Tom & Jerry’s Swiss Cheese Spin at Warner Bros. World, Abu Dhabi

Add audio visual technology to a high-speed spinning coaster ride for a fast and furious immersive experience

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INTRODUCTION

Hold on tight — Tom & Jerry’s Swiss Cheese Spin is a spinning coaster ride with a difference. It’s a fast, furious and frantic experience with spectacular media effects, special lighting and a custom soundtrack.

As visitors weave and spin their way through 12 animated scenes, they experience the thrill of the chase as Jerry tries to outwit Tom and secure more cheese. It’s a carefully choreographed high-speed adventure where visitors experience the sensations and sounds of cat and mouse mayhem.

Electrosonic partnered with Thinkwell and Smart Monkeys to bring the creative vision to life, taking responsibility for audiovisual design and integration, lighting effects, triggering systems and ride control. The result is a frantic, family-friendly experience that lives up to the Tom & Jerry legend.

OVERVIEW

This is no ordinary ride. Visitors don’t just rotate through the scenes – they crash through walls, knock over furniture and relive more mad moments from the popular cartoon series — all courtesy of experiential technology.

Clever projection recreates the ‘breakthrough’ moments, using rear projection from three Barco projectors onto custom screens with special sound effects synchronized to the spectacular crashes of the chase.

There are frantic chase scenes during the ascent to Jerry’s cheese bank and around the living room and kitchen. To synchronize the special effects and audio with the position of the roller coaster cars, multiple sensors and reflectors are used to detect the cars and trigger the content at critical points in the chase.

Fifty-eight speakers and subwoofers from leading manufacturers like JBL and QSC provide background music and sound effects that recreate the sensations of crashes, running water and ticking clocks. The audio units are concealed within the various elements of the set.

The sophisticated ride control system is designed to provide precise control and timing of the content and effects throughout the chase. The ride can be controlled and monitored locally by a touch panel or integrated with Smart Monkeys’ Parkwide Control System for centralized management.

CHALLENGE

One of the main technical challenges was to synchronize the progress of a high-speed roller coaster with cues for special audiovisual effects and a realistic soundtrack that recreates the sounds of a frantic chase. The triggering mechanism had to be integrated with the overall ride control system.

The ride also had to simulate damage to the set during the chase, with walls shattering and furniture crashing over — all happening at speed. Physical damage would have been impractical to manage, but was essential to the story. The sophisticated ride control system is designed to provide precise control and timing of the content and effects throughout the chase. The ride can be controlled and monitored locally by a touch panel or integrated with Smart Monkeys’ Parkwide Control System for centralized management.

SOLUTION

Electrosonic reviewed the sequencing of the content throughout the ride and used the timeline to determine the cues for audio, video and special effects. In the kitchen, four Peppers & Fuchs infrared sensors and four reflectors are used as ride vehicle position triggers to activate content at the right time. The living room chase sequence uses five sets of the same triggering systems. The ride control system manages the triggering as well as the projection solution that creates the illusion of damage.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Tom & Jerry’s Swiss Cheese Spin brings to life classic moments from the frantic world of the television cartoon series, using technology to out visitors at the center of the frantic action. This experience brings together traditional dark ride features with innovative audiovisual effects and immersive audio.

The result is themed entertainment that fuses architecture, storytelling and technology to celebrate legends of the small screen on a larger canvas.