Walt Disney World Lighting

[chrispo86]

So I was at Walt Disney World last night, sitting near the castle, when I pulled out my iPhone to check some things. It popped up the list of wireless networks available, and I happened to notice one of them was "WDW CWC LIGHTING". I'm assuming the accronyms are for Walt Disney World (obviously) Cindarella's Winter Castle Lighting. Being the lighting guy I am, I got very excited.

But then I was starting to think, how is it that they control all of their lights say along parade routes? Is it all wireless, or is it hardwired? Another thing I thought was cool, and yet puzzling, is when they have the fireworks at the end of the night, all of the lights on Mainstreet and basically within sight of the front of the castle dim down. How can they do this? Does everthing in creation run back to some massive dimmer room somewhere or is it split up?

I know I saw some special the other night on them getting ready for Christmas and they were programming lights with what looked like a hog from right in the middle of the central hub.

I think my final conclusion is, that's one heck of a rig that I'd love to play with!!!

 

[JD]

What you have to remember is that all of the Magic Kingdom in WDW is actually on the rooftop of a large underground facilities building. (Been down there) The control center for the parades is in this building as well as a massive amount of sound and lighting equipment. At one point, everything was hard wired, except for the parade floats which operate off of DC (car batteries) and were in radio link to the room below. As for lighting, I am sure things have changed over the years as Disney has a habit of adopting all the newest and the latest. To use a "wired" example, if someone wanted to run a com line from Frontier Land to tomorrow land, they could simply take it downstairs in one of the stores or attractions, run it down the hallways, and then bring it back up at the other side of the park! Of course, wireless is easier

 

[Grog12]

Like Fight Club the first rule of working backstage at WDW is you don't talk about working backstage at WDW. The 2nd rule of......

 

[DMahalko]

There is a special Disney tour if you want to see the tunnels, the backside of various buildings and facilities, the employee training programs, the wardrobe facility where each staff member can check out five identical shirts and pants and return them for free cleaning and repair, the Imagnineering set construction building, the flower shop, the decorations storage facilities (65,000 sqft warehouse just for christmas decorations, pre-decorated trees ready to go on display essentially over the course of a single night), etc etc.

Cost is $219 per person, does not require a park entrance pass, must be at least 16 years old, 7 hour tour.

Backstage Magic - Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot
Walt Disney World Backstage Magic Tour

Just don't bring a camera. You are not allowed to take pictures of anything "backstage".

,

All Disney Backstage tours, times, costs -- some allow cameras:
Disney World Backstage Tours, Disney tours


- Dale Mahalko

 

[Footer]

There is a special Disney tour if you want to see the tunnels, the backside of various buildings and facilities, the employee training programs, the wardrobe facility where each staff member can check out five identical shirts and pants and return them for free cleaning and repair, the Imagnineering set construction building, the flower shop, the decorations storage facilities (65,000 sqft warehouse just for christmas decorations, pre-decorated trees ready to go on display essentially over the course of a single night), etc etc.

Cost is $219 per person, does not require a park entrance pass, must be at least 16 years old, 7 hour tour.

Backstage Magic - Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, Epcot
Walt Disney World Backstage Magic Tour

Just don't bring a camera. You are not allowed to take pictures of anything "backstage".

,

All Disney Backstage tours, times, costs -- some allow cameras:
Disney World Backstage Tours, Disney tours


- Dale Mahalko

When LDI is at Orlando every other year (this one just passed...) they put together a tour to tour the tech of Universal Studios, Sea World, and Disney with a slant towards lighting technology. It costs around 1500.

2009 BACKSTAGE ORLANDO

 

[shiben]

When LDI is at Orlando every other year (this one just passed...) they put together a tour to tour the tech of Universal Studios, Sea World, and Disney with a slant towards lighting technology. It costs around 1500.

2009 BACKSTAGE ORLANDO

Im kind of surprised that the lighting companies dont subsidize the cost of these things, seeing as if their stuff is in use, its like amazing product placement advertising for them.

 

[lieperjp]

It costs around 1500.

2009 BACKSTAGE ORLANDO

WOW. That's a lot of money.

 

[chrispo86]

If was in town for more than 3 days and had some spare time during the day I would have loved to do the tour, I've heard it's great. Unfortunately I'm only around for training for work and just popped in for a few hours after class. Couldn't come to Orlando and not go to Disney lol

 

[SteveB]

Im kind of surprised that the lighting companies dont subsidize the cost of these things, seeing as if their stuff is in use, its like amazing product placement advertising for them.

Subsidize ?. Are you nuts ?. Disney has ton's of cash, why give them stuff for free ?.

When I was at the ETC factory in '04, it was mentioned in passing that the largest Unison installation at that time was controlling the ETC factory lighting and that it was about to be supplanted by Disney Japan, which was also about to receive something like 6,000 Sensor dimmers and you can believe that ETC is NOT giving Disney 6,000 Sensors for the advertising !. 6,000 ETC tee-shirts maybe.....

These big sales of huge systems is part of what allows a company like ETC sell me an Ion control system with 3 - 2x20 fader wings and an RFR for LESS then I could have gotten an Expression 15 years ago.

I also recall being at Epcot decades ago and noting that the information booth had 150 Colortran Mini-Ellipses. I thought "150", jeez I have 12". Then I entered the assorted attractions and saw these same fixtures EVERYWHERE !. Thousands. And that is typical for Disney everywhere. Hi tech and often times, especially in the earlier years, they would invent their own control systems, as they were doing things things that none of the stage lighting OR architectural companies could do. They were doing wireless dimming and control of their floats long before DMX and DMX over WiFi.

Steve B.

 

[mrb]

uh i think the guy was talking about subsidizing the cost of the tour, not free gear.

 

[wakkoroti]

There is no one answer to this. All 11 parks do it quite a bit differently (but ones from Animal Kingdom forward are a bit the same). But yes, it is 99% hardwired.

...Is it all wireless, or is it hardwired? Another thing I thought was cool, and yet puzzling, is when they have the fireworks at the end of the night, all of the lights on Mainstreet and basically within sight of the front of the castle dim down. How can they do this? Does everthing in creation run back to some massive dimmer room somewhere or is it split up?...

 

[Nate1714]

OR you can get a free tour if you live in ORLANDO. I have done lighting specific tours, and costume specific tours all at disney. Still working on Universal, don't care too much about Sea World.

 

[SteveB]

uh i think the guy was talking about subsidizing the cost of the tour, not free gear.

Yup, reads that way after the fact.

Perhaps capturing in a quote about what was to be subsidized was in order.

SB

 

[shiben]

Originally Posted by mrb
uh i think the guy was talking about subsidizing the cost of the tour, not free gear.
Yup, reads that way after the fact.

Perhaps capturing in a quote about what was to be subsidized was in order.

SB

Yes, figured that out after seeing there was some confusion. But for example Disney Japan. If LDI was in tokyo, would it not be in ETC's interest to show everyone a bank of 6000 sensor dimmers? Im not an advertising guru, but it seems that if you see one of the largest (if not the largest, dont recall) entertainment companies using stuff and testifying to its reliability and worth, working 365 days a year, 7 days a week, then smaller installs (or big ones) would probably see it as a worthwhile investment for their house. (and free t-shirts would be nice too )

 

[jxgriffi]

The problem is Disney very much controls what these tours are allowed to see (and for my money, it's not enough to justify the expense). So, having someone like ETC subsidize and then not get their products shown would not be in their best interest.

Also, from what I remember, Disney does not advertise what products they use (from a Disney legal standpoint) to keep from, among other things, showing favoritism to individual companies. I know of several companies that have used shots of "their" installs at Disney that were asked to remove the pictures. They can say they have done "work" for Disney but cannot show what or how the products were used. This also allows the designers free reign to use the products they see fit. One designer likes Source 4's...another likes Shakespeares...no problem.

Hope that helps...I had 14 years with the company (until I was paroled 6 years ago). If I can be of any more help, let me know (within the realms of the NDA).