Travels in June

I am a bit behind in blogging my travels which have been extensive over the past few weeks but I wanted to mention a few of the technologies and groups I have been working with and visiting while traveling.

MONTREAL -

The Society of Arts and Technology - SAT - is a gov't supported group for the development of arts and technology partnerships in Montreal.


D-Box - Motion Control Systems - VERY high end home theater motion control seating systems. I enjoyed their demo's alot it was amazing to feel the seat motion while watching movies and driving an F1 Simulator. Brilliant technology but very pricey.

I have been doing more work with Ubisoft for amBX - installing a new amBX theater for them. It has been brilliant... but that is all I can say.

DETROIT

As I passed through the DETROIT Airport I saw a couple of excelent immersive thechnologies... first was this tunnel - by Color Kinetics I am guessing... simmilar to the one in Chicago.


Second was the Jumping Jet Fountain - Which I understand they now have RGB rainbow jumping Jet fountain kits which are controlable RGB luminous water jets... very cool


LOS ANGELES

LA was fantastic with meetings with ThinkWell Design who are designers of theme park and location based entertainment projects including the vision below for Coney Island


I did some work at the Philips Hollywood office to update their amBX demo suite. Which now looks amazing.

I stayed at the Hilton Universal next door to Universal Studios... I had wanted to make a trip to see the rides their but I decided it was more important to spend a day at Disneyland. This was an excellent choice and I have a few highlight moments to talk about... namely Space Mountain which is always a favorite... brilliant use of lighting, sensory deprivation, motion and projection to create and immersive experience. I was very impressed.


Next To talk about is the finding Nemo submarine experience which was also fantastically done... a narrative story with lighting, projection and underwater special effects which makes the hour long wait worth every minute.


I would recommend to everyone that they experience the Pirates of the Caribbean ride as well with its fantastic animatronics and, pyrotechnics, projection and lighting effects. My personal favorites were the Fog Screen for Davey Jones as well as the Full Dome Night sky and cloud projections. Also the talking parrot and Skull/Cross Bones flag at the beginning are the best lip sync robotics I have ever seen.


Lastly it is very important to mention the Fireworks display around the Disney Castle which happens every evening. The RGB color changing castle and amazing choreography of Pyrotechnics, Music, Lighting and projection make this among the best fireworks displays anywhere. Disney has a very well defined branding and vision that keeps coming from Olfactory scents as you walk down the street to the lovable charicters they have a winning combination that keeps kids of all ages happy.

Paris to Montreal

For the past two weeks I have been on the road in Europe traveling to Paris twice, Eindhoven and Amsterdam. This has all been a part of my stratigic work consulting for Philips amBX. In Paris I was setting up an amBX room and demo "Pods" at Ubidays - Ubisoft's European Press event at the Louvre for the announcement of 2008's new titles including FarCry2, End War, Prince of Persia, Hawks, Shawn White Snowboarding, Soul Calibre, Brother in Arms and new titles for casual game play.


The amBX focus was on FarCry 2 with an amBX enabled demonstration theater with live gameplay of the latest pre-release build of Far Cry 2. The Theater included a 4 meter wide rear projection screen with an 18k lumen Christy projector. The amBX included 22 RGB LEB fixtures and 2 vented Fan ports for wind effects. Press and deligte response to the entire event and the FaryCry2 theater was huge.


A very exciting week at the Louvre. Gamers, Games, Art and Parties.

I have now landed in Montreal for a week of demonstrations and another theater setup. Life on the road is going well.

Ambient Experience

Philips amBX is a product for "ambient experience" technology for home entertainment. Combining recently available hardware (Germany, Holland currently, US and UK by Christmas)
amBX is also features a "state of the art" language and authoring tools developed out of the Redhill, Surrey UK - Philips Research Lab. I will be here for the next 7 weeks working with their development and creative teams. My first project will be to amBX enable the "Spaghetti Circus Pirates Film". The Authoring tool (all be it in a developing form) is fantastic. To give you an Idea, I have made a first pass of the 90 minute film in the last 48 hours. Tomorrow I will see my efforts in their amBX demo room.

My Favorite part are the Fans and Rumbler's... Much more to come as I begin working on new concepts in Immersive Theater. I am here for 8 weeks.