Disney Hard Hat

[JonnyMac]

I went down to Disneyland for a tech visit yesterday. Next week they'll be starting on the NBC overlay for the Haunted Mansion, and for the traditional holiday gingerbread cake they want to have an animated Zero (Jack's dog). They'll be using an HC-8+ (beta tested two years ago in the Mansion), programmed via Vixen, for the task. After creating the show, they'll play it from a microSD card attached to the HC-8+.

Have a look at the hard hat sitting on their work bench.

[JackMan]

Way to go Jon! Everyone knows Disney is the bench mark for animatronics and special effects so the fact that they use your products really says a lot!  8)

[JonnyMac]

I don't want anyone to think they're using our products to control MAJOR attraction elements, those are typically being handled by controllers that cost thousands of dollars. Still, when they need small, discrete control, they often turn to us.

The Nightmare Before Christmas overlay is a great example -- there are about 100 (or more) EFX-TEK controllers that handle the little, stand-alone displays (or the big stand-alone Christmas tree which uses 80 Prop-1s!). They've tried and use everything: Prop-1, Prop-2, Prop-SX (configured as simple DMX receivers), EZ-8, DC-16 (they hack them), HC-8+, and some custom boards with support code from us. The AP-16+ is also in use at the park.

John and I work very hard to produce high-quality, high-value products for everyone -- that folks from individual hackers up to big corporations like Disney use them means a lot ot us.