Rainforest Café Galveston Island Texas The Rainforest Café® on Galveston Island, Texas is a restaurant and entertainment venue for the truly courageous.
At the entrance, visitors are greeted by an erupting volcano, and inside, the Rainforest River Adventure Ride™ invites the patrons to explore the lush tropical jungle and mysterious temples along a river.
Small rafts are waiting to take visitors on a voyage through real and artificial plant life, passing by cascading waterfalls, exotic animals – and an angry river god!
As the Rainforest River Adventure Ride winds by the Asian Temple, an identifier (see inset photo) – carefully hidden in the ruins – triggers the audio playback “Each pair of identifiers is programmed to match up with a certain soundtrack, ”Troy Werth stated. “The receiver always knows when and what to trigger, smoothly transitioning from one soundtrack to another. Marine batteries in the boat work in conjunction with a Sennheiser DC converter to step the voltage down for the receivers.”
“The GuidePort system has saved money in both research and development. To design and customize another type of solution would have been extensive,“Werth says. “The system has worked extremely well, and most importantly, it has surpassed all of our client’s expectations.”
Giant saltwater aquariums, simulated rain storms with thunder and lightning, and perfect robotic animals complete the indoor jungle. Only if the adventurers avert their eyes from the breathtaking surroundings would they notice some trappings of civilization and some very high-tech ones at that for the narrative audio during this ride is transmitted by a Sennheiser GuidePort system.
The audio system for the Rainforest River Adventure Ride was installed by Frattalone and Associates, Inc., an audio/visual/lighting firm that has handled the AV needs of the Rainforest Cafe properties since 1994. Initially, the company considered several traditional options, stated Troy Werth, one of the firm’s technical designers.
“One of the more challenging variables was a water-based fogging system, emitting thick fog continually during the ride. An electro-optic, sensor-based system or infrared system would have been problematic in this extreme environment. Basically, we chose not to use certain types of triggers, as we needed something that would be rugged enough to withstand the test of time in this type of environmental application.”
The GuidePort solution emerged in a rather unusual way.
Company owner Steven Frattalone spotted a story in an industry-trade publication about a recent installation of GuidePort in, of all places, Germany’s Rainforest House.
After reading the article, Werth said, “Steven got to thinking that GuidePort might be the solution to this rainforest dilemma as well.” Frattalone opted for GuidePort and, working closely with Sennheiser engineers, configured a solution designed to transmit narration to an on-board speaker system installed in the visitors’ rafts. Each of the ten watercraft was fitted with a GuidePort receiver and custom-designed speakers, built cleverly into one of the seatbacks.
The technicians placed the rugged outdoor version of the GuidePort identifier on either side of the water channel, where it triggers the corresponding audio file to play from the receiver as soon as the boat passes. The audio is then routed to the boat’s amplifier (also housed in the seatback) and finally to the 12-speaker system which surrounds the visitorswith crisp, clean audio.
For additional information please contact Dave Graw (386) 538-1867 or dpgraw@focusgamingsolutions.com www.frattalone.com