As we move through 2020 and beyond, we here at Gilderfluke want to better show our products and their capabilities in a multi-dimensional way. So we created a blog.
Every month will have an overarching topic, and each week within that month will expand on each major element of the topic in question. If you have any questions, curiosities or even requests don’t hesitate to comment and let us know!
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Your Halloween decor can be so much more than Target decorations! Sick of buying those battery-operated decorations year after year? Adding in the use of GilderGear will take your decorations up to a whole new level!
Halloween decorating is one of the few things available to us in 2020- it’s a fun at-home project that requires little outside assistance or interaction and you can exercise your creativity to the fullest extent! Instead of taking a trip to a temporary Halloween store to pick up automated decorations that you know will only barely last through the season, invest not only in Halloween long term, but also invest in decorating for every other holiday you celebrate! Luckily, all GilderGear is easily programmed and set up for any kind of show you can think of. Today, we will show you ways to integrate GilderGear into your decorations year-round.
Now, we know the importance of fake cobwebs, skeletons, bats, carved pumpkins and tombstones- but the sound effects, lights and automated additions make all the difference in making your house the best decorated one in the neighborhood. This is where a few carefully placed items from Gilderfluke come in!
The first option would be our BrightSign player- a small, sleek video player that’s built to last (so you’ll never have to buy another one ever again!). You can achieve that spooky feel by projecting a collection of images or lights onto the interior or exterior of your home. All you need is the player plugged into a projector! Better yet, it can easily be converted for use at parties (whenever those happen again), holiday decorations, or other celebrations!
As far as Halloween decoration goes- many of us think of those cheap automated skeletons with LED lights for eyes. They may get the job done for a few days out of the year, but that investment goes out the window very quickly, as many of these products are built to break quickly- forcing you to buy new ones year after year. Using one of our famous Br-miniBricks would be an ideal replacement! Not only can you set up a skeleton or bird to shriek or ‘caw’ at passers-by, but you also have so much more control over what your motion-activated animatronic can do! You can set up a skeleton to bow, for lights to go off within its body, trigger a crow to swoop down from up above and perch back on the other side of a porch- even to trigger movement under a pile of dirt to make it look like Uncle Seymour is coming back from the dead! Another fantastic option for these- if you want lights, fog, movement, and sound coordinated for something really impressive- the use of our Sd-50 series would be the ultimate long-term investment. It can easily be set up as a motion-triggered ‘mini-show’, not only catching the eye of every single passer by- but also saving on electricity so these coordinated decorations aren’t going off all night long! You’ll never have to go into a Spirit of Halloween again!
With all these options for Halloween alone, it’s a great way to get in the spirit while still keeping safe in light of COVID. Furthermore, it’s a great way to remind everyone in your neighborhood of community, creativity, and to get their minds off the absolutely crazy world we live in! Once you get a crazy house decoration set-up, it’s sure to get you thinking about what to do for Christmas and the winter holidays!
Have you or someone you know used GilderGear for a Halloween spook-fest? Email us at liz@gilderfluke.com !! We would love to highlight your work and creativity on the blog!
Until next week, have a spooky October and a Happy Halloween!
Your Halloween decor can be so much more than Target decorations! Sick of buying those battery-operated decorations year after year? Adding in the use of GilderGear will take your decorations up to a whole new level! Halloween decorating is one of the few things available to us in 2020- it’s a fun at-home project that…
by gilderfluke
Thank you all for tuning in for another Halloween Haunt article! This week we have another Q & A with a focus on the Marketing side and the changes made for COVID this year. Today we are featuring Laura Kilpatrick- a Graphic Designer by trade and an Art Director at FearWorm Hauntvertising, specializing in Social…
by gilderfluke
Originally Posted On September 16, 2020 In a year where nothing is going right, it’s hard to find a silver lining to 2020. With dozens of theme parks shut down and even the entertainment behemoths like Universal and Disney struggling, everything seems to be in freefall. As we move closer and closer to October, us…
by gilderfluke
Thank you all for tuning in for another Halloween Haunt article! This week we have another Q & A with a focus on the Marketing side and the changes made for COVID this year. Today we are featuring Laura Kilpatrick- a Graphic Designer by trade and an Art Director at FearWorm Hauntvertising, specializing in Social Media Concepts and copywriting. She lives in Arlington, Texas.
What does a normal year look like in Haunt for you? What’s different this year?
A normal year in the haunted attraction industry means quite a bit of things. First, I would have to say you can sell as many tickets as you want normally! There wouldn’t be any restrictions as to how close an actor can get to a patron, and both the patron and the actor wouldn’t have to be wearing extra PPE or face coverings. Normally, haunted houses might not be as clean! I know, I hate to say that. But haunted houses this year are really stepping up their cleaning procedures and how frequently they disinfect surfaces and common areas of their productions. Normally this time of year I am crazy busy manning social media for 20 plus haunted attractions. This year I have a little over half of that, so the work load is less, but I also don’t have my team I normally would be working with. Since less haunted attractions are opening, we were not able to hire the individuals we would normally give seasonal marketing and social media work to this year, now that is sad! Because I love working with a good team!
Are there any particular precautions being taken?
Absolutely! Haunts across the country have implemented social distancing in their queue lines, some are even using text notification systems and having their guests wait in their cars until it is time for them to begin their experience! Like I said above, haunted houses are definitely cleaner this year and that is a huge plus. Also, timed ticketing has been a huge help for many attractions across the country – this allows them to control the number of guests they have for a specific block of time. This helps with crowd control, and social distancing. Most haunts are also capping their ticket sales this year to follow their state’s guidelines. This is a great way to make sure your capacity stays in the safe zone. And, marketing wise, this is a great way to sell out an event! Less tickets being sold means urgency for the consumers.
Are there going to be more automated things like show controls used as opposed to actors?
In some cases, actors have definitely been minimized, but at the very least they have been trained on how to scare from farther away. Some have even been given props that are distancing tools. These could be items they hold and something projects from the device out at you. This is much safer. It forces the actor and the patron to maintain their safe distance while getting a scare at the same time!
What are the restrictions like in your area/in the areas you’re discussing?
Capacities are greatly reduced. In some areas as low as 25% is what haunted houses are serving this year. This can be hard on the haunts because they won’t necessarily make as much money as they might during a normal season, but to help with this, some haunts have adjusted their ticket prices to increase revenue for the lower amount of tickets sold. Some are just happy to be opening and are wanting to consider this a public service for this year. Just giving the public a safe Halloween event to attend. In all that we’ve been through in 2020, I think we all deserve a few good scares and screams!
How do you feel the haunt community has been effected by COVID this year? Are people fading by the wayside or coming together in spite of 2020 being a dumpster fire?
This is very 50/50. Lots of haunted attractions have leaned on the industry we are all a part of and worked together to learn, grow, and to tackle all of the challenges 2020 has thrown at us safely! Some haunted attractions have chosen to remain closed, as they feel that is safer for the public and themselves. They could be afraid of lawsuits. If someone contracted Covid-19 there at the haunt, there would absolutely be some unsavory news that occurs due to something like that. Some haunts are choosing not to open, but it is my opinion that the ones that don’t open this year – they are going to struggle next season. They will be fighting their competitors (who did open) to gain back the market share of loyal consumers they lost in 2020. This season, consumers will find the show in town that is open and is doing things right, they will go to that haunt, and if they have a great time…they just might have a new favorite show to attend in the future. All in all I am absolutely proud of my industry. Many haunted houses have supported one another during this time. They share information, and encourage one another. It has been very inspiring!
What are your specialties within the industry?
I work in marketing for haunted attractions. I am the Art Director for FearWorm Hauntvertising, the first and largest advertising agency that caters specifically to haunted attractions! I direct photo and video shoots for many of our clients. This helps them get the content they need to market their attraction for their events. I specialize in social media concepts and copywriting. I am also a Graphic Designer, by trade. I have my bachelors degree in Graphic Design. So, I definitely lean on that skill and create many graphics for our clients as well.
If you are privy to what multiple haunters are doing- Who do you think is planning the best work so far (as far as having the perfect nexus of entertainment/thrill/scare/safety/innovation)?
Right now, top of my mind would be Fear Factory in Salt Lake City (check out our interview with Spencer from Fear Factory Here!), Brighton Asylum in Passaic, New Jersey, House of Horrors in Buffalo, New York, and man…you just cannot beat the shows that are pivoting to make sure guests feel safe…and scared for the right reasons!
Reindeer Manor in the DFW area has partnered with iHeart media locally to bring you a drive-thru haunted attraction this year at the American Airlines Center! I am definitely checking that show out this year, and Hatch and Kraven’s in Denison – they are constructing an ALL-NEW haunted trail for folks this year. And of course, last but not least….Dark Hour Haunted House! They may not be opening normally this year, but they will be releasing a backstage tour showing this year’s show that would have been. That is going to be a must-see! That haunted attraction is like Disney-good, I swear!
We send a big ol’ THANK YOU to Laura for her detailed insights! It’s been quite the adventure learning not only about the nuances of the Haunt industry, but also about how they are trying to persevere in the face of COVID!! Happy Halloween to all! Check us out next week for another entry in the GILDERBLOG!!
Originally Posted On September 16, 2020
In a year where nothing is going right, it’s hard to find a silver lining to 2020. With dozens of theme parks shut down and even the entertainment behemoths like Universal and Disney struggling, everything seems to be in freefall. As we move closer and closer to October, us at Gilderfluke started wondering, what is the world of Haunt going to look like this year? How are they doing it? Unlike many other theme parks and attractions, the Haunt industry only has about a month and a half to entertain the public- it’s all or nothing. We made it our mission to do a series of blog articles focusing on the world of Haunt and how they plan to weather the 2020 storm (you can find our other articles throughout the month on our blog). This article is a special edition for Themed Attraction.com and we hope it’ll shine a positive light on this passionate subsect of the themed entertainment community.
Last week, I was lucky enough to interview Spencer Terry, Haunt Master at Fear Factory in Salt Lake City, UT. We discussed his changes made this year and how it compares with a normal year. The plans are creative and proactive. The people of Utah have a great Halloween season on their hands! Their key changes revolve around going above and beyond state, and local guidelines, extensive actor and employee training, using increased show control/automation and establishing regular contact with his local health department and council people.
The first adjustments made were to get Fear Factory in compliance with local and state regulations for health and safety. In normal season they’re open 40 days, this year will be around 30. Spencer sees 3,500-4,000 people a night with a 300 person staff, 170 employees working at any given time in a six-building facility. Flow-wise, they usually would do groups of 8-10. All of this will be changed to provide a healthy and safe experience for guests. Fear Factory expects guest numbers to be closer to 2,500-3,000 as a result of smaller groups moving through the Haunt. They have employees dedicated to sanitizing/bleaching water coolers and areas frequented by guests every 5 minutes, including sanitizing bathrooms every 10-15 minutes. Staff has easy access to hand sanitizers across the property. For guest use, they have creatively placed hand sanitizer pumps inside the chest cavity of skeletons all around the Haunt. They have also enacted a minimum of 8-16’ distancing between groups throughout the Haunt, which is another fantastic example of Fear Factory going above and beyond in order to ensure safety for their guests. Another unique route Fear Factory took for 2020 was getting in contact with their local SLC health department and city council members. As a former city councilman, Spencer has the luck of the ins and outs of contacting those in local government. This has allowed Fear Factory to open on time under Salt Lake City guidelines.
Actor and employee training have also been crucial for keeping guests and employees safe throughout the Halloween season. Spencer’s team has retrained actors on how to scare people safely and from a distance while still keeping things scary. Masks are required in their county and signage is everywhere reminding guests to keep masks over their mouths and nose. Beyond this, they have tons of signage informing guests that if they take their masks off within the Haunted House, they will simply be allowed to walk through the Haunt. Neither the actors nor employees will approach them or scare them. Spencer made the excellent point- “We tell them, and have signage everywhere stating ‘thanks for your donation, but we will not scare you.’ If there’s someone who takes their mask off in the Haunt, I’d rather everyone stay away from that person than send 3 or 4 people in to try and get them to put their mask on.”
One of the biggest things they’ve done this year, when they realized around April that things were not going to be normal this year, was put a show control contingency plan into place. In the past, the decoy has been the animated object and they were scared by the actor- this has been reversed this year. So, you have an actor in a hallway doing a quick pop-out. Then, the scare comes from something automated (like a blow of air, flash of light, visuals, etc.), this still provides that one-two punch while keeping things physically distanced. Projections have been a big addition as well, providing a visual distraction while an actor or other automated scare pops out from behind.
Lastly, another major change was made regionally in Utah. They moved to unify all the Haunts throughout Utah to keep everyone on the same page and despite their friendly correspondence of one-upmanship, they wanted to come together to ensure everyone’s survival through 2020. As Spencer mentioned, “There is truth that there are power in numbers… become a member of HAA, of all years this is the year to do it. They have cool exclusives and seminars for the industry like makeup tutorials, sexual harassment training and various contingency plans [for opening during COVID.]” If you’re a Haunter, check out the Haunted Attractions Association here.
Despite Fear Factory’s plans to scare Salt Lake City, not everyone is so lucky this year. With so many different state regulations, some Haunts can open with restrictions and others can’t open at all. Those that are closed this year are gearing up for battle in 2021 with increased budgets, upgrades focusing intently on innovation and creativity. “2021 is going to be lit, I’m really excited for what the Haunt community is gearing up to do for next year”, said Spencer. At least there’s a silver lining.
Like so many others around the county, Fear Factory’s creative proactivity is a fantastic representation of how the industry can roll with the punches. Despite how crazy and disheartening things may seem right now, enterprising teamwork can get you through it. If you’re in the Salt Lake City area, be sure to check out Fear Factory SLC! They just had a huge building added onto their structure, so it’s better than ever and safer than ever!
We here at Gilderfluke wish Spencer Terry and all Haunters the best of luck this Halloween season! We also wish everyone at Themed Attractions a Happy Halloween- and remember- Halloween is the best holiday and can be celebrated safely! Check us out next week on the GilderBlog for more Haunt articles!
Reposted from Themed Attraction
As we get closer to Halloween, for the month of September we at Gilderfluke are asking what the world of Haunt is doing in the face of COVID? As entertainment behemoths like Universal, Disneyworld, and Knott’s Berry Farm are canceling their Halloween festivities entirely, we ask where will thrill-seekers go for their favorite spooky holiday? Or is everyone going to be stuck watching Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Friday the 13th reruns safe from their couches, surrounded by their Halloween Target decor?
Throughout this month, we hope to shed light on what small groups and powerhouses in the community are doing to keep going despite the shutdown. Through this, we hope will drum up a bit of Halloween spirit and maybe get you looking forward to October 31st in 2020!
Watch out this month for Haunt featurettes, interviews with major players in the haunt community, and mock-ups for your own COVID-friendly haunted house using Gilderfluke show controls and sound systems!
Are you a haunter or know someone in the industry? Don’t hesitate to email our Social Media Manager, Liz at liz@gilderfluke.com! She would love to hear from you and ask you some questions about what you’re doing differently this year!
We will see you next week as we dive into our first feature and interview! Happy Haunting!
Hello friends and family worldwide! We are presenting at IAAPA Asia (virtually) and are uploading some info here on the blog. Please check out our newsletter if you haven’t seen it!
Check out our Newsletter! It gives a nice overview of some key products, along with a product comparison chart for your consideration!
查看我们的新闻通讯！它提供了一些关键产品的概述，并提供了产品比较表供您考虑！
News and Updates!
The Br-miniBricks 4 & 8 have been essentially unaltered for the last 15 years- until today! We have new manuals for the Bricks coming up on Gilderfluke’s website in the next couple of days (so definitely check it out!). One of the cooler additions to the manual is where it illustrates how to connect out miniBrick to the Sd-25 w/ DMX! Perfect combination for dozens and dozens of applications! They can be easily downloaded and enjoyed for all our mini-Brick lovers worldwide through our website.
We have an exceptionally awesome crop of info in our ‘Application Notes‘ and other goodies to check out on our website so you get the absolute most out of every single thing you buy from Gilderfluke!
The History of the miniBrick
Our miniBricks have a pretty straightforward history, but have also contributed to some amazing shows worldwide. To jump in bluntly, our first small show controllers were about the size of a brick, and with their linear power supply, about the same weight as a brick. Naturally, our clients started referring to them as ‘Bricks’, and the name stuck. There are thousands of these old bricks still ticking away and running their shows all over the world. They set the Gilderfluke & Co. standard for ease of use and reliability that we still have today. We build them to work forever- if something happens, we will fix it. Easy as that- we don’t want you to come back year after year to replace a product. Ever.
The first Br-miniBrick8s were created in our second wave of show controllers, propelled by the release of the first versions of Pc•MACs in the early 1990’s.
These first generation of Br-miniBrick8s had no case (it was available as an option), ServoMotor, DMX-512 outputs or buttons on their tops to program them ‘in place’ without using the Pc•MACs software. These Br-miniBrick8s were programmed using the Pc•MACs software without the license by drawing it on the OffLine Editing Window. PC’s were just too darned slow to handle the RealTime control of a show without a lot of hardware to offload most to the RealTime work from the PC’s microcontroller.
The second generation of miniBricks added the case, servo motor outputs and the program-in-place buttons. The first few builds of this generation of Br-miniBrick8s could receive DMX-512, but not transmit it.
The current third generation version of the Br-miniBrick8s added the ability to transmit 64 channel of DMX-512. This can be used to network Br-miniBrick8s and other DMX-compatible hardware together. It was added to accommodate the addition of DMX-512 reception to the Sd-25 w/DMX audio player/amplifiers, and the easy ‘drag-n-drop’ audio programming that a DMX-512 connection allows. You just put a marker onto the timeline of your show where you want an audio or video to start, and Pc•MACs handles all the rest for you.
For people who are just learning about show control and programming, we usually recommend the Br-miniBrick8, as it has a little of everything on it:
Examples of miniBricks Making Awesome Things Happen:
Although you may have never seen a miniBrick, you have certainly seen them at work. With over 5,000 miniBricks in active service, they remain out most popular show controller. They have been used in films, theme parks and museums all over the world.
The miniBricks are used in hundreds of spots at Disney, Universal, Merlin (LegoLand, ‘Ripley’s Believe it or Not’ museums), Lotte, Leofoo, Chimelong and other theme parks worldwide. They have been used to run the Disney electrical parades for decades. Even if you look inside of R2D2 at several of the Disney parks, you’ll find miniBricks!
We only recently found out that the T-Rex at the climax of the Jurassic Park attraction in Osaka runs on a Br-miniBrick8! Universal also likes to hide them in Quad boxes where ever they need a flashing light or simple effect. The two miniature golf courses at the entrance to Universal in Orlando are run by dozens of Br-miniBrick8s for control and Sd-25s for sound. The little Borg mechanisms in the Star Trek universe are controlled by miniBricks.
Even the most recent Tom Hanks release, ‘Greyhound’ uses Br-miniBrick8s for some of the pyro triggers and other effects. The ‘Ack-Ack’ guns on the Kid (where the ‘Greyhound’ class ship where some scenes were filmed) had 75 years of paint on them. They stripped one back to bare metal, and used a Br-miniBrick8 and some air cylinders to animate the gun mechanism.
For people who are just learning about show control and programming, we usually recommend the Br-miniBrick8, as it has a little of everything on it:
Check in with us next week as we jump further into our products that are exceptionally useful for Haunters! New posts every week! Buy our most excellent products here! (Our website should be replaced by a prettier one, shortly, we swear!)
CHECK OUT OUR YOUTUBE VIDEOS AND TUTORIALS!
The GilderScript is a super user-friendly bit of software to use with our BrightSign players.
Here’s the Breakdown
GilderScript is a ready-made software for BrightSign players to be used instead of BrightSign’s software, which has a very high learning curve. Our GilderScript allows you all the awesome benefits of using a BrightSign player without the hassle. There is no need to manually configure players for 95% of our clients who use it. All you do is drag-and-drop videos into playlist folders and GilderScript does the rest!
If you’re reprogramming your show using PC-MACs, all you need to do is place markers in the editing window where you want your videos to start and when you build your auto download for install. PC-MACs immediately builds folders for all of your video players so all you have to do is drag folders to SD cards and shove ’em into the BrightSign player! Pretty easy, huh?
Uses
GilderScript has been used by major theme park companies to save them the hours it would take programmers to manually configure BrightSign players for applications. It has been used in installations with a single BrightSign player and also in installs with dozens of players synchronized together- all without any manual configuration!
The Script is hugely popular with haunters, museums along with theme parks and more. Taking away the need to manually configure the player allows for more creative time and gives the user much more time to focus on the whole project instead of incessantly focusing on one element for hours and hours.
Some of the more fun projects done with the GilderScript/BrightSign combo include Escape Rooms and Escape Room boxes. You can essentially place markers on a timeline allowing for different shows and videos to play as a result of a certain combination of queues, unlocking one clue/drawer/room at a time.
Another particularly fun use is projection mapping, which can make it look like critters are crawling all over a statue or wall. This can be particularly fun with statues that cannot be touched- imagine the Statue of David with a bunch of cockroaches crawling all over it, or like with the statue below and cover it in ink!
The combo has also been used for 2D animation, projecting two videos on the same location. For instance, it was used to show the life-cycle of snowfall at a local museum. The snow would settle onto a mountaintop and valley surrounding it, and it would melt, evaporate, etc. The ease of programming allows the creator to not only set up quickly but also focus on the creative work without distraction or frustration.
That’s it for this week! Short but sweet, I know. Accept another Projection Mapping video in your heart to supplement your desire for content!
BUT! Check out our other articles from previous weeks below! More reading ahead!
Want to play a video every way imaginable for eons and eons? Look no further than the BrightSign/GilderScript combo!
The combination of BrightSign and our GilderScript is a most excellent duo for video playing in virtually every major situation!
The Basics
BrightSign has several model options- a simple looping player with no GPIO for triggering up to ones that can decode multiple screens of 4k video. All but the least expensive video player offered will decode 4k video using H.265 encoding.
Before BrightSign players will run, you must configure them for your application using their BrightAuthor program. Gilderfluke has eliminated the need to configure these players in most applications using GilderScript! All you need are the video files in specially named playlist folders- you can have up to 250 playlist folders numbered 1-250. Each folder can hold any number of videos. By default, videos will play sequentially on each trigger set to a folder. If you place an ampersand (&) at the end of each folder name, it will play in random order. By adding a question mark (?) at the end of the file/folder name top be non-steppable (once the video is playing it has to play until the end before being able to change the video/progress forward/start the video over again, etc). Any videos you want to play when in between triggered videos can be thrown into a folder called “Background Loop”- these will be played sequentially or randomly if you add a background loop and ampersand (&).
The number of video outputs is limited by the number of BrightSign players you add. Installation can be easily synced to each other via DMX or switch closures. There is no practical limit as far as video file sizes go- only limited by your card used with BrightSign.
Practical Uses
Well, they play video! And are extremely reliable! Our most recent project using BrightSign players is for the California Science Center- we have informative videos all across their earthquake exhibit, which switch between English and Spanish for each video option. They can be used for other display purposes for virtually anything you can think of- from looping video for theme park rides to private events for wall projections, they can be used for decor or for entertainment!
Come by next week for the breakdown of our GilderScript! It will be a bit more extensive than this week’s post! Check out our previous posts below if you’re interested in learning more about our other products!
Stay Tuned After this Brief Advertisement!
Ahh the month of March! We are moving into springtime, it’s March Madness, we have not only St. Patrick’s Day coming up BUT we here at Gilderfluke are going to St. Louis for the TransWorld Halloween and Attractions show! If you’re going, come by and say hello! We will be at booth 1030! It’s going to be a splendid time! Now, on with the show!
**Here’s an introductory breakdown of this month’s themes and upcoming articles!**
Videos at Gilderfluke: The Beginning
Gilderfluke has provided video for decades, when we started we used a little known thing called a LaserDisc player, which, despite the fact that at it’s peak in popularity only 2% of American households used them, were the best choice in video players in the late 1980s and early 1990’s. If you’re not familiar with LaserDiscs, let’s give you a bit of background- the Laser Disc itself looks like a record-sized DVD. The video quality is leaps and bounds better than VHS, and used widescreen as opposed to the chopped-down square display VHS’ were known for. (for comparison, check out the YouTube video below comparing the intros of Star Wars: A New Hope)The only catch is, for a full-length movie, similar to a record, you’d have to flip the Laser Disc in the middle of the movie to continue watching. The standard LaserDisc player came from Pioneer, and at Gilderfluke we used the professional LDV 8000 model. For our uses, the main constraint was time- we were only able to use 15-30 min of video depending on the format.
LaserDisc also used Analog for their storage media, and it cost a lot, too! The discs were either pressed plastic or glass for custom jobs- but as you’d imagine, what’s essentially a pressed glass record is terribly fragile and were extremely expensive. Despite the benefits LaserDiscs provided Gilderfluke, we moved quickly with the times and jumped straight into DVDs when the time came!
The introduction of DVD’s allowed for more frame-by-frame access of video. After solid state storage we moved to standard definition. Unfortunately, as the times continued to change, the supplier for our DVD players stopped making them- forcing us to find a new option.
Modern Times: BrightSign (Full Article Publishing Date: 3/11/20)
This leads us to our sleek, excellent video player we use today- BrightSign players. They initially started as very boxy, but our owner, Doug, saw the hardware they developed was not only advanced- but industrial-grade, durable and cost effective. As time moved on, BrightSign went through four more generations and adopted the sleek, blue players we use today! With each generation, they got better and better across the board. They do standard, 1080p high def, all the way up to 4k. And don’t fret, they’re as durable as ever- Gilderfluke’s mission is to provide not only the best quality, but also a long-lasting, durable line of products.
GilderScript (Full Article Publishing Date: 3/18/20)
One of the big benefits of using BrightSign is they allow users to do any configuration needed to achieve the customers’ goals, but for most people, there’s a huge learning curve. In comes GilderScript, which takes all the hassle out of manual customization and configuration- essentially giving a drag-and-drop programming solution so you can achieve what you need to easily and without issue.
v-Hd-to 1/4J6 and v-Hd-to DMX (Full Article Publishing Date: 3/25/20)
The v-Hd-to 1/4J6 allows for the BrightSign and other video players to be optically isolated and connected to digital output boards, and trigger shows via standard DMX. It also does muscial incorportaion via plug/jack, and doesn’t require an operator to trigger it, it just plays in sync with the coordinated show!
These also tie into PC-MACs, you can set up video folders, load onto the micro SD card for the video player, drag and drop into PC-MACs and you’re ready to run your show!
For way, way more detail about each of the topics (briefly) discussed, come back next week, every week! Learn more about Gilderfluke! Learn more about all the cool possibilities our products have in store for you to truly unlock your creative potential!
Happy March!
Welcome back, one and all! This week we jump into the last member of the miniBrick family-the DAC-Quad– it is an excellent companion to an animatronic or show that needs help moving and swinging around! The general specs are outlined down below, along with all the pretty pictures and fun stories from our GilderMaster, CEO and owner- Doug Mobley.
The Facts
The DAC-Quad is used when you need to control anything that needs a 0-10 vdc analog control voltage. These include animated shows, lighting, motion base simulators, pneumatic and hydraulic systems, special effects, signs, fountains, and more.
A Digital device is either on or off, like a light switch. An Analog device is on, off, or at any point between. A common example of an analog device is a lamp dimmer. In animation, analog movements give the fluid, lifelike movements that are needed to bring an animated figure to life. Analog movements can be moved as quickly or slowly as you desire, and stopped at any point within their range of movement. Features of the DAC-Quad include:
Some Sweet Deets!
The DAC-Quad is quite similar to the SER-DMX, with a couple key differences- the DAC-Quad has 4 servo motors and 16 bit resolution, which is a bit higher rez than the SER-DMX. The DAC-Quad was also the third child in the miniBrick family, behind the miniBrick 4 and miniBrick 8.
It’s also used for converting 3 DOF (degrees of freedom). For example, in theme parks or entertainment, this would allow for a rig to roll, tilt and heave (move up and down). This is particularly useful for interactive cinemas and theme parks! For example, a more complicated DOF was used on the now defunct Star Tours ride at Disneyland, which used a 6 DOS rig to make you feel like you were gliding/crashing in space!
Along with moving heavy rigs in various directions, the DAC-Quad is used for 0-10 volt speed signals to VFD’s and other motor controllers in fountains and other robotics. One such example is a fountain at the steps of the Pennsylvania State House. They needed a retrofit for the fountain, which was made by and attended to by a very respected fountain company. We refit the fountain with the DAC-Quad, the whole project cost them much less than is they had the original fountain company come out and fix it! Not only that, the fountain blasts 300 horsepower– something the DAC-Quad can handle with ease! An interesting note is if you sit right next to or on top of the fountain, all that power can be felt sitting there– it feels like the building is moving! And the rigs are a couple stories below the fountain!
Here’s a nice, long video about the DAC-Quad, along with the SER-DMX and BR-ANA!
That’s it for this week! Come by next week as we plunge into another topic to tantalize your technological taste buds!
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