Technotainment spectacles just keep getting bigger and better, but as Dan McEwen quickly discovered, their success has more to do with creativity than technology

START talking about those big, flashy special effects shows audiences love so much and right away the conversation turns technical. Just listen to Paul McCloskey, CEO of Australia’s Laservision, describing Wonder Full, the eyepopping aquatainment spectacular his company recently developed for Marina Bay Sands, Singapore’s toniest new resort.

“The project … involved integrating multiple mediums, including floating fountains, water screens, aqua cannons, flame systems, search lights, moving head projectors, HD video projectors, customised floating projection pontoons, thousands of LED lights, high-powered Stella-Ray and Light-Ray lasers and a Special FX, 7.1 surround audio system … synchronised to 1/1000 of a second,” he reveals.

Or give a listen to Dominique Formhals of Aquatique Show International, in Strasbourg, France, observing how “The first question clients usually ask is ‘What’s new’? Everyone is looking for a new technology which will enable him to be different from his competitors.”

Indeed, the race to develop The Next Big Thing in live show hardware has meant that “new technologies are emerging faster than actual projects can be delivered,” according to John Kristich of Nevada’s W. A. Richardson Builders, a veteran designer of light and fountain shows at casinos around the world. “Often new technology is not new by the time we can implement or integrate it into an actual project that a guest can experience.”

So you can see why it would be tempting to make this article a review of the latest in “Gee-Whizz!”- generating gizmos. But it’s not, largely because these same people will also tell you that success in their business is never simply a matter of having all the latest bells and whistles. As Aquatique’s Formhals so nicely puts it: “Technology is at the service of the dream, not the contrary.”

And what dreams they are.

In 1992, Disney’s famous imagineers dreamed up Fantasmic, a night-time light and water show that history records featured the first use of a water screen. It debuted at Disneyland, California, mesmerising record crowds and inaugurating what has become a global rivalry among not just the brand-name theme parks but casinos, hotels, resorts and major entertainment venues as well, to be home to the world’s most superlative-defying technotainment attraction.

By 1997, for example, Laservision had produced what was then the world’s largest and most complex outdoor multimedia show for Samsung’s Everland park in South Korea. This mind-blowing concoction of large-format film, lasers, a 72,000W surround sound system, pyrotechnics, a water screen, animated fountain and assorted special effects, quickly became the country’s number one night-time attraction. Even in regional parks, these shows soon evolved from seasonal or side-line events to marquee attractions.

“Our work has been promoted from decoration to main event”, says John Carter at Parker 3d, a New Jersey holiday design company that lists Sony Corp., Madison Square Garden and the World Financial Centre among its clientele. “A million-light Christmas light show we created at Busch Gardens, Virginia, was voted the number one attraction in the park, rated higher than any ride or live show.”

At Aquatique, where they’ve been choreographing fountains and lights into elegant “water theatres” for over 30 years, Formhals declares enthusiastically: “Water is used in big shows and events all over the world. Today it’s a must for leisure parks. All the biggest parks either own or are looking for a water show, always more imposing and spectacular.” He should know; his company’s theme park credits include shows at Europa-Park, Germany, Disneyland, France, Port Aventura, Spain and Sea World, Florida.

But while the technologies employed in creating these “always more imposing and spectacular” shows keeps getting smarter, faster and more versatile, the reasons why parks so willingly shell out for them haven’t changed much over the years. For starters, night-time shows especially, prolong the duration of the typical visit and thus increase merchandise and food service sales.

Equally important, however, is the ability of a show to build a venue’s brand by offering guests a singular, must-see experience they will long remember and talk up among their friends. Take for example that Christmas show John Carter at Parker 3D developed for Busch Gardens, Williamsburg. Money well spent according to Scott Gasparich, the park’s vice-president of entertainment, because, while “… anyone can develop and install a lighted tree and set it to music … it takes experts in their craft to develop an awe-inspiring piece of art that will make people say ‘Now this is Christmas.’ Carter’s production … creates memories that will last a lifetime.”

“I think the goal of any project is to achieve a ‘wow’ factor,” confirms Josh Martin, COO of Aquatic Design Engineering [ADE]. His Florida-based company has just installed an 8,000 sq. m, multi-level fountain boasting 2,100 LED lights at Abu Dhabi’s Ferrari World, the world’s largest indoor theme park. “The developers who hire us expect that we can deliver a ‘wow’ moment to their guests. It’s said that you only get one chance to make a first impression and our goal is to make that moment count.”

Also in Florida is Jeff Wade, who’s company Back Stage Technologies specialises in creating “… eye candy, whether it’s flame, water, pyrotechnics, cryogenics, fibre optics.” According to Wade: “We are continually approached by creative directors who have a vision for a show. Our job is to create these visions with the technologies of illusion – what many like to call ‘smoke and mirrors’.”

Creating visions. That’s what it’s really all about. That’s the “ahh-some”! truth of this business – inventing the “smoke and mirrors” isn’t the hard part. Rather, the real challenge is figuring out how to utilise them as effectively, reliably and, of course, as affordably as possible to realise their clients’ visions. And that, say the major players, takes as much imagination as it does technical prowess.

“Creativity is essential,” says Aquatique’s Formhals. “This is what clients are looking for when they consult us.”

Naturally, each player has developed their own particular approach to meeting that challenge.

“Our clients require displays to be hipper, louder and to reach out and touch the audience,” says Parker 3D’s Carter, who has designed sculptural interactive displays around the world. The signature of his shows is a mix of tradition, surprise and emotion precisely calculated to make a visceral connection with the audience. “The crowd must feel something together as part of the journey.”

For W. A. Richardson Builders in Las Vegas, staying on top of the industry has meant not only staying on top of technology but also envisioning clever ways to integrate it into their designs, “… so that we can deliver something that the guest has not seen or experienced, for as low a cost as possible,” according to Kristich. So much so in fact that “JK” as he is known, predicts: “Finding creative ways to introduce new technology into the hospitality industry will be the key to success for all design and architecture firms in the future.” His advice to park managers: “Find the very best design firm to work with and don’t settle for anything that has been done before.”

ADE’s Josh Martin seconds that motion with this advice: “Be creative! Don’t just copy the water features that are out there now. Lots of people have built fountains that shoot water high so try instead to think of creative ways of using light, sound, automation and video to create an interactive water feature that allows the viewers to engage in the experience.”

Martin also speaks from experience when he talks about the newest technological hurdle companies like his are facing – doing it cleaner and greener. As he points out: “Water features inherently haven’t been sustainable. When a nozzle shoots water 30 metres into the air, some of it evaporates during its descent back to the pond and in the past we would be forced to add new water back into the feature. By using new engineering techniques we are converting rainwater, HVAC run off and other types of gray water from a site into potable water feature water. We are now reusing and capturing water that in the past was lost to the site.”

ADE is not alone. Aquatique’s clientele are increasingly ecologically-minded too and Formhals says this has prompted the company to invest in technologies that save both energy and the environment. Even the old fashioned fireworks show is becoming more eco-friendly. McCloskey at Laservision notes that when a show is adjacent to environmentally-sensitive surfaces – such as Marina Bay Sands resort – they can always use debriless pyrotechnics which are totally free of fallout. It’s yet another complication in an already complicated business. No surprise then that Carl Rijsbrack of Belgian equipment manufacturer Barco advises anyone shopping for a show to look for a partner who offers a comprehensive service, “someone who can give them an incorporated design including indoor as well as outdoor products, projection, LED as well as lighting, and also the control systems for these products,” he says.

That’s advice worth taking since no-one in the industry, no matter how tech-savvy, thinks Jeff Wade’s “technologies of illusion” are anywhere near reaching their limits. Matthias Lohr, owner of Germany’s aqua-in-motion. com, reflects popular opinion when he suggests that “with technology constantly and rapidly re-inventing itself, the possibilities for creating shows are not nearly maxed out and won´t be for a very long time.”

Ahhsome!