The show is set in the resort's new land, Heartlake City, which recreates the fun and colourful world of the popular LEGO Friends toy range. During the show, guests join Heartlake City's five female characters on an action packed adventure which is full of music, dance and special effects.
SGA Productions were commissioned by the LEGOLAND Windsor Resort to enhance the show's live action performances with some of the very latest theatrical-style production values. They approached ACSP at last year's PLASA London show to specify lighting and visual effects solutions which would give the shows a 'wow factor', whilst also being suitable for the technically demanding outdoor environment.
ACSP recommended an onsite demonstration of the Traxon DotXL-9 32PXL IP67, flexible, colour-changing RGB LED media string solution, to provide vibrant visual effects during the show performances. After impressing SGA and the Resort's technical team, ACSP supplied 20 DotXL media strings to wrap around the harbour's lighthouse, which is pixel mapped with over 700 RGB LED emitters. The LED mapping enables the lighthouse to spring to life, reflecting the energy and vibrancy of the action on stage.
In addition, ACSP specified over a dozen Prolights LumiPar 18Q IP65, RGBW colour-changing outdoor LED Pars to provide impactful effects lighting for several stage risers and towers situated around the performance area.
ACSP specified the award-winning Jands Vista system to control the lighthouse LEDs and the stage lighting. ACSP Director, Lance Bromhead, commented, "Vista was ideal for this project - primarily as it has an incredibly powerful FX engine capable of pixel mapping stunning shapes and animations with ease. This meant that there was no need for additional products such as a dedicated media server, which kept production costs down whilst still delivering on the client's requirement for striking visuals."
In addition, ACSP had to take into account the limited amount of space available within the control booth. They needed a small console that didn't compromise on power, features or performance. All Jands Vista products run the exact same software and offer the full feature set as found in the range's largest consoles, so the compact Vista S1 connected to a laptop provided this small footprint solution.
ACSP worked closely with their sister company, A.C. Entertainment Technologies to provide the design and programming of the lighting and visual effects. The dynamic show utilises nearly 2,500 channels of DMX. Onsite Vista training was provided for the Resort's technical team, to enable them to operate the show on a day to day basis.
To operate the visual effects display from the control booth up to 30m away, ACSP specified a Luminex Ethernet node. This was used in conjunction with the Vista control network to convert the Art-Net signal to DMX and provide additional DMX outputs. Over 300m of Tourflex Datasafe Ultra Cat5E Ethernet cable was utilised for connection between the Vista and Luminex system components. The Tourflex cable was chosen due to its extra rugged, toughened jacket, which makes it extremely durable in demanding environments such as when used outdoors.
In addition, a LumenRadio CRMX wireless DMX transmitter / receiver system was specified to send the DMX control signal to the Prolights LED fixtures located at various distances from the control booth around the Arena performance area.
Laura Jackson, project manager for SGA Productions, commented, "We are very pleased with the tailored solution that ACSP delivered. The system is state of the art and yet very simple to operate. It also offers the flexibility to upgrade the show's lighting and vi
