ATLANTIC CITY, NJ — The fountain attraction in Las Vegas now has competition in The Show, which recently debuted at The Pier at Caesars on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. Designed by Burbank's Thinkwell Design and Production, the water exhibition features audio and master show control by Electrosonic Systems, Inc. Situated in the three-story atrium of the high-end mall, The Show stages seven-minute performances hourly, day and night.
The nature of the atrium space posed a special challenge to the key sound component of the attraction. "We wanted to create the best audio we could, but when you're trying to pump music and sound effects over water surrounded by a three-story glass wall, that's not an easy task," says Meiman. "With the help of Electrosonic, we achieved that. They met all the deadlines and were on top of things every step of the way. Electrosonic was very supportive throughout a very complex install."
Electrosonic furnished a 36×124 BSS London audio system for The Show; inputs consist of a 24-channel audio player, and outputs are 113 Meyer and Tannoy speakers, including four line arrays in the ceiling and six subwoofers. Fills and surrounds on each floor are controlled separately.
"Competing with 149 water nozzles isn't an easy task, but by implementing a highly addressable, distributed audio system, we are able to spin the sound around the highly reverberant space while maintaining coherence," states Bryan Hinckley of Electrosonic.
The Show's fountains are choreographed to the music via the unique time code assigned to each song. Electrosonic's ESCAN show control system, with Digital FrEND and AMX touch panel, gives the fountains the music's time code, which triggers the water choreography. Plumes can shoot upwards of 50 feet in the air, and rain curtains hanging above the fountain from the ceiling add an extra dimension.
Marcelo Videla was Electrosonic's project manager for The Show, with Bryan Hinckley acting as the sound and control system design consultant. Clifford Warner served as executive producer for Thinkwell, with Jim Okumura as creative director. Francois Bergeron was The Show's senior sound designer, and Vikram Kirby was sound designer.
The Show was two years in development at Thinkwell. "We were handed a three-story atrium that needed an immersive, themed environment," recalls Thinkwell project manager Hank Meiman. A "musical dancing light show" was devised with a 19,000-gallon reflecting pool consisting of 150 fountain nozzles. A complement of moving lights illuminates and colors the show while plumes of water interact with passersby via a camera tracking system crafted by Thinkwell, Carnegie Mellon University's Entertainment Technology Center and Sona Research.
For more information visit http://www.electrosonic.com/home.htm.
