Animated Show viewed from Ride Vehicles

[Shan-Man]

So this is a kind of out-of-the-box question. I am Santa at a facility that has made a pretty major investment in a "static" LED light display. The display is viewed from tractor-drawn hay-rides (as many as 8 at a time). This year was the inaugural year and the company that did the installation provided a portable audio system for each tractor. As the driver passed a waypoint he hit a button and a new soundtrack played (no transition, just an abrupt cut). The display was all wireframes, lighted with pro-quality full-wave LEDs, and featured some simple, cyclical animations (3-6 frames that are not sync'ed to anything). I think we could do better and sync the existing, and some new animations, to the music. But it does present a technical challenge. Do you:

1) Put the show controller on the ride and use wireless light linkers to control the lights?

2) Use stationary controllers and broadcast multiple audio tracks over FM as the driver flips stations?

3) Use stationary controllers and audio and the tractors just drive through the scenes?

Option 1 allows for the best on-board sound, but probably the highest cost and possibly a lot of technical challenges. Option 2 would mean multiple FM transmitters and would not alleviate the problem of abrupt changes in soundtracks. Option 3 would create natural "fades" between soundtracks as the ride advances, but trying to channel and limit the sound would be quite a challenge. So, what would you try to implement? I'm very interested in your suggestions and concerns.

[scubado]

You have an interesting challenge. I'm not sure 1&2 are possible. There are members with large displays. There's a commercial member in Tennessee named Shadrack that has a 10 acre drive thru display using a single audio throughout. You should be able to find Shadrack on YouTube.

Using directional speakers might work for each area. You would also have to have seperate systems for each area both sound and LOR. Hopefully someone will come up with a better or more definitive answer for you.

[Shan-Man]

I'm pretty sure all three are feasible. I have no experience with Light Linkers, but I'm sure that using e1-31 and wifi it would be possible. Also pretty sure that running, say 5 animated scenes, each with its own controllers and FM xmitter. It's be nice to find radio receivers that did a little cross fade, or at least fade through silent, as the driver switches scenes for a cleaner presentation. I'm not sure if there is a reasonable way to trigger shows based on tractor positions, but I know I can do it with LSP. Anyway, still very interested in input, the more specific the better. Thanks guys!

[TitusCarnathan]

It sounds like you want different shows running at the same time.

1 would have issues since you wouldn't be able to change the channel on each ELL while it is running. And you would be getting signals crossed.

Number 2 is possible.

EG Station 1

Wireless multi channel remote controlled realy using it's first channel or a motion sensor >>>>Show director >>>> Lor controllers

^FM Transmitter Frequency 1

EG Station 2

Wireless multi channel remote controlled realy using it's 2nd channel or a motion sensor >>>>Show director >>>> Lor controllers

^FM Transmitter Frequency 2

ETC...

If it is far apart enough you could use just one channel on the Wireless remote.

Edited January 14, 2013 by TitusCarnathan

[TitusCarnathan]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1PCS-Remote-Control-4PCS-Receiver-DC12V-One-Chanel-Wireless-Relay-Modules-433MHZ-/251212200083?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item3a7d69f893

[Santas Helper]

http://www.ebay.com/...=item3a7d69f893

That will still cause an abrupt change in sound track but would work with the idea below.

Honestly, the best method IMHO is to change radio channels at each scene and for the driver to turn the volume down prior to changing the channel and and turn it back up for the new scene/radio channel.

[Aaron Maue]

Not sure if it'd work, but could you use trigger inputs to the LOR controller to help activate each scene? Maybe the tractor drives over a pressure switch. Or maybe it sets off a motion detector. That provides an input to the controller to start a sequence.

A thought on the audio that might work similarly to my donation box. I wanted local audio for the box (greets the guest with a thank you for donating, without interrupting the show audio being played over my FM transmitter). I used a small amp and a speaker driven by a standalone MP3 player from Hauntbots (http://www.hauntbots.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=66&products_id=188). There are other similar products as well. The one from Hauntbots can be triggered in the same way as the LOR controllers. Others may be able to as well, but I haven't use them.

On my setup, I have a single trigger and use a relay to drive that same trigger input to an LOR controller as well as to the MP3 board. This launches an audio track stored on the MP3 board and plays it locally. I have an animation sequence that is launched from the LOR controller.

Here's a link to a video of my donation box, if you'd like to see what I'm talking about. It wasn't the final iteration, but the implementation remained the same...

[plasmadrive]

Think Main Street Electric Parade in Disneyland.

[Shan-Man]

Think Main Street Electric Parade in Disneyland.

Could you elaborate? IIRC, the parade audio at Disney is amplified on the floats but the source is over radio. The floats know their position based on some "pucks" buried in the asphalt. And, the lights on the float operate at random or as spectrographs of the music being played. There is no sync with off-float devices. I don't see how I could adapt any of those ideas to accomplish staged scenes where the on-board sound and the off-board lights are in sync.

[plasmadrive]

The sound it in sync but plays thru the entire track as it travels. Start time on one is in sync musically with some point in the previous segment. You would have to mix your sound to accomplish the seemless changes from area to area. From there you can figure out how to match your sequencing to what is playing. The difference would be that the scenery is staionary and the people are moving... just backwards.. Any reason you could not do that? OK.. other then the music part.. that would be your key..

[Shan-Man]

Ok, gonna spit-ball this for a minute. Each scene has a music loop that runs the length of time it takes a hayride to transit the scene without delays. The loop would have two transition points, one that mates to the prior scene and another that mates to the next. Each scene has its own light controller and radio transmitter. As the tractor driver passes a marker that delineates a scene boundary he turns a rotary switch to enable the next zone, which means a remote, controlled by that scene's LOR controller, can trigger the "next memorized station" button on the on-board radio.

The driver will hold in a buffer zone until the next station is triggered, slowing or even stopping if necessary. It is certainly possible that backups will occur and any one hayride wagon may view a scene multiple times (think "Its a Small World" when a wheelchair is loading! Over and over and over and I'm swimming to the exit!). Of course, there could be multiple, interchangable shows for each scene to avoid the "swimming for the exit" impulse when sitting in hold.

The biggest problem would be keeping the multiple controllers in perfect sync. I guess scene 2's controller could be triggered by scene 1's remote, and so on down the line. Using a voice over for the transition point could make make synchronization less critical.

[viennaxmas]

How about transmitting the audio via infrared? SImilar to this one: http://www.northcountryradio.com/Kitpages/irsyst.htm - there are professional versions which are used in churches and conventions combined with headphones. You could mount the IR transmitter so that it covers the road and the tractor has a receiver, amp and speakers.

 

I do like the idea of triggering shows using a motion sensor.

 

This would bring up another idea - might be a bit of a challange to get it full in sync, but should be possible too: a sensor on the road does get triggered by the tractor driving over it which then in return sends an IR / RF signal to an mp3 player on the trailer which is playing the music. This would take out the possibility for the driver to miss a queue and you would not have to worry about the distance a tractor drives compared to my first suggestion. The MP3 player would also eliviate the issue of having to control the volume when switching tracks or frequencies...