The crowning attraction of the many multi-media and live entertainment venues within the complex will be the Dragone aqua spectacular, which is scheduled to première towards the end of 2009. The resort's permanent show is expected to dazzle audiences with the same imaginative flair as previous Dragone productions such as Le Rève and A New Day.
Designed by the renowned architectural office, Pei Partnership of New York, the City of Dream's main theatre was especially built to accommodate the new Dragone creation. Stage Technologies was brought on board to design, supply and install a 122-axes automation suite, controlled by a powerful combination of two fixed Acrobat desks, two portable Nomad desks, and four handheld Solo consoles.
The system includes a 40-unit track and trolley system, which can transport up to 250kg at 3.5m/sec, allowing mobile flying axes to pitch acrobats over the heads of the audience, and swing performers from the prominent catwalk stage into the water below. The 100m by 60m grid mirrors the entire theatre area, which is almost completely covered by an immense pool that will hold approximately 2.5 million gallons of water.
Lineset winches are rated to 2,000kg at 2.5m/s, resulting in the capacity for incredibly fast changeovers of Dragone's characteristically complex but sometimes load-heavy sets. The Stage Technologies system also controls the eight hydraulic stage lifts and three vomitory lifts.
In addition, equipment has been provided for Dragone's rehearsals, which are based in Belgium. The rehearsal studio contains two tracks and trolleys and eight point hoists, mimicking the main system's functionality and allowing the automation programmers to rehearse and programme the show act by act, both with real world movements and also in an offline, virtual, 3-D configuration. The rehearsal control system adds six local control joysticks to the Acrobat:G6 and the Nomad consoles. These joysticks allow simple and safe control of any winch within the system, by touch screen selection of the axis number. The motion of the winches remains limited by all the safety parameters assigned to the system, but allows basic rehearsals and winch positioning to take place without interrupting the main control desk operations and programming.
The Stage Technologies teams, both in Macau and at the training venue in Belgium, have worked in close conjunction with the Dragone technical staff and Steve Colley, the Head of Automation and Rigging at Dragone.
"Our decision to ask Stage Technologies to supply all of the equipment for our rehearsals, as well as the City of Dreams, was definitely the right one," he said. "It has enabled us to provide as seamless a transition as possible for the performers and operators when switching from rehearsals in Belgium to the real thing in Macau. Stage Technologies has been unbelievably helpful in providing a complete set of new high-speed winches for rehearsals and as a result we have a system that very closely replicates the fit-out at the City of Dreams."
(Lee Baldock)
