CMU School of Drama


Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Motion Control Critical to One of a Kind Stage

entertainmentengineering: Although veteran entertainment producer Patrice Bilodeau and designer Mark Labelle are well know in the industry for overcoming difficult engineering challenges, they had never encountered anything as large as the City of Dreams and Franco Dragone Entertainment Group’s House of Dancing Water (Macau, China). The House of Dancing Water Theater holds approximately 2,000 seats and is a 270 degree theater-in-the- round housing the world’s largest commercial pool which is 160 feet in diameter and 26 feet deep. It holds 3.7 million gallons of water.

2 comments:

Will Gossett said...

This is an impressive motion control system. The scale of a system that can move so much surface area is huge. I think it is really cool that all of these components that the article describes (hydraulic pumps, platforms themselves, hydraulic cylinders and safety sensors) combined make up a very complex system that can still be controlled and monitored in a networked system that can perform reliably show after show. I have seen small-scale water shows that use stage automation and platforms moving up and down to change the swimming/acting area, but never anything of this scale.

AJ C. said...

The House of Dancing Water's theatre is magnificantly impressive. This article goes to show just how complex we are willing to go today. If you think about all the engineering and also computer science it takes to put programs and mechanics like this together you see that not only are artists a part of this show but many other industries. The entertainment industry really is the bastard child of a thousand other industries. I would absolutely love to see The House of Dancing Water and how it compares to other water shows. Just seeing the innovation of every show that surrounds a pool is impressive no matter the level of technology.