Some info which may be of interest to some of you....
Lurker said:
Where are the fireworks? At however much it is a ticket, you would think alton would be able to put on a very impressive display. What i saw was a display i've seen for much smaller crowds for £1/2 each. Maybe it was because i was watching it back on video, but the majority of the show seemed 1 arial shot with some acompanying lasers.
Now, about the lasers. I LOVE lasers. However, how many lights do you need? It looked as though there were hundeds... and they use them to light up the sky and make the fireworks look less impressive. (brighter the firework, better they look). I'm just a bit confused about why you need SO many ... i'd rather see the focus on the fireworks.
There has been massive reduction in pyrotechnic product on this years show due to budget cuts, but it was very cleverly disguised with the use of story, gaps between songs (due to narration) music choice and also a reshuffle of the lighting equipment. The fact that most people were overwhelmed by the show is testimony to the fact that story and theme work so much better.
Lighting wasn't particularly different. On the video it looks like the Falcon's (big beams everyone got excited over) are overpowering but they weren't in person. Moving them from the towers rooftops down to the lawns this year made the lighting set up look bigger, and as far as lasers go there were only 4 heads as opposed to the 7 used for the previous 2 years.
Scott said:
I was under the impression that they had a dB limit they were meant to stick to. That and the fact that they are limited to 3 nights of fireworks per year.
I think the threat of the Ropers taking action probably dissuades them from using anything too loud. Having said that, it felt bloody loud at the weekend!
Correct! I don't know the exact technical legalities of Merlin over Tussauds or park name being different, but they do indeed have a noise ceiling which they stick to. Jubilee constantly monitor the levels and will pull single effects or whole groups of them from the show if it starts getting too high. I believe this came about after Kimbolton completely smashed the noise limit on the 2006 display!
DiogoJ42 said:
They weren't using smoke machines.
But they did have Jem ZR33 fog machines on standby at most lighting locations.
The smoke problem is caused by humidity. If there's too much moisture in the air the smoke cannot disperse and then it's made worse by the lack of wind. There isn't a single firework company in the world that can control this, it's literally luck of the draw on the day you fire a show.
The opposite can happen however, which poses a problem when you're using lighting. If the air is too crisp and there's a slight breeze, you won't see any of the beams. This happened at one of the Alton displays from 2011, think it was the Sunday night. Light show was almost impossible to see, so that's why they have foggers on standby.
Alastair said:
Yeah I'm also fairly sure that Towers could do what they want with fireworks. Firework displays are rarely subject to noise restrictions, especially those on giant areas of private land. As a matter of fact, Drayton Manor was the site of the largest shell launched in the UK (quite a few years back now though).
You'd be surprised about noise restrictions. One of the companies I've worked for specialises in low noise/silent displays and they have managed to pick up work from places which have previously banned fireworks.
The largest shell's in the UK are 16" which can still be used but very rarely as you need 800m of space to launch them and they are a pain in the arse to transport. 12" is still often used but again you'd unlikely see anything like this at Alton. They have been used in the past but they are far too big and loud for the current circumstances. There were plenty of 4's, 5's and 6's going up.
Anyhoo. Fantastic display this year, it was a nice reminder of the huge story based spectaculars I used to watch as a kid in the late 90's. Those displays were what made me want to get involved with fireworks. So well done to Mr Cliff and his Ents team. More of this please.
