GALVESTON ISLAND, TEXAS: Part of the "rainforest" at Galveston Island, Texas' Rainforest Café® restaurant and entertainment complex, is packed full of both real and mock lush plant life, waterfalls, exotic animals, Mayan temples and even a river god. Look very carefully, though, and you'll find some trappings of civilization - and some very high-tech ones at that.
 

Tucked as inconspicuously as possible into the foliage and theming on the grounds of the indoor Rainforest River Adventure Ride™ are components of a revolutionary radio frequency wireless audio transmission system. The unique Guideport System, developed by Sennheiser Electronics Corporation, transmits audio narration, which is an integral element of the ride experience. It describes the surroundings at precisely the correct time to patrons as they meander down a water channel and through distinct areas of the man-made jungle on small water propelled watercraft.

Rainforest Café®, part of the Houston-based Landry's Restaurants, Inc.® dining chain, conceived of the Rainforest River Adventure Ride™ as an added attraction to its newest location on the grounds of the San Luis Resort on Galveston Island. Having built a dining concept around a unique rainforest theme, the chain wanted to broaden its entertainment value by constructing a ride-like attraction for guests, including those who were not necessarily restaurant patrons.

One of the more interesting aspects of the project was developing a solution for incorporating a narrative audio system into the attraction in a manner as not to complicate the ride operator with numerous controls, and also be tamper proof (hands-free) to the patrons experiencing the ride. This equipment needed to be reliable with excellent sound quality. The technology also needed to work in a challenging environment, specifically one in which humidity and thrashing water was ever present.

Solving that problem fell to Frattalone and Associates, Inc., an audio-visual-lighting consulting and installation firm based in St. Paul, Minnesota. The company, which was instrumental in the development of the Rainforest Café® concept, has handled the AV needs of the Rainforest Café® properties since 1994. Work on building the Galveston attraction was well under way when Frattalone and Associates, Inc. was called upon to incorporate a self-contained audio system in the river ride floating rafts. Initially, the company considered several traditional options, including infrared-based audio transmission system, says Troy Werth, one of the firm's technical designers.

"That would have been possible, but it probably would have been cost prohibitive, difficult to configure and unable to meet our time constraints," Werth says. "There were many variables, but one of the more challenging was a water-based fogging system emitting thick fog continually in the ride. An electro optic sensor based system or infrared system would have been problematic in this extreme environment. Basically, we chose not to use certain types of triggers, as we needed something that would be rugged enough to withstand the test of time in this type of environmental application."

While the company was mulling solutions, the Guideport answer emerged - in a rather unusual way. As Werth tells it, company owner Steven Frattalone spotted a story in an industry trade publication about a recent installation of Guideport in, of all places, Germany's Rainforest Museum. After reading the article, Werth says, Steven got to thinking that Guideport might be the answer to this Rainforest's dilemma, as well. After a few meetings with Sennheiser representatives, Frattalone determined Guideport was the cost-effective, technologically superior solution they were looking for.

Working closely with Sennheiser engineers in this unique application, Frattalone configured a solution designed to transmit narration audio to an on-board speaker system installed in free floating watercraft that travel a circuitous, 560-foot route through the mock rainforest in the span of about five minutes.

At the heart of the Guideport System is a GPSR3000-1 Cell Transmitter that houses the pre-recorded, computer-based audio tracks that correspond to a particular location on the ride's route. The transmitter, in turn, is connected to a GPAM3000 Antenna Module, positioned near the ride's loading point.

Each of ten watercraft, which seat six in an inward-facing circle, is outfitted with Guideport Wireless receivers and Frattalone custom-designed speakers. As the craft enter each of six distinct areas of the ride - South America, followed by Banyan Tree, Africa, Asia and Asian Temple - Guideport GPID3000-OUT Identifiers, placed in pairings on either side of the water channel, trigger the corresponding audio file to play from the receiver which is housed in one of the high back seats in the water craft. The audio then is routed to the boat's amplifier also housed in a seatback, and finally to the 12 speaker system surrounding you with crisp, clean, intelligible audio. The soundtrack runs for the allotted time until the next pair of identifiers are reached, at which point the same action is repeated.

During the course of the approximately five-minute ride, passengers merely sit back and listen to the audio, describing each feature along the voyage. The volume is carefully adjusted as not to be disruptively loud, and is clearly heard through the high levels of ambient noises of the jungle, animatronic animal sounds, multi-track themed music and many special effect sounds, Werth says.

"Each pair of identifiers is programmed to match up with a certain soundtrack on the receiver which is triggered when the craft passes through the identifiers magnetic field," Werth says. "It always knows when and what to trigger, smoothly transitioning from one soundtrack to another. There is no interaction or interface needed with the rider, and the receiver is out of reach as it is installed in the fiberglass hull. Marine batteries in the boat, work in conjunction with a Sennheiser DC converter to step the voltage down for the receivers."

In place since early this year, the Guideport system's performance has been nearly flawless, Werth says. In comparison to the costs and technological challenges that other types of audio systems would have presented, the Guideport system has proven to be quite adaptable, flexible, reliable and a quality solution uniquely tailored for our customer's needs.

"The Guideport System has saved money in both research and development. To design and customize another type of solution would have been extensive," Werth says. "The system has worked extremely well, and most importantly, it has surpassed all of our client's expectations.