers thought the 3 day trade show. As well as the opportunity to brainstorm with product suppliers it is always a pleasure to enjoy the education sessions and seminars. This all builds to what is usually an excellent evening of outrageous drinking and partying at the costume ball, this years theme being a "Texas Chainsaw Masquerade". To say I was looking forward to this would be an understatement. I will take pictures and share those on my return.
On another slightly different note, after the months of development time spent on our polarity safe LED fittings, we have a new product coming from our manufacturer. Apparently they have further developed our initial design and have made some minor improvements, we will carry out some testing ourselves next week. I am also happy to announce that we will be offering a matt black version of the unit in the coming months. This has been an enormous challenge and athough the external colour is rarely of importance, (especially as you are supposed to be scaring the guests....not giving them time to be looking at the installations) we have achieved what at times appeared to be impossible.
I will keep everyone up to speed on that and a new updated website is being developed which will incorporate a product page with all of our LED products and control system options on as well as our recommended sound stores and MP3 player.
Further updates to come so watch this space.
Ian
Friday 19 April 2013
Friday 12 April 2013
2013 The First Quarter
Well it is fair to say that 2013 is proving to be a very productive and interesting year so far.
The twisted technicians have been working very hard in the R and D office refining a new control system for scare attractions. A modular fully controllable unit that can be integrated into just about any attraction to provide control via just about any switch, whether it be pressure mat, break beam or PIR. Output can then be provided to control either relays, servos or dimming circuits for LED units. We are working with an improvement to enable the controller to work over Ethernet and provide remote control and also ultimately a complete DMX over Ethernet system. That will be a few months away i think but at the moment we have working models and the MK3 unit is proving to be one of the most versatile control systems i have seen for mazes and walk through attractions.
We have also been playing with the now world famous Raspberry Pi, this has been a lot of fun and i think with some more time spent on the programming it will be possible to use this very unique unit to provide a black box system for show control and video output.
So February saw the opening of the London Dungeons new site. Sitting very comfortably on the south bank, it certainly feels like it has been there forever. FunFear were invited as guests to view the new location and attraction with a full technical tour. It was an excellent evening and was very interesting to see the techniques used within. Visitors will be pleased to know that although a new building and some new theming as well a new tag line, some firm favorites still remain, as well as some excellent use of new technologies, i would highly recommend a visit if you are visiting London
March saw the final planning and preparation for the fast approaching Halloween Show at Alton Towers.
A site visit was planned and Sally Duguid from the team behind the show, myself and another one our tech guys spent many hours in the capable hands of the Alton Towers event team, a plan was coming together.
The team behind the Halloween Show had a vision of what they wanted. It was very apparent that Alton Towers would provide a perfect location and back drop that would be very hard to match anywhere else. A trade show, speakers from throughout the scare industry, the presentation of Scare awards in one venue. This was going to be a lot of fun. Many hours of planning were still to come though.
April 10th brings the day of the show, all the hours of planning and organising had come to fruition.
Trade stands in place, AV in the right places as well as the other all important starting of the coffee machines, my guys had been up early rigging lighting and control systems and there had been no time for breakfast, so coffee was clearly required.
Delegates arriving, and they appeared to just keep coming, i am not sure of the final numbers on the day but it was an excellent turnout, with delegates from as far afield as Germany, The Netherlands and Jersey. Some familiar faces and a lot of new ones.
I was giving a talk on technical aspects of running a scare attraction, covering some very basic considerations for both lighting and sound installation, as well as demonstrating a new control panel to the industry which provides an option to change sound effects to suit the audience, so daytime events will probably require a very different feel to a night time or dark attraction. As well as the sound switching the panel also provides emergency switching allowing the show state to be dropped into flood lighting and emergency evacuation sound track. This was certainly received very well and a there was a lot of interest on the trade stand following the demonstration.
A great day all round, with workshops and technical talks running along side business seminars creating a huge variety of interest and catering for just about everybody's tastes.
The evening saw a rare opportunity to have a lights on tour of the sanctuary, as well as a full live run, a pleasure for all us techies, a chance to see what we are up against in the tech rooms of our attractions, very interesting opportunity and thoroughly enjoyed.
The night was not done, with the Scare Awards being presented and a chance to let our hair down, drinking, dining and dancing was also still to come.
Well done to all the people behind The Halloween Show, an excellent job well done, Check out their website via The Scare Network here
I would also like this chance to thank my excellent crew for the hard work and long hours they have put in this year already, it is very humbling to see the dedication and commitment they give to the FunFear brand. Thank you.
Ian
The twisted technicians have been working very hard in the R and D office refining a new control system for scare attractions. A modular fully controllable unit that can be integrated into just about any attraction to provide control via just about any switch, whether it be pressure mat, break beam or PIR. Output can then be provided to control either relays, servos or dimming circuits for LED units. We are working with an improvement to enable the controller to work over Ethernet and provide remote control and also ultimately a complete DMX over Ethernet system. That will be a few months away i think but at the moment we have working models and the MK3 unit is proving to be one of the most versatile control systems i have seen for mazes and walk through attractions.
We have also been playing with the now world famous Raspberry Pi, this has been a lot of fun and i think with some more time spent on the programming it will be possible to use this very unique unit to provide a black box system for show control and video output.
So February saw the opening of the London Dungeons new site. Sitting very comfortably on the south bank, it certainly feels like it has been there forever. FunFear were invited as guests to view the new location and attraction with a full technical tour. It was an excellent evening and was very interesting to see the techniques used within. Visitors will be pleased to know that although a new building and some new theming as well a new tag line, some firm favorites still remain, as well as some excellent use of new technologies, i would highly recommend a visit if you are visiting London
March saw the final planning and preparation for the fast approaching Halloween Show at Alton Towers.
A site visit was planned and Sally Duguid from the team behind the show, myself and another one our tech guys spent many hours in the capable hands of the Alton Towers event team, a plan was coming together.
The team behind the Halloween Show had a vision of what they wanted. It was very apparent that Alton Towers would provide a perfect location and back drop that would be very hard to match anywhere else. A trade show, speakers from throughout the scare industry, the presentation of Scare awards in one venue. This was going to be a lot of fun. Many hours of planning were still to come though.
April 10th brings the day of the show, all the hours of planning and organising had come to fruition.
Trade stands in place, AV in the right places as well as the other all important starting of the coffee machines, my guys had been up early rigging lighting and control systems and there had been no time for breakfast, so coffee was clearly required.
Delegates arriving, and they appeared to just keep coming, i am not sure of the final numbers on the day but it was an excellent turnout, with delegates from as far afield as Germany, The Netherlands and Jersey. Some familiar faces and a lot of new ones.
I was giving a talk on technical aspects of running a scare attraction, covering some very basic considerations for both lighting and sound installation, as well as demonstrating a new control panel to the industry which provides an option to change sound effects to suit the audience, so daytime events will probably require a very different feel to a night time or dark attraction. As well as the sound switching the panel also provides emergency switching allowing the show state to be dropped into flood lighting and emergency evacuation sound track. This was certainly received very well and a there was a lot of interest on the trade stand following the demonstration.
A great day all round, with workshops and technical talks running along side business seminars creating a huge variety of interest and catering for just about everybody's tastes.
The evening saw a rare opportunity to have a lights on tour of the sanctuary, as well as a full live run, a pleasure for all us techies, a chance to see what we are up against in the tech rooms of our attractions, very interesting opportunity and thoroughly enjoyed.
The night was not done, with the Scare Awards being presented and a chance to let our hair down, drinking, dining and dancing was also still to come.
Well done to all the people behind The Halloween Show, an excellent job well done, Check out their website via The Scare Network here
I would also like this chance to thank my excellent crew for the hard work and long hours they have put in this year already, it is very humbling to see the dedication and commitment they give to the FunFear brand. Thank you.
Ian
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