The technology behind the music

Guy · Post by **Guy** » Apr Wed 09, 2008 1:05 pm

I put this in the WDW forum but it could apply to any of the parks.

I was wondering if anyone knew how this wonderful music we listen to on this station actually gets played in the parks? I have a few questions that might be interesting to examine:-

1) What format are the tracks stored in? CD/Tape/Computer?
2) How is the music piped around the park?
3) Who controls the music and makes sure that the correct music is playing in the correct area?
4) Are all speakers (particularly area speakers) centrally linked so that messages/announcements can be relayed (I assume this is the case with epcot?
5) How are the loops maintained? That is, what forces them to repeat (with a CD player I suppose this would be easy.)

I am sure there are some answers out there - possibly some cast members out there might be able to help.

jcodirewolf · Post by **jcodirewolf** » Apr Wed 09, 2008 2:58 pm

There is a good episode of modern marvels which shows you some of this.

Basically Disney uses what ever is current. So you'll see a bunch of solutions. New stuff like EE it's all on PCs (windows, mac and linux.) Older stuff like the HM (when it was filmed, pre upgrade) was using huge cards (looked like VMEBus card) with EPROMs on it. I've read somewhere the Illumnations sphere is a DOS box with custom hardware to drive the LED screen.

I would assume the older the equipment the more custom it is. The newer it is, the more off the shelf bits they are using. Since a machine with 8GBs of RAM and a few Terabytes of disk was impossible to buy 12-13 years ago and today that is my 2 year old desktop (which I use to edit HD videos on.)

The claim is most of the effects in MK are driven out of one large datacenter. I would guess resorts/other parks have their own smaller versions of the same room.

johno

Cheshire Cat · Post by **Cheshire Cat** » Apr Wed 09, 2008 5:52 pm

The claim is most of the effects in MK are driven out of one large datacenter. I would guess resorts/other parks have their own smaller versions of the same room.

I remember that Modern Marvels show on WDW where they went to that room!

If I rememeber correctly, they showed the HM audio computer and played a few HM clips.

EPCOT Center's "datacenter" used to be visible through windows in Communicore below guest level. (Hence why it was called the "Community Core"; it controlled everything that went on in epcot) I'm not sure if they're still there, just not viewable or if Epcot (and the other parks for that matter) have just upgraded the way everything is controlled.

edit: picture...
http://www.solarius.com/dvp/wdw/images/ ... -revue.jpg

edit2: I'm getting sloppy with my typing. Sorry if I forget to fix a few "taht"s when I edit my posts

jcodirewolf · Post by **jcodirewolf** » Apr Thu 10, 2008 11:45 am

Cheshire Cat, WOW I totally remember that room now. I had forgotten about it, but now I see the picture I remember that tour.

Post by **Dr. Ravenscroft** » Apr Thu 10, 2008 12:08 pm

Here is a link to some of the speakers they use in the parks:

the ones in the plant beds.....you have probably seen them before:
http://www.ticcorp.com/omni_speakers.htm

Speakers on the poles around the parks:
http://jblpro.com/products/portablesound/prx/
or
http://jblpro.com/products/portablesound/mrx/

I don't know for sure, because Disney Paints there speakers green...

that is what I have so far, I have more saved on my Home computer (I'm at work right now).

Captain Schnemo · Post by **Captain Schnemo** » Apr Thu 10, 2008 11:09 pm

By far, the coolest speakers in the parks are the ones that miraculously appear from the "rocks" around World Showcase Lagoon.

tmptnr · Post by **tmptnr** » Apr Fri 11, 2008 9:50 pm

Very cool question with some really interesting answers. Most of which I did not know. cool facts

luv2cthemouse · Post by **luv2cthemouse** » Apr Tue 15, 2008 5:24 pm

Good information posted - thanks.

Guy · Post by **Guy** » Apr Wed 16, 2008 2:49 am

tmptnr wrote:Very cool question with some really interesting answers. Most of which I did not know. cool facts

Thanks!

I read somewhere that the original music to the Haunted Mansion was held on large tapes (a bit like the 8-track cartridges). The tapes had two channels, one that had the music on which was fed to the speakers on the ride and the other had a 52hrtz hum which was fed to a controlling machine. The machine would monitor and maintain the 52hrtz by changing the speed of the tape-player motors thus keeping the music on the other track in sync!

The speaker look really good in the pics above - I seem to recognise most of them. Thanks to all of you who have replied so far.