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Park Audio, Lighting and Everything Geeky

Alex2020 said:
Do Alton and Merlin know these exist?


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They camouflage well and aren’t as obtrusive as the installation of the new speakers.

I also can’t get over the amount of speakers they’ve added to CRR! There’s literally one every 3 meters… I’m all for investment in park audio but some theming on the ride would be nice too.
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The Bose versions of these have been used EXTENSIVELY across the Alton Towers estate for over 2 decades and more, not many exist any more. I think some still exist around the park. They used to be in Oblivion queue, air queue, the Flume queue, Thirteen queue to name a few.

Trouble is, they are not well suited for the application Alton Towers are installing these speakers in the rapids. These speakers are good for 360 sound. Good for queue lines, not good when trying to point audio at a boat on a ride.
 
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I’m all for more music and audio, and I’m no expert, but the amount of speakers around the rapids seem excessive. I’ve heard rumours there are about 90 in the queue, station and around the ride. They are literally every few meters along the ride.
 
DistortAMG said:
Trouble is, they are not well suited for the application Alton Towers are installing these speakers in the rapids. These speakers are good for 360 sound. Good for queue lines, not good when trying to point audio at a boat on a ride
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Would you agree there are better ways to achieve this coverage than speakers every few metres, even if they may have crates/hessian or a post-oops coverup they can quickly concoct.

Obviously done to try improve the guest experience, but a slightly dystopian method 'You WILL enjoy this music on the rapids'!!
 
ChristmasPud said:
Obviously done to try improve the guest experience, but a slightly dystopian method 'You WILL enjoy this music on the rapids'!!
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Not obviously at all, I'd say it's far more likely that these speakers are designed for automated "stay seated" announcements as have been implemented on other Merlin rapids rides. The fact that you can also push music down them is a happy side effect.
 
James said:
Ha, imagine the ride now, 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated'...

IMMERSION!
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It's been a few years since I've been but wasn't that what it was like anyway?

Maybe they should just work it into the soundtrack. I'm thinking a Techno remix in the style of Euro Mir.
 
Tim said:
It's been a few years since I've been but wasn't that what it was like anyway?

Maybe they should just work it into the soundtrack. I'm thinking a Techno remix in the style of Euro Mir.
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Thanks to you, I've got the 'please remain seated' announcement to the tune of the Euro Mir soundtrack in my head. 🤣
 
James said:
Ha, imagine the ride now, 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated', 'please remain seated'...

IMMERSION!
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"Mummy mummy when we go to Alton Towers can I go on the Please Remain Seated Rapids please? Then the Gangsta SIDDOWN Granny ride and finish on the Go Jetters Vroomster PUT YOUR PHONE AWAY PLEASE Zoom ride?"
 
ChristmasPud said:
Would you agree there are better ways to achieve this coverage than speakers every few metres, even if they may have crates/hessian or a post-oops coverup they can quickly concoct.

Obviously done to try improve the guest experience, but a slightly dystopian method 'You WILL enjoy this music on the rapids'!!
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Probably yes. Although the solution is not terrible, it is not the best way of deploying either. The one advantage you do get from using so many speakers so close on CRR is there will be no playback delay to the ear. Playback delay being audio from different speakers arriving at your ears at different times, giving a very hard to hear and loose sound.

It is most notable when using speech and other non musical announcements. This is a big problem outdoors for any audio setup. Wind, atmospheric conditions, other audio sources (rapids / water) and the general larger / uneven distances between the speakers themselves and your ear can play a big part in having speakers that fire audio at exactly the same time, arriving to your ear at different times. The time difference will only be milliseconds, but that is enough to make audio and speech in particular, very hard to hear by the ear when being fired from multiple uneven audio sources.

Having them so close completely eradicates this problem. Meaning audio and voice announcements will be heard by the end user crisp and clear at all times. There are very few places on the park if any, where you will be stood between a set of speakers that are all exactly the same distance away from your ear. Meaning audio arrives at different times to your ear. This effect is more noticeable in some areas than other. Water being a very good reflector of sound, meaning this issue of playback delay would be amplified (excuse the pun) even more than in other places, as you would be just as likely to hear the reflected sounds, which are delayed even more, as you would be the audio from a speaker.

The general idea with placing them so close, you are much more likely to hear the few speakers that are closest to you than the others further away, as the close ones will somewhat cancel out the 'background' audio from speakers much further away. Thus reducing this problem quite significantly actually. It requires the most investment and work without a doubt, but it is the most effective at solving this issue.

Maybe and probably that is why they have done it like they have.
 
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On TPWW's vlog from Saturday, he shows posts are now in place on the pathway running from the ruins up to where Roller Disco was. This implies permanent lighting to be installed? Probably festoon lighting like what's found on the Katanga Kanyon paths.

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I noticed new posts like this in many locations across the park so yes, it does appear lots of new lighting is set to be installed at some point this season.
 
I would imagine the park is looking to try and make all the late season lighting look less temporary or at least keep the generators out of sight.
 
Poisson said:
I would imagine the park is looking to try and make all the late season lighting look less temporary or at least keep the generators out of sight.
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They can't get rid of all the generators because its not Scarefest without the diesel fumes and the chugging sound of them!

I suspect some of these lights will be powered by a generator out of sight a bit like the lighting in the Wicker Man queue is/was.
 
We now can provide silent battery generators at work, it'd be good for Towers to go that route
 
They are less useful directly but much better in terms of noise etc. I am unsure if they have swappable packs on the massive ones yet, I have only seen smaller ones as it's not really my side of the business
 
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