SITUATION

Pleasure Pier is a premier waterfront entertainment destination for family fun on Galveston Island in Texas. Extending over the Gulf of Mexico, the pier is home to Bubba Gump Shrimp Company, along with classic amusement park rides such as a double-decker carousel, a 100-foot tall Ferris wheel, a roller coaster with a 100-foot tall vertical climb, and a 200-foot tall swing – recognized as the highest ride in Texas.

The most difficult challenge to overcome in this new build audio installation was the length and narrowness of the pier. At 1,130 feet long and 125 feet wide, integrator Chills & Thrills, Inc. (CTI) of Houston, TX was tasked with installing a robust audio in this unusual environment. The system included paging, indoor and outdoor background music, TV and stage audio, pre-recorded message playback, and centralized control for the entire system. More than just being able to monitor the system from a single location, the Pleasure Pier IT team required complete control over the volume of each ride on the pier as well.

SOLUTION

To accommodate the length of the pier, CTI built dedicated IT infrastructure to support the AV system. Five AV rooms were built at appropriate intervals along the pier, all connected via fiber optic cabling, and each room containing the equipment needed to feed the audio for rides, the live entertainment stage, general paging, and TVs located in two event rooms. While the control of the system resides in the dedicated control room, these AV rooms have amplifiers, AudiaFLEX DSPs, switches, and monitoring screens inside for increased system monitoring capability.

Pleasure Pier also wanted the ability to play pre-recorded messages about ride procedures, closures, and emergency messages in case of inclement weather. CTI installed remote controls on specific rides most impacted by weather with these message presets for ease of delivery and consistent messaging.

CONCLUSIONS

The topography of the pier was a unique challenge for both CTI and Pleasure Pier to overcome. By using Audia, CTI built flexibility into the audio solution, and made it possible for them to create a system that could send any audio, to any speaker along the pier. The centralized control made possible with this solution, significantly increased the convenience and ease with which the IT team and staff can manage the audio throughout the amusement park.