Alton’s Project Sparkle

[Ash]

What would you do?

I’ll kick it off…

Car parks/Monorail:
Cover extraordinary golf with a tent structure
Add airgates for better loading of monorail
Continue improving all the pathways from hotels/car parks (covered/lighting/audio)

Plaza:
Add a central water feature
Permanent festoon lighting
Improve security tents into less intrusive permanent structure

Towers Street:
Permanent festoon lighting installed along all roofs
Reopen family restaurant as a full sit down establishment

Mutiny Bay:
Remove the arcade machines and replace with a flat ride

CBeebies:


Katanga Canyon:
Remove the games unit from in front of RMT station
Tunnel rock work/lighting added
RMT platform covered
Head choppers restored

Gloomy Wood/TCAAM:
New affects/scenery added to the ride
Permanent haunted hollow lighting
More statues added

Forbidden Valley:
Return Galactica back to air
Add new area rock work and water features
Theme the tunnel
Remove the station bridge tunnel
Refurbish inside of the station
Remove obtrusive FV games stalls
Add in permanent entrance/exit structure
Add a small shop for FV park exit
Demolish the coffee lounge

Gardens:
Tidy all of it
Develop Swiss Cottage
Add historical information signage
Add fountains into main lawns lake

The towers:
Remove goal striker and replace with mini drinks/food area (available for various events)
Add a roof to the talbot gallery & use as a restaurant/coffee establishment initially
Turn the state/pugin rooms into AT museum
Turn crux/chapel into a museum cinema/event space
Fix hex audio, cinema projector, cinema lighting, octagon affects, add projection mapping into octagon

X Sector:
Start smilers queue again
Remove from around top of X sector/down path
Remove game stall
Tidy oblivion queue including planetarium building

TWODW:
Open 4D cinema
Remove driving school to indoors old Peugeot showroom
Retheme Dungeons

Dark Forest:
Start again…

 

[jibbsie]

love the air gates for the monorail idea, it takes so long for people to get to onto the monorail, there is usally 2 queued up for the station

 

[Morgan Price]

Wasn’t really sure where this fit but I guess this could come under some sort of sparkle project. Just saw a post about Passholders lounges at Hersheypark and it got me wondering if they’d ever work at Merlin parks a space for passholders with some indoor seating and maybe some Coke Freestyle machines to refill

 

[evilcod]

What would you do?

I’ll kick it off…

Car parks/Monorail:
Cover extraordinary golf with a tent structure
Add airgates for better loading of monorail
Continue improving all the pathways from hotels/car parks (covered/lighting/audio)

Plaza:
Add a central water feature
Permanent festoon lighting
Improve security tents into less intrusive permanent structure

Towers Street:
Permanent festoon lighting installed along all roofs
Reopen family restaurant as a full sit down establishment

Mutiny Bay:
Remove the arcade machines and replace with a flat ride

CBeebies:


Katanga Canyon:
Remove the games unit from in front of RMT station
Tunnel rock work/lighting added
RMT platform covered
Head choppers restored

Gloomy Wood/TCAAM:
New affects/scenery added to the ride
Permanent haunted hollow lighting
More statues added

Forbidden Valley:
Return Galactica back to air
Add new area rock work and water features
Theme the tunnel
Remove the station bridge tunnel
Refurbish inside of the station
Remove obtrusive FV games stalls
Add in permanent entrance/exit structure
Add a small shop for FV park exit
Demolish the coffee lounge

Gardens:
Tidy all of it
Develop Swiss Cottage
Add historical information signage
Add fountains into main lawns lake

The towers:
Remove goal striker and replace with mini drinks/food area (available for various events)
Add a roof to the talbot gallery & use as a restaurant/coffee establishment initially
Turn the state/pugin rooms into AT museum
Turn crux/chapel into a museum cinema/event space
Fix hex audio, cinema projector, cinema lighting, octagon affects, add projection mapping into octagon

X Sector:
Start smilers queue again
Remove from around top of X sector/down path
Remove game stall
Tidy oblivion queue including planetarium building

TWODW:
Open 4D cinema
Remove driving school to indoors old Peugeot showroom
Retheme Dungeons

Dark Forest:
Start again…

This feels less like a "Project Sparkle" which is essentially a large painting project and more like a rebuild of half the park with a large number of complete "never going to happen" dreams

 

[Matt.GC]

Paint all remaining coasters black.

Cover any worn theming with a 2d vinyl depiction of the theming it is replacing.

For everything else that's either worn out or broken, paint it purple.

 

[mo237]

Some great ideas here. It mustn't be forgotten that Alton had their "Towers Loving Care" scheme from late 2015 to the start of 2018. This little venture was good in places - it gave us a new soundtrack for Spinball, lots of cleaning around the park, the restoration of a few bits big and small - but it did also bring us the tanning simulator of Duel, awful sound systems for Hex, and a lot of primary coloured repaints. The intentions were all good, mind - but I think having the entire resort handed to a small team all of a sudden meant things didn't get the attention they needed. Hopefully a second phase of TLC would not only be more fine-tuned, but also far more substantial, and be the start of recurring, rolling maintenance. Some areas would need heaps of money thrown at them to make them "up to standard", but if we're throwing ideas around, here's a few that are personal bug-bears of mine...

• Complete refurbishment of the Monorail system; painted murals at each entrance, queue-time/closures boards, airgates - and most importantly - lovely new trains (that you can see out of!)
• Updated Towers Street, with a few new cafes and specialist shops on the right side
• Deep clean and repaint of pretty much everything

Of course, the list is endless, really!

 

[jesterrace989]

A new flat ride in Submission's old location. And also a new flat ride in Sub Terra's location too. Sub Terra isn't very re-rideable imo. Lastly bring back Cloud Cuckoo Land. I really miss the music that used to be played round the area it was so happy and joyful. At least it lives on in the Burger Kitchen

 

[jon81uk]

A new flat ride in Submission's old location. And also a new flat ride in Sub Terra's location too. Sub Terra isn't very re-rideable imo. Lastly bring back Cloud Cuckoo Land. I really miss the music that used to be played round the area it was so happy and joyful. At least it lives on in the Burger Kitchen

Adding flat rides isn't Sparkle or TLC, it is new rides.

This topic is about small improvements and rennovations, fixing things, adding small extras etc, not capital investment.

 

[jesterrace989]

Ah my bad

 

[Jay51]

As far as the Hex audio I can only feel for Ohm (now Omega) as their speakers are world class but it seems on Hex that the bass amps are dead or not switched on.

Hex seems to run on full range speakers that should be providing mid top only.

As a result the sound is terrible and the atmosphere in the vault room is lost.

A simple addition of a Sub and replace the current mid tops and hey presto service would be resumed.

This is not a massive job and could be done in a few hours which makes me wonder why its never been done.

 

[ScottishChris]

Sparkle Project:
1. Don't have a Sparkle Project... because projects are finite and will end
2. I would form a Sparkle department with 1 painter, 1 sign maker, 1 landscaper, 1 audio and lighting engineer and 1 Fabricator
3. I would provide the above with a suitable workshop and materials
4. Each of the team members in section 2, have an apprentice hired. Additional 'casual staff' could be hired for painting etc. in the closed season
5. A list of tasks would be allocated and worked through
6. The Sparkle Department would work perpetually and like the old Forth Bridge, once complete they would start all over again.

 

[jon81uk]

Sparkle Project:
1. Don't have a Sparkle Project... because projects are finite and will end
2. I would form a Sparkle department with 1 painter, 1 sign maker, 1 landscaper, 1 audio and lighting engineer and 1 Fabricator
3. I would provide the above with a suitable workshop and materials
4. Each of the team members in section 2, have an apprentice hired. Additional 'casual staff' could be hired for painting etc. in the closed season
5. A list of tasks would be allocated and worked through
6. The Sparkle Department would work perpetually and like the old Forth Bridge, once complete they would start all over again.

Need a couple of painters and a larger team of gardeners and landscapers. Sign making can remain contracted out to Leek Signs, no need to bring that in-house.

They have prop-makers and fabricators on-site and I think costumers too.

 

[ScottishChris]

Need a couple of painters and a larger team of gardeners and landscapers. Sign making can remain contracted out to Leek Signs, no need to bring that in-house.

They have prop-makers and fabricators on-site and I think costumers too.

Nomatter the ins and outs, they need to have an ongoing maintenance and refurbishment team - ideally one that can develop the skills and abilities needed in house.... that's what I was really going for.

Also, with signs... Merlin has a massive portfolio in the UK. Why do they not have their own sign shop?

 

[jon81uk]

Also, with signs... Merlin has a massive portfolio in the UK. Why do they not have their own sign shop?

Why bother buying all that expensive printing equipment when there are companies you can contract it out to. Leek Signs (and possibly other contractors) offer a great product and I don't think they would do as well in-house.

 

[jesterrace989]

As far as the Hex audio I can only feel for Ohm (now Omega) as their speakers are world class but it seems on Hex that the bass amps are dead or not switched on.

Hex seems to run on full range speakers that should be providing mid top only.

As a result the sound is terrible and the atmosphere in the vault room is lost.

A simple addition of a Sub and replace the current mid tops and hey presto service would be resumed.

This is not a massive job and could be done in a few hours which makes me wonder why its never been done.

When was the last time the park used Bose speakers? The park still has a lot of them mostly in Dark Forest and Mutiny Bay but they're not as prominent as they once were. I recall Towers Street having a lot of Bose speakers

 

[Jay51]

When was the last time the park used Bose speakers? The park still has a lot of them mostly in Dark Forest and Mutiny Bay but they're not as prominent as they once were. I recall Towers Street having a lot of Bose speakers

I believe all new installs are now Omega..Far better than BOSE.

Chessington are using Omega as well.

Only Thorpe is different using EV and RCF

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I believe all new installs are now Omega..Far better than BOSE.

What's better about them? Can you do a side by side comparison for me, or is this based on your personal preference of brand? Which set ups / installs are we talking about here? When you're paying tens of thousands of pounds, if not more, on professional outdoor and indoor audio equipment there's really not much of a difference in terms of technical specifications of the products alone to the human ear. What does matter is the set up, placement and tuning of the equipment. Are your speakers in optimal locations, have you compensated for the natural, and man made, acoustics of the environment you're sound designing? What are you driving all of this equipment with and what's the format of the input? A 64 kbps 22050Hz MP3 is going to sound dreadfully shocking on whichever system you use.

If you're going to say something is better than something else, please provide substantiated observable evidence or sources so we can understand your reasoning.

If you simply prefer something, for whatever personal reasons, you could just say that too.

 

[Jay51]

What's better about them? Can you do a side by side comparison for me, or is this based on your personal preference of brand? Which set ups / installs are we talking about here? When you're paying tens of thousands of pounds, if not more, on professional outdoor and indoor audio equipment there's really not much of a difference in terms of technical specifications of the products alone to the human ear. What does matter is the set up, placement and tuning of the equipment. Are your speakers in optimal locations, have you compensated for the natural, and man made, acoustics of the environment you're sound designing? What are you driving all of this equipment with and what's the format of the input? A 64 kbps 22050Hz MP3 is going to sound dreadfully shocking on whichever system you use.

If you're going to say something is better than something else, please provide substantiated observable evidence or sources so we can understand your reasoning.

If you simply prefer something, for whatever personal reasons, you could just say that too.

I have worked with Bose systems : 802,s and 302's in nightclubs and they sound terrible even when using the Bose controller. They lack bass and will routinely blow drivers.

In the Dj / club forums Bose is referred to as the acronym "Bring Other Sound Equipment".

I personally have Ohm TRS 212 and BR 218 subs and they are amazing and give bass that Bose just simply cant deliver.

I have been to places with Ohm speakers installed and all have sounded very impressive and clear with deep bass.

Look at Merlin Parks:

Bose used on Air : speakers crackle and were blown and rattling in year one.
Hex: Bose system: sounded good for a while and then has been appalling ever since: Replaced with Ohm but by the looks of it a £20 budget was assigned and as a result still sounds terrible.
Towers street : had Bose and now sounds much better and clearer with Ohm.
Scarefest: OHM TRS 218 subs used for that earth shuddering bass in Mazes.
Fireworks: Has been Ohm systems for many years and has never been BOSE from memory
Outdoor Events at the towers : Ohm systems used on the stages and sound good even outdoors which is hard to achieve
Wickerman: Ohm subs again and mid tops...still sounds amazing today : Only negative is lift hill which speakers stopped after 1 week but could have just been turned off.
Nemesis Inferno: Bose :Awful sub cannons which fart and pop in the station.
Oblivion Queue line speaker with metal surrounds: All crackle and distort and all Bose.

I think this should be enough to cover the difference between Bose & Ohm now Omega.

 

[GooseOnTheLoose]

I have worked with Bose systems : 802,s and 302's in nightclubs and they sound terrible even when using the Bose controller. They lack bass and will routinely blow drivers.

In the Dj / club forums Bose is referred to as the acronym "Bring Other Sound Equipment".

I personally have Ohm TRS 212 and BR 218 subs and they are amazing and give bass that Bose just simply cant deliver.

I have been to places with Ohm speakers installed and all have sounded very impressive and clear with deep bass.

Look at Merlin Parks:

Bose used on Air : speakers crackle and were blown and rattling in year one.
Hex: Bose system: sounded good for a while and then has been appalling ever since: Replaced with Ohm but by the looks of it a £20 budget was assigned and as a result still sounds terrible.
Towers street : had Bose and now sounds much better and clearer with Ohm.
Scarefest: OHM TRS 218 subs used for that earth shuddering bass in Mazes.
Fireworks: Has been Ohm systems for many years and has never been BOSE from memory
Outdoor Events at the towers : Ohm systems used on the stages and sound good even outdoors which is hard to achieve
Wickerman: Ohm subs again and mid tops...still sounds amazing today : Only negative is lift hill which speakers stopped after 1 week but could have just been turned off.
Nemesis Inferno: Bose :Awful sub cannons which fart and pop in the station.
Oblivion Queue line speaker with metal surrounds: All crackle and distort and all Bose.

I think this should be enough to cover the difference between Bose & Ohm now Omega.

I can understand the wanton enthusiasm for mega bass in the DJ and nightclub scene, but I do think it has its time and place. I prefer to be able to hear a full spectrum of frequencies, and find it incredibly frustrating when an over reliance on bass, to make the sound seems full, destroys any chance of hearing highs and mids.

Each to their own I suppose.

 

[Jay51]

I can understand the wanton enthusiasm for mega bass in the DJ and nightclub scene, but I do think it has its time and place. I prefer to be able to hear a full spectrum of frequencies, and find it incredibly frustrating when an over reliance on bass, to make the sound seems full, destroys any chance of hearing highs and mids.

Each to their own I suppose.

I would agree with you but when you are creating an atmosphere such as an intimidating experience a speaker popping, crackling and farting tends not to create this atmosphere and actually detracts (Nemesis inferno as an example)..

Last thing you want is booming deep bass on rides such as in the night garden but on lets say Nemesis/Wickerman it enhances the atmosphere of the area.

I have been in the club/Dj scene for over 30 years and have worked on many systems, I have also seen a change in the Theme park industry to move towards brands such as Ohm,Omega, RCF & EV and a more heavy use of Subs to create an immersive sound experience.

Over all of the years the standout systems have been : D&B, Martin, Ohm, EV, Funktion one & L acoustics.

JBL , HK Audio & Bose have always been either to top heavy and hurt your ears (JBL) or just lack luster (Bose & HK).

Just had a look and Bose are not even in the market any more for serious sound re-enforcement and have moved more to the home market and small mobile DJ which is where I see Bose.

I have a Bose companion 5 system in my office and its great for that use but I would not use them for sound reinforcement, I would say that given that not many venues at all use Bose now its looks like the entertainment market has also gone the same way.

Bose has served its purpose but is no longer able to compete in the market with the product set they have. Competitors now have a broader product offering that can be tailored to meet the requirements of the brief (ie coloring, environmentally friendly or immersive sound).

It will be interesting to see what has been done with Nemesis re-born to see what system has been put in....Lets wait until the 16th of March and see / Hear.