Supplier update
Justice League: Battle for Metropolis has been a big hit for Six Flags
Plants Vs Zombies at Carowinds
15 years of interactive achievements Alterface celebrates
at IAAPA
It seems like ony yesterday that Alterface was making its first tentative steps into the attractions business. Yet this month at IAAPA Attractions Expo in Orlando the “global champion of interactive ride technology” will celebrates its 15th anniversary – and Park World readers are invited to join the party!
C
Alterface founder and CEO Benoit Cornet gets in the interactive spirit
ompany founder and CEO Benoit ('Ben') Cornet reflects on 15 years of Alterface: “We started out with our human interface technology for attractions
and have now a full portfolio of advanced technology solutions for interactive rides and theatres. We are pleased to see that the market has grown substantially since those pioneering days. Our new tagline ‘Enjoy the ride’ reflects the experiences of our loyal partners and customers around the globe, and their customers too. They keep us excited and remain at the centre of our activities. Together with we are an unbeatable team, and this we celebrate at IAAPA!” Visitors to Attractions Expo in Orlando will be able to
experience technology including ETF Ride Systems' latest generation dark ride vehicle driven by Alterface’s Salto show control. Several of the company's products are now patented too.
What the clients say
Any company can tell how great they are (and plenty do) but here's a few tributes from some of Alterface's key partners and customers:
Christian Diekmann, vice-president of strategic growth, Cedar Fair: Alterface did a great job in developing and building our new attraction this season at Carowinds. They brought a ton of enthusiasm to the project and really immersed themselves in the world of Plants Vs Zombies. This dedication was apparent in how the gameplay, animation, scenic and ride design all came together. At the end of the day, you know you’ve gotten it right when you see the smiles on family’s faces on their way out.
Sebastian Jonas, quality manager, Phantasialand (Germany): The Maus au Chocolat dark ride was developed a few years ago and is still a top attraction at Phantasialand. The content is very funny with sharp ideas to make the game even more entertaining. It is a total and special experience with 100% reliability. Alterface is always keen to find a solution together and deliver what we need.
John Wood, CEO of Sally Corp: Over the past few years we have worked together with Alterface to create pure magic when it comes to interactive experiences. On our first project, Justice League: Alien Invasion in Australia, both companies were somewhat guarded of our technologies and our experience in the industry. From that initial experience we learned we were of like minds and purpose. Since that time it has been a wonderful collaboration of creativity and technology that helped us create what was acclaimed to be the ‘Best New Major Attraction’ in the amusement park industry. We hope to do many more together in the future.
42 “The patents we are receiving, including the most recent
one in the US for our multi-user pointing apparatus and method, alongside the Brass Ring Award for Justice League with Sally Corp, are a great recognition of our team’s ongoing efforts,” notes Alterface chief operations officer, Stéphane Battaille. The company prides itself on technology that is not
intrusive to a ride's scenery or storyline. Yet despite starting out in back in 2002 with “interface-less” applications and fitting out a museum in Spain two years with patented gesture detection technology, Alterface does not recommend all parks go down the device-less route when creating dark rides and other interactive attractions. “Whilst this is a great technology for so-called 'serious'
venues (museums, science centres), we are not so fond of it in attractions as it is vastly preferable to give the guest a 'tool' they can learn to master,” notes Cornet. At Phantasialand in Germany, for example, riders on Maus au Chocolat (opened in 2011) use a polyester icing bag to chase the little mice away from the bakery. In Splashing UFO, an interactive rapid river at Yomiuriland near Tokyo, buttons can be “smashed” to chase the evil Kettle Man, while on Benno’s Great Race, a dark ride at Ferrari world Abu Dhabi, young guests use a wrench to help Benno assemble cars, cut spider's webs or capture bees. The company's 15th anniversary coincides with a true
explosion of interactive dark rides around the world, and Alterface's interactive systems have been at the heart of many of them. As well as those above, other notable projects include four (and two more on the way for 2017) Justice League: Battle for Metropolis rides with Sally Corp and no fewer than 16 Kingdom Quest dark ride for Legoland Discovery Centers, as well as this year's hit Plants Vs Zombies duelling interactive theatre at Carowinds in the USA. In fact, 10 years after the first Desperados theatre at Fraispertuis City in France, this particular product is still going strong at multiple locations worldwide. Opening in the coming months will be the world's first Ghostbuster interactive dark ride at Motiongate in Dubai, another close co-operation with Alterface shareholder ETF Ride Systems.
Founded in 2001 and headquartered in Belgium, Alterface (
www.alterface.com) operates globally with offices in the US and China. Celebrate 15 years of interactive achievements during a special anniversary awards ceremony and cocktail party at IAAPA Attractions Expo (booth #862) on Tuesday November 15 from 5pm
NOVEMBER 2016
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