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Hex [2024 Refurb]: General Discussion

Matt N said:
The important thing to note is that these parks have to evolve and change over time, and whatever you personally think of it, the choice to change Hex’s lighting is part of that.

These theme parks are not intended to be time capsules; they’re intended to entertain the guests of today. If something doesn’t work for a modern audience, or could be replaced with something that might work better for a modern audience, it shouldn’t be kept just because “John Wardley built it” or “it’s one of the few remaining vestiges of Tussauds” as I’ve heard said before.

Based on the bulk of the experience being the same, management clearly thought that the bulk of Hex still works for a modern audience (rightly so, in my view; I don’t think it needed to be faffed with), but that the new lighting in the vault might make that portion resonate with modern audiences even more.
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Indeed. Even Disney have started ripping out many of their iconic 'time capsule' attractions to make way for new updates and new IP. Personally? I love the old stuff, the older the ride the better for me. However, I don't single-handedly prop up their budgets do I; the general public do, and the GP want new, flashy, in-your-face, and attention grabbing.

(todo: insert some other grumpy anti-tiktok reasoning here...)
 
There are a few added lighting cues in the video room that are fairly subtle and that I'm a fan of. The octagon isn't too bad but suffers due of the use of cheap TVs that can't do blackout. My only real issue is the vault where they seemingly forgot the ride isn't supposed to be Haunted House Monster Party and just went crazy with the sort of cheap looking lighting effects that 12 year old me might have had in my bedroom.
 
I think John is probably closer to the reasoning as to why Merlin has implemented the new lighting package in the way it has.

I suspect the reality is that there was way less consideration of customer feedback, changing trends and 'enhancement of guest experience'. I'm not sure that Merlin will have put in as much thought on these topics as many people here give them credit for. If they were updating the ride to react to changing trends over the past 25 years, the updates would have been far more significant.

I think there's a very real chance that the decision was more driven by the need to install a new lighting package (i.e. the old tech was basically shot), and the lighting package we got is simply reflective of the level of budget Merlin were willing to spend on it and the skill set of the team implementing it. All lighting designers will have specific skill sets - you are unlikely to get theatrical lighting in an attraction unless you have a theatrical lighting designer on the team.

This would also reflect why the Octagon effects sound like they were essentially downgraded during the upgrade.
 
Squiggs said:
I think John is probably closer to the reasoning as to why Merlin has implemented the new lighting package in the way it has.

I suspect the reality is that there was way less consideration of customer feedback, changing trends and 'enhancement of guest experience'. I'm not sure that Merlin will have put in as much thought on these topics as many people here give them credit for. If they were updating the ride to react to changing trends over the past 25 years, the updates would have been far more significant.

I think there's a very real chance that the decision was more driven by the need to install a new lighting package (i.e. the old tech was basically shot), and the lighting package we got is simply reflective of the level of budget Merlin were willing to spend on it and the skill set of the team implementing it. All lighting designers will have specific skill sets - you are unlikely to get theatrical lighting in an attraction unless you have a theatrical lighting designer on the team.

This would also reflect why the Octagon effects sound like they were essentially downgraded during the upgrade.
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Actually the lighting package wasn't all that old - it was the control system that was from the ark. We could add new lights whenever we wanted, but they were still saddled with the old outputs from the original show control system that couldn't be changed or modified. Like the spark generator for example - plenty of new iterations were added through the years, but all still connected to the same feed that powered up at the precise moment in the script etc.

A bit like all of the complaints about the cinema projector being 'awful quality' - the projector was swapped out a lot of times, but the original compressed video playback had to stay the same no matter what.

Obviously going all-LED has its advantages - less time spent up very high ladders changing lamps every month for example - but there are expensive ways to do LED and....shall we say slightly more budget friendly ways to do LED, and guess which way they went. The dimming curve on the profiles in the cinema room should tell you all you need to know.
 
Squiggs said:
. All lighting designers will have specific skill sets - you are unlikely to get theatrical lighting in an attraction unless you have a theatrical lighting designer on the team.
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Well I know I'm not the only member of these boards with such a skillset. But I might be the one who's been doing it the longest?

Would be interesting to see what some of us lot could come up with. No doubt someone round here could even CAD up a 3D model of the ride to import in to WYSIWYG.

..... Shame they can't afford my rates, really. (I might settle for a lifetime MAP though).
 
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