Wonders of the World in the Europa Park

Lovingly and into details designed theme areas as well as a high quality spectrum of attractions meeting any family demands acknowledge Europa Park an extraordinary position in the colorful world of theme parks. While other parks suffer from declining number of visitors, the Europa Park advances speedily to a high-class short holiday domicile with the construction of a new 1.400-bed hotel. In the meantime the Europa Park is even classified as the largest seasonal theme park in the world.

With the multimedia spectacle "Wonders of the World", the Europa Park now has gained an unique laser attraction, unique in content and technical equipment. Within only three weeks of installation the Germany-based laser specialist LOBO created a multimedia adventure world, designed as an experience for the whole family. LOBO's General Manager Mr. Bopp: "With a total of three laser installations and numerous events, the business relation between the Europa Park and LOBO has become an intense cooperation over the years, of which we are very proud of. And therefore we have been very pleased receiving the possibility to re-design the existing revolving theater by means of the latest laser technology. Everything from the first idea, the storyboard, the complete production of music, video and multimedia technology, the realisation on-site up to services for public relations and the exterior design, the attraction was supplied by LOBO as turn-key solution.

The spectator enters the attraction through a winding tunnel equipped with sporadic light effects and mirrors insuring that the eyes can adapt gently to the darkness. After a short waiting time, the visitor enters a hall which initially appears as a cinema. Shortly after the light dimes down, the screen becomes transparent. In between a machine, filled with technical devices, appears a funnily over-exited professor who explains proudly the invention of a time machine. But before he gets into details his daughter, driven by her childlike curiosity, sets the mechanism of the time machine into operation. Close to her trails, the spectators accompany the professor on an approx. 10-minutes long journey through time. They experience the ancient 7 Wonders of the World as well as the wonders of the new world. Finally the professor manages to return again with an impressive detour via the future into the Europa Park.

The used technical equipment in the background is quite substantial: A central laser system supplies via fibre optics 6 digital and mainly maintenance-free working laser projectors, whereas two of them are mounted on lifts and one is additionally mounted onto a the head of a industrial robot. Moving lights and a real armada of light and special effects as well as wind generators involve the spectators directly in the action. The screens used for projections are led in rails or can be lowered into the stage floor within seconds. The complete technique is controlled by means of a central computer of the type LACON-5. Only experts will notice that the whole control devices and laser equipment has been integrated professionally into the scenery of the time machine in the professor's laboratory.

In addition to the use of the most modern media technique also the construction of the theater itself is very impressing. With every time lap the spectators are transported in a complete new scenery almost without taking notice. After leaving the laboratory the visitors will find themselves in a environment which presents in a hologram-likely projection the Seven Wonders of the World. In the next room, a massive setup of technical highlights puts the wonders of the new world to stage and generates a three-dimensional world of laser light and video projections. Via an impressive flight through space the spectators moves into the final scene which is designed as the characteristic outside facade of the attraction. When leaving the attraction many visitors will just notice that the entire theater has moved to another location.

Among insiders the "Wunder dieser Welt" is considered to be the most sophisticated laser show of all times. An international team of 30 designers, musicians, performers, technicians and software developers have been involved with the completion of the show for the period of almost one year. Director Alexander Hennig: "The project management of the show resembled to a large film production. The special challenge was to match the most diverse representations and the new technical possibilities of the media laser in order to achieve a harmonic spectacle. Especially the application of LOBO's lately developed Scanline Laser Video Technology, which allows for the first time the presentation of high-resolution video images by means of conventional laser projectors, shows in practice to be a true quantum leap in laser show design."

While a designer has drawn the movements of the daughter in thousands of individual pictures by hand, six staff members immediately digitised and colorized the results in the LOBO Studios. Most of the wonders and buildings have been implemented directly in the workstation LACON-5 as three-dimensional objects. Only the Atomium in Brussels, two antique cities as well as some writings were developed on PC-based 3D-animation programs which supplied laser-optimised results thanks to the software tools coming with each LACON-5.

While the soundtracks and voice recordings were carried out in 4 sound studios, the video recordings with real performers have been produced in the LOBO Studios as basis for the Scanline video projections.

Thanks to the fact that LOBO's developers and designers work together under one roof, the necessary software extensions and special effects for the show could be implemented quickly as required.

The professor has been created as a three-dimensional cartoon character displayed partly by laser and partly by conventional video projectors.

The adaptation of the show has been completed within just a few days. As the transition between the individual scenes and the synchronisation to light and special effects could only be determined during the installation on-site, the final soundtrack and the integration of the voice passages have been arranged in Rust on the multi-track hard disk recording system which is integrated in the LACON-5. Changes in the video passages as well as the final lip-synchronisation of the professor could be completed directly on a mobile video workstation. The final adaptation works in different scenes as well as the programming of light and special effects were carried out on a compact sub-notebook which was connected to the central control computer via wireless LAN.

Already the first few days of operation showed that the efforts were worth while. First surveys after the initial operation proved that the attraction has been accepted by the visitors with great enthusiasm.