Warner Bros. World, Abu Dhabi

Virtualized control system redefines audiovisual scheduling and show control at the world’s largest indoor theme park.

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INTRODUCTION

The world’s largest indoor theme park features 29 separate attractions across 1.65 million square feet. Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi is divided into six themed areas showcasing legendary characters like Batman, Superman, Scooby-Doo, Bugs Bunny and the Justice League.

The park boasts one of the most impressive ‘technological backbones’ of any theme park in the world - the Parkwide Audiovisual Scheduling, Lighting and Control System. Operators manage the complete audiovisual estate centrally, including 164 projectors, 91 LED displays, 126 media servers and 1849 speakers.

Electrosonic was the technology designer and integrator for all the audio, video, networks, special effects and control systems in the park, working in partnership with Medialon, Smart Monkeys and Thinkwell. Electrosonic took the detailed creative concepts and designed and engineered the technology solutions to help create the most technologically advanced theme park possible.

OVERVIEW

Controlling an entertainment environment on this scale is a massively complex undertaking. There are immersive rides, a flying theater, a 360⁰ theater featuring 3D projection, interactive experiences and numerous dark rides in addition to the world’s largest projection canvas and a multimedia Cinema Spectacular.

Electrosonic deployed and integrated Smart Monkeys’ ISAAC platform to create a single, highly automated, centralized audiovisual scheduling and control solution. The solution integrates with Medialon show control systems, QSC Q-SYS, Brightsign and 7th Sense media servers to give the operations team full control over every piece of audiovisual equipment from a single point of coordination.

Operators can bring systems online without manual intervention or inspection, schedule shows, turn lighting or audio on or off remotely and close systems down automatically at the end of the day.

Data from the system provides real-time status information and alerts so that service teams can respond quickly to any problems. The data also provides valuable insight on equipment performance and usage as a basis for planning preventative maintenance or upgrades.

The Parkwide Control System acts as the ‘brain’ for the park’s audiovisual systems, integrating all the essential controls into a single, easy-to-use solution that saves resources and minimizes downtime.

CHALLENGE

In a park as large and technologically advanced as Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi, a traditional networked PC-based control system with staff checking individual equipment manually before opening would be impractical from a time and resource perspective. Traditional control systems also have large space, power and capital requirements, creating further inefficiencies.

Operators need accurate, up-to-date information on technical issues to respond and keep attractions open, which is difficult with manual systems.

SOLUTION

Electrosonic worked in partnership with Smart Monkeys and Medialon to design and engineer a solution based on ISAAC, which replaces physical PCs with clusters of cloud-based virtual PCs on a robust hardware platform. The solution provides a centralized control solution that incorporates multiple small-form servers in fault-tolerant mode to maximize reliability and save space. Operations staff access the system through a web browser application to control attractions, schedule shows and receive alerts.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The sophisticated control system redefines audiovisual scheduling and control, eliminating the reliability and resource challenges of networked PC systems and manual inspections and replacing them with a reliable, highly automated cloud-based virtualized solution.

The Parkwide System ensures that the advanced audiovisual technology driving the world-class attractions at Warner Bros World Abu Dhabi can provide the best possible visitor experience.

Project Details

Client

Warner Bros. World, Abu Dhabi

Location

Yas Island, Abu Dhabi

Size

1.65 million sq. ft. (full park)

Services

Technology Design Consulting

Build & System Integration

Projection Studies

Audio, Video & Control Systems

Detailed Engineering

Fabrication & Installation

Project Management

Commissioning & Testing

This is truly the first time a whole theme park has been designed and built around control systems that run entirely in a virtual environment. The Medialon team was proud to partner with Smart Monkeys and Electrosonic to help create the most technologically advanced theme park possible.

Eric Cantrell

VP of Business Operations, Medialon

Parkwide control The Parkwide Control System manages scheduling, lighting and control for the world’s largest and most technologically advanced indoor theme park.

Centralized management Operations teams can manage, monitor and schedule the technology systems for rides and attractions from a single point of coordination.

Operational insight The Parkwide Control System provides data-driven insights to help operations teams identify issues and monitor audiovisual system performance.