AAE 2018 Trade Show Impressions

Benoit Cornet and Laurence Beckers from Alterface showed an array of their custom-designed shooting devices, which have recently been installed, amongst others, at Wanda Group’s Qingdao Movie Metropolis in China. Under the name of “NOMAD”, the company also introduced a newly developed wireless interactive pointing and shooting device. This compact device enables interaction with media screens, scenery and animatronics and can be used by hundreds of visitors at the same time thanks to Alterface’s patented camera-based detection technology.

This year, Italian Neveplast company delivered two attractions to Ho May amusement park in Vietnam: a 14-metre high Tubby structure with four 80 meter long slides (pictured here) and an S-KID track with special mini-karts for an amazing drifting experience. The S-KID track measures an area of 20 by 25 metres.

While Spain’s Rocas & Design focuses on the construction of themed environments and decoration elements, the newly-founded Arts Studio offers design concepts to the industry. With Themium, a third company has recently been established with headquarters in Dublin/Ireland, offering project management and consulting. With these three units, the design experts are able to offer complete turn-key solutions for theme park design. Pictured here (f.l.t.r.): David Zahonero, Francisco Javier Ramón & Marcos González.

In Asia, Stefano Moser from Moser’s Rides (pictured) reported on his company’s latest ride installations: This summer, the Italian manufacturer installed a 20-meter high tower ride at Reykjavík Family Park & Zoo (Iceland), a “Maverick” looping gondola was opened in Antalya’s Land of Legends theme park (Turkey) and a “Space Trainer” gyroscope went to a Canadian shopping centre.

Water ride specialist Interlink has been very active on the Asian leisure market recently. At Dino Action Park in Naga Cloning/Indonesia, the company opened an 8-seater Super Flume ride in early June (see picture). The ride leads passengers through a heavily themed indoor section, before the boat reaches the four-metre high lift that transports them up and eventually catapults them downhill and outside of the building with a splash. Furthermore, a Rapid River ride will be delivered to a shopping mall in Bali/Indonesia (opening by end of 2018/early 2019), while the world’s first Immersive Super Flume ride will go to a shopping mall near Jakarta/Indonesia (cp. EAP 1/2018).

For more impressions, visit our photo gallery here.

With its “Water & Art” division, Madrid/Spain-based company Ghesa Ingeniería & Tecnología S.A. offers the design, installation and maintenance of ornamental, cybernetic, musical and multimedia fountains and water features for public spaces and attraction sites. Asked about current projects, Carlos Pissarra (CEO of Ghesa Br. Dubai, left), reported on the staging of a large-scale multimedia fountain in Bangkok (Thailand) this upcoming December, the expansion of an existing water feature in Sharjah (UAE) and the installation of several water show elements in the city of Lusail (Qatar), amongst others.

During this year’s AAE, WhiteWater and Life Floor announced to have entered an exclusive distribution agreement for the global water park market, according to which water slides, multi-level water play structures and other products out of WhiteWater’s comprehensive portfolio will be offered with Life Floor’s patented foam-rubber flooring system, in order to provide best safety standards.

Michele Bertazzon reported that the company introduced a newly designed model of bumper cars, the first set of which will go out to a showman in Northern Germany soon.

Clip’n’Climb presented a new safety product for climbing walls at this year’s AAE: The “BelaySystem” makes use of a locker instead of a carabiner, reducing costs for safety personnel and improving the customer experience as there’s no need to lock and unlock the carabiner.

In the framework of its five-year strategic cooperation agreement with a theme park conglomerate in Asia, Dynamic Attractions has been awarded contracts worth 73 million CAN dollars for two ride systems, the company reported.

Spain’s Immersive Planet company, which is specialized in the design, development and management of leisure, fun and edutainment concepts worldwide, is currently involved in a number of projects: “Ankapark” is a new 120 hectare large theme park in the Turkish city of Ankara with a comprehensive line-up of rollercoasters and attractions, scheduled to open this year. On the Philippines, the company was commissioned with the design of Pradera Verde Theme Park as part of the Pradera Verde Resort, which also includes two golf camps, a casino and a water park. In Madrid, the Circuit of Jarama motorsport race track is currently seeing a mayor redevelopment: Part of the refurbishment is a visitor centre, for which Immersive Planet has provided the concept design.

AAE 2018 Trade Show Impressions

For more impressions, visit our photo gallery here.

Manfred Meier, CEO of Kraftwerk Living Technologies, is happy about the fact that the Austrian company has opened up a new office in Shanghai. “We intend to be an integral part of the Chinese leisure market,“ Meier comments.

Sales Manager Georg Dobler (l.) and Michael Peintner, Head of Marketing, represented Austria’s Sunkid company in Hong Kong. A recent update has been made to the manufacturer’s interactive “Sundancer” family attraction, which was introduced during the EAS 2016 in Barcelona: Previously, it featured one single cabin with four seats. Now, it is also available either with two, four or eight cabins for a maximum capacity of around 960 persons/hour.

Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia and Japan are the four Asian countries to which Canadian Triotech company recently delivered their XD Dark Ride interactive theater for the first time. Among these recent interactive theater installations are an XD Dark Ride at Nasu Highland in Japan and one at Trans Studio’s KidCity in Indonesia.

Tom Elsworth (left) and Adam Jenkins from British Westlakes Engineering offer the industry their expertise in ride inspection, review and consultancy in engineering disciplines such as mechanics, electrics, control systems, hydraulics & pneumatics. The company has been independently assessed by the British Standards Institution (BSI) against internationally recognized standards, including ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and OHSAS 18001:2007 norms.

After having served as IAAPA President & CEO for five years, Paul Noland is now at the helm of accesso as their CEO. In Hong Kong he was ready to discuss the Asian Pacific market.

For Daniel Iannello, CEO and owner of Belgian WOW Company, the Asian market is particularly important since wave attractions are very popular especially among Chinese visitors. The company is currently working on six installation projects in China.

Jason Mons (Executive VP & COO) and Gerald Ryan (Executive Direc-tor of Sales Administration) from S&S together with Yasuhiko Fujii (Executive Officer) from Sansei Technologies.

AAE 2018 Trade Show Impressions

For more impressions, visit our photo gallery here.