Natural Sounds for Natural Gas

source: www.installationeurope.com

Located near the city of Freiburg, in south-west Germany, Europa Park is one of continental Europe’s leading theme parks. And new for the 2010 season was an energy-themed, interactive exhibition featuring an array of Yamaha power amplifiers, that played to the crowds in the waiting area for the Blue Fire coaster – one of Europe’s latest and best.

Dubbed Gazprom Theme World, the exhibition is sponsored by the eponymous natural gas company, and invites the public to learn about the many facets of collecting and transporting natural gas.

Three cylindrical areas with 360° multimedia cinemas first take visitors on a trip to natural gas reserves deep within the earth. The second area reveals how the gas is tapped and extracted, while the third one describes the delivery and utilisation of natural gas from Russia to Germany.
The audio/visual installation was undertaken by Neumann & Müller GmbH & Co, who installed an audio system powered by 10 Yamaha PC2001N, two PC3301N and one PC4801N power amplifiers, plus an XH200 100V line distribution amplifier, all controlled by a PC via an ACD1 amplifier control device.

“Most of the Yamaha amplifiers drive the sound for the three 360º video installations, each featuring 6.1 surround sound,” said Stephan Hartmann of Neumann & Müller. “But as the wait for Blue Fire can be over an hour, the XH200 drives a system in the main part of the building for background music.”
One of the key design requirements of the system was that it had to be controlled remotely from a computer. The ACD1 made this possible and was a solution that Triad – the company that conceptualised and designed the installation – had used before.
“They had good experiences with this type of Yamaha system on other installations, so it was the first choice for the Gazprom project,” commented Hartmann. “With many thousands of visitors enjoying Gazprom Theme World throughout the summer [coaster capacity is 1720 people per hour] the Yamaha amplifiers have operated with total reliability and are helping to make the exhibition a truly immersive experience.”