Entertainment EngineeringVOLUME 8 ISSUE 10

Persun & Wiebusch, Inc.

Publishers/Editors:

Terry Persun

P: 360-732-0902

E: terry@entertainmentengineering.com

Bruce Wiebusch

P: 440-503-3013

E: bruce@entertainmentengineering.com

Design & Production:

Verv Creative

www.vervcreative.com

Editorial Contributors:

Dan Cook, Ph.D.,

Program Coordinator, Entertainment

Engineering and Design, UNLV

Gerald Braude

S. Korobeinik

Richard Mandel

Mark Persun

Editorial Board:

Greg Hale, VP Advanced Technology

Disney Parks and Resorts

Kevin Russelburg, Sr. Project Engineer

ITW Pancon

John Lewis, Sr. Writer, Cognex Corp.

Sales

Mark Wiebusch

Vice President, Media Solutions & Sales

P: 440-835-9733

markw@entertainmentengineering.com

Subscriptions:

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A few months ago in this column, I talked about the connection between manufacturing and movies, highlighting how manufacturing companies enabled movies like Fast Five with various technologies: hydraulics, software, and electronics to name a few. This month, we are going to show you that the same thing is true within another entertainment industry: theatre. In a special three-part story later in this issue, you can read how Parker Hannifin (Mayfield Heights, OH), Delta Computer Systems (Seattle, WA) and other manufacturing based companies are enabling the World’s largest water-based show — House of Dancing Water — in Macau, China.

From our exlusive interview with show producer Patrice Bilodeau, we discovered how Franco Dragone Entertainment Group’s House of Dancing Water is an event enabled by many engineers from many differeent counties, including Jacek Kaminski P. Eng. Chief Engineer and Eng. Manager for City of Dreams Project for Handling Specialty Manufacturing Ltd. (Grimsby, Ontario, Canada). Control Motion Solutions, Inc. (Santa Ana, CA), a.k.a. COMOSO, was the hydraulics distributor for the project, and Fisher Technical Services, Inc. (Las Vegas, NV) was important to the project success. Many of the companies involved are heavily involved with manufacturing of many types of products outside the entertainment industries.

For more information on the show, visit: http://thehouseofdancingwater.com/en/#/home.

MANUFACTURING& THEATRE

Bruce Wiebuschbruce@entertainmentengineering.com

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 approxi-mately 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. Labelle developed the concept of lifting the 7497-sq.-ft stage out of the water, thereby converting an aquatic area into a solid floor for performers to use as a stage. “No one had ever done anything like this before,” says Bilodeau. To support Labelle’s concept, Jacek Kaminski P. Eng. Chief Engineer and Eng. Manager for City of Dreams Project for Handling Specialty Manufacturing Ltd. (Grimsby, Ontario) and other engineers designed, manu-factured, and installed an underwater stage lift system,

which has a 805,000 lb. capacity (static load). Eight plat-form stage lifts travel vertically 26 feet underwater and then rise 1 foot above water to convert the aquatic stage to a solid dry floor. The total area of the 8 main platform stage lifts is 6,441 sq. ft. Since the pool is surrounded by theater seating, three vomintory lifts were required to move actors on and off the stage. These lifts travel one metre below water and rise one metre above water in order to accommodate underwater and above water props and performances. A vomitory lift is the lift system that runs from the edge of the stage pool area (on-stage), down the exit/entry corridors to the on-stage from off-stage or back stage area. It serves as a dry walkway for incoming performers and then disappears into the water so that Sea Doos or boats can travel from off-stage to on-stage. There are three corridors or Vomitories in this theatre located at 3, 6, 9 o’clock where 12 o’clock is the prosce-nium. The total area of the 3 vomitory lifts is 1,056 sq. ft, the dynamic capacity is 52,800 lbs, and the static capac-ity is 132,000 lbs.

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MOTION CONTROL CRITICAL TO ONE-OF-A-KIND STAGE

World’s largest water-based show — House of Dancing Water — has a very small margin of error

Handling Specialty engineered and installed all of the systems required to complete the controls, hydraulics, structure, skirting, guides, and astragals. Astragals are shear zone safety protection devices that are installed all around the underside of every edge of every lift. Their purpose is to immediate halt motion should the edge of any lift encounter an obstacle such as a piece of scenery or a performer. Six hydraulic power units from Parker Hannifin (Mayfield Heights, OH) are used to actuate the lifts. An electronic controls system enables the lifts to move independently or in synchronization. The total dynamic capacity of the main lifts is 322,000 lb. The control system is continuously fed with informa-tion from each cylinder to tell it where they are in their stroke path. The computers can receive the signals and instantly alter the flow of fluids into the cylinders so as to keep them all level or to run any number at different speeds with different targets and so on. “All of the safety mechanisms such as the astragals, are monitored in real time with the computers so that opera-tors know the system is in a safe operating condition,” says Tom Beach, president of Handling Specialty. “The computers also can change the flow rate and the speed of the lifts in either direction so operators can create very special EFX with the motion control.” Electronic probes integral of the cylinders provide the I/O feedback that the computers need in order to maintain full control of speed, distance, ramping, targets

or levelness. One of the greatest engineering challenges, according to Bilodeau, was having the control system perform reliably over time. “We have two shows per day and operate five days per week,” explains Bilodeau. “Every time the stage moves, the control system has to operate with a precision of within 5 mm.” RMC150E series of controllers from Delta Computer Systems (Battle Ground, WA) were chosen to perform the task of controlling the 32 hydraulic cylinders that move the sections of the main stage in the theater. “The controller provided many feedback options and were able to interface with our magnetostrictive linear dis-placement transducers without the need for signal con-ditioners,” says Beach. “The software provided was found to be user friendly and a very powerful setup and tuning tool.” While the electromechanical motion controllers used by Handling Specialty in the past considered only speed and position, the Delta Computer Systems controller now permitted pressure to be part of the equation and anticipated the motion of a hydraulic system.

For More Information Click Below: Handling Specialty Home >

Handling Specialty Turnkey Capabilities >

Handling Specialty Entertainment Solutions >

House of Dancing Waters >

Eight platform stage lifts travel vertically 26 feet underwater and then rise one foot above water to con-vert an aquatic stage to a solid dry floor in the House of Dancing Water theatre (Macau, China). When the 6,441 sq. ft platforms transition from traveling through air to traveling through the water, the hydraulic system must adapt to the huge drag from the water. The unique hydraulic system parameters and algorithms provided in the Delta Computer Systems controllers were up to the task. A dozen Delta RMC150 electro-hydraulic motion con-trollers were used to control the hydraulic cylinders that moved the eight stage platforms and three stage entrance hallway platforms. Each of the moving platforms is lifted by four long Parker-Hannifin hydraulic cylinders, one at each corner. Closed-loop motion control is required for two main reasons: 1) The motion of the four cylinders on each platform needs to be synchronized to ensure that they all move by the same amount, to avoid racking of the platform

frames and keep the platforms perfectly flat at all times. The Delta controllers support a special synchronization function for this purpose. The motion of each cylinder is tightly controlled to follow commands from a “master”

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HOUSE OF DANCING WATER CONTROLLERS

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HOUSE OF DANCING WATER HYDRAULICSGreg Paddock, Hydraulic Territory Manager, at Parker Hannifin Corporation’s Hydraulics Group explains

below the critical role hydraulics played in the stage’s motion control system

PLC. The MTS transducers provide the position infor-mation on each cylinder to enable the Delta controllers to close the control loop. Each RMC150 can control up to eight hydraulic axes, but each one is handling four axes in the Dancing Waters application.

2) Closed-loop motion control is also needed to com-pensate for the compressibility of the large volumes of hydraulic oil that are used in the 30-foot-long cylinders. A second-order equation is used in the control loop to enable damping of the transient effects that occur when the motion starts and stops. Control commands are provided from the Delta RMC directly to servo-quality proportional hydraulic valves. This ensures that the plat-forms move smoothly with no oscillations.

Control Motion Solutions, Inc. (Santa Ana, CA), a.k.a. COMOSO, was the hydraulics distributor for the

project, and Fisher Technical Services, Inc. (Las Vegas, NV) was involved with integrating the controls. Delta assisted with the programming and tuning of the system and worked closely with MTS, Fisher Technical Services, and Comoso to help with the integration process, which included the HPU, plumbing, control enclosures and the full integration into the theater. COMOSO cus-tom designed the hydraulic system and its plumbing and worked with Parker Hannifin (Cleveland, OH) to design a custom servo cylinder for the main plat-forms. Additionally, COMOSO utilized Fisher Technical Services to provide and integrate the control hardware and tuning for the entire system.

As you know the system consisted of eight underwa-ter lifts making up the main platform. These lifts are capable of independent operation, or gearing together in any way imaginable. Additionally the VOM lifts were independently controlled, yet were capable of gearing themselves to its adjacent main platform to create a seam at their edges. The Main Lift cylinders were controlled by remote valve stands located in the basement of the theater, beneath the pool floor itself.

Jeff Potter and Matt Schoenbachler from COMOSO and Vic Trujillo from Fisher Technical Services also made significant contributions to the project.

For More Information Click Below:Delta Computer Systems Home >

Delta Motion Controllers >

Parker Hannifin Home >

Parker Products >

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The design and component selection for the HPU was critical with regard to the overall success of the project. The HPU had to be capable of providing smooth, ripple free flow without response lag whether there was motion demand from only one of the small vomitory stages, or from all of the large main stages working in unison. Fourteen Parker PV270 variable volume piston pumps responded precisely to any system flow demand regard-less of the magnitude and rate of the motion profile required by the stages collectively, or independently. The PV270’s extremely fast on and off stroke response (< 85 msec & < 75 msec respectively) were key to the stability of the pressure and flow supplied to the servo axis’. With recommendations on component selection from Parker personnel, Comoso integrated all of the HPU components into a highly engineered HPU with two key design challenges presented to them. One, the electri-cal power available for the HPU was limited so overall system efficiency was a key design criteria in component selection, and two, the fact that the HPU had to physi-cally fit through a very limited access galley to where the HPU’s would be permanently located. It was decided that the HPU would be designed in a modular configu-ration with two symmetrical halves and then reconnect-ed once in their final installation location. Mark Force and Matt Schoenbachler of Comoso exceeded everyone’s expectations with the HPU design and layout. The 32 Parker custom designed and built cylinders where designed specifically in order to accommodate the extreme environmental conditions and challenges of this application which included continuous submersion in chlorinated pool water, load induced side loads on the cylinder rods, and very low friction seals which were necessary to achieve the desired motion profile of the stages. Special coatings, stainless steel rods, a proprietary process to achieve the cylinder rod finish, and special

rod and piston seals where necessary to ensure the criti-cal performance of the cylinders. The Parker D41FH Proportional/servo valves were the final critical elements in the stage motion and con-trol loop. The stability of the D41FH and extremely high dynamic response were key to maintaining the commanded cylinder motion profiles demanded by the director of the show. The stage design did not allow for a mechanical means to ensure that each cylinder would maintain a level position relative to the other three cylinders supporting each corner of the eight stages, therefore each cylinder had to be precisely controlled via electronic magnetostrictive feedback devises, Delta digi-tal motion controllers and Parker D41FH proportional/servo valves to ensure all of the cylinders on each stage maintained highly precise synchronized motion profiles relative to each other. This required complex external position and velocity loop control as well as a valve capable of carrying out the precise system commands to ensure each cylinder maintained their desired motion profile. A series of dynamic performance calculations were carried out by Parker Hydraulic Systems Engineer, Rich Duder to ensure proper valve selection and sizing as well as predicting overall loop stability. The valves also provided a number of key safety elements which were of paramount importance for the overall system design as there are live actors and support personnel underwater, above and below the stages while the stages are in motion during performances. The D41FH spring centered servo spool with mechanically adjustable bias insured that upon an emergency abort event or power outage the stages would come to a rapid and predictable safe stop without fail. This helped to ensure the safety of all show personnel.

For More Information Click Below: Delta Computer Systems Home >

Handling Specialty Home >

Parker Hannifin Home >

Parker Hydraulic Products >