44 TECHNOLOGY FEATURE: SHOW CONTROL February 2015
Attracting innovation Theme parks, visitor attractions, museums and so on are in the business of creating extraordinary experiences – and technology has a role in delivering them. But what’s driving innovation in the show control industry? Ian McMurray finds out
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ere’s an interesting thing. Google ‘What drives innovation?’ There are, it seems, a number of factors. Risk-taking. Failure. Diversity. Competition. Inspiration. It takes a while before you come across the suggestion that customer needs drive innovation. That’s always been a conundrum in the technology industry: do we want things before manufacturers create them for us – or is it only when we see the new, bright, shiny object that we realise we want it? “For Alcorn McBride, it is 100% customer-driven,” according to the company’s director of sales, Scott Harkless. “We make it a high priority to stay current on the latest technologies so that we can include them in the solutions our customers ask for, but our customers drive our development path. Sometimes they directly
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communicate their needs and other times we realise the needs by observing how they use our systems in real-world applications. Either way, the inspiration comes from them.” Tobias Stumpfl, commercial director at AV Stumpfl, agrees. “Show control is definitely a
customer,” echoes Henry Corrado, founder of Tejix. “Creative people turn it into an attraction concept. While we communicate with clients and artistic directors about new technologies, a show only based on new technology is unlikely to have a long life expectancy.”
‘The show control system is becoming a kind of meta controller aiming at making the visitor experience better’ Alex Carru, Medialon
market which is driven by visionary customers and a strong aim for reproduction of successful applications,” he says. “Technology development is based on market requirements.” “The starting point of a project is the request of a
What’s possible? And there’s the conundrum – the ‘chicken or egg’ question. Customers may know what they’d like to achieve for their show – but that requirement almost certainly needs to be bounded by an appreciation
of what’s possible. As such, it’s a valuable service that manufacturers and integrators can provide – to ensure their customers are kept updated. There is also little doubt that innovations in shows can be driven from ‘the other end’: a customer sees what’s possible, and that shapes the requirement. Fredrik Svahnberg, general manager, project sales division at Dataton, describes a real-world case. “I think that innovation is driven by creative pioneers,” he says, “although manufacturers and integrators are both fast and proficient at adapting existing technology or possibilities, and providing the solutions. Take projection mapping for instance: at some point, someone had an idea, grabbed a bunch of projectors, and started testing. Years later, the technology is all in place
Behind the new audiovisual centre at the monastery at Montserrat is an AV Stumpfl multimedia presentation system
Key Points n Innovations in the industry come about through a continuous dialogue between show operators, manufacturers and integrators n Show control systems are becoming more pervasive as they become more affordable and easier to use n Show control systems are evolving beyond control of the audible and visible to play a key role in attraction management n Adapting new technologies is key to improving visitor experiences – but not at the cost of reliability and projection mapping is mainstream. It’s a symbiosis, but you need those pioneers who see the potential before anyone else.” There is, of course, no right or wrong answer: the reality lies somewhere between the two. “It’s is a mix of both, actually,” believes Alex Carru, CEO of Medialon. “Designers are very creative and often ask ‘Can you achieve this, or this?’ – but, as a manufacturer, we always come up with new
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