Handling Specialty\'s underwater lifts featured in Entertainment Engineering magazine.

2. Entertainment MANUF ACTURING
Engineering & THEATRE
VOLUME 8 ISSUE 10
Persun & Wiebusch, Inc.
A few months ago in this column, I talked about the
connection between manufacturing and movies, highlighting
Publishers/Editors: how manufacturing companies enabled movies like Fast Five with
various technologies: hydraulics, software, and electronics to name
Terry Persun a few. This month, we are going to show you that the same thing is
P: 360-732-0902 true within another entertainment industry: theatre.
In a special three-part story later in this issue, you can read how
E: terry@entertainmentengineering.com Parker Hannifin (Mayfield Heights, OH), Delta Computer Systems
Bruce Wiebusch (Seattle, WA) and other manufacturing based companies are
enabling the World’s largest water-based show — House of Dancing
P: 440-503-3013 Water — in Macau, China.
E: bruce@entertainmentengineering.com
Design & Production:
Verv Creative
www.vervcreative.com
Editorial Contributors:
Dan Cook, Ph.D.,
Program Coordinator, Entertainment
Engineering and Design, UNLV
Gerald Braude
S. Korobeinik
Richard Mandel
Mark Persun
Editorial Board: From our exlusive interview with show producer Patrice
Bilodeau, we discovered how Franco Dragone Entertainment
Greg Hale, VP Advanced Technology Group’s House of Dancing Water is an event enabled by many
Disney Parks and Resorts engineers from many differeent counties, including Jacek Kaminski
P. Eng. Chief Engineer and Eng. Manager for City of Dreams
Kevin Russelburg, Sr. Project Engineer
Project for Handling Specialty Manufacturing Ltd. (Grimsby,
ITW Pancon Ontario, Canada).
John Lewis, Sr. Writer, Cognex Corp. Control Motion Solutions, Inc. (Santa Ana, CA), a.k.a.
COMOSO, was the hydraulics distributor for the project, and
Fisher Technical Services, Inc. (Las Vegas, NV) was important to
Sales the project success. Many of the companies involved are heavily
involved with manufacturing of many types of products outside the
Mark Wiebusch entertainment industries.
Vice President, Media Solutions & Sales
P: 440-835-9733 For more information on the show, visit:
markw@entertainmentengineering.com http://thehouseofdancingwater.com/en/#/home.
Bruce Wiebusch
Subscriptions: bruce@entertainmentengineering.com
www.EntertainmentEngineering.com
www.entertainmentengineering.com 3

3. MOTION CONTROL CRITICAL
TO ONE-OF-A-KIND STAGE
World’s largest water-based show — House of Dancing Water — has a very small margin of error
Although veteran entertainment producer Patrice which has a 805,000 lb. capacity (static load). Eight plat-
Bilodeau and designer Mark Labelle are well know in the form stage lifts travel vertically 26 feet underwater and
industry for overcoming difficult engineering challenges, then rise 1 foot above water to convert the aquatic stage
they had never encountered anything as large as the City to a solid dry floor. The total area of the 8 main platform
of Dreams and Franco Dragone Entertainment Group’s stage lifts is 6,441 sq. ft.
House of Dancing Water (Macau, China). Since the pool is surrounded by theater seating, three
The House of Dancing Water Theater holds approxi- vomintory lifts were required to move actors on and off
mately 2,000 seats and is a 270 degree theater-in-the- the stage. These lifts travel one metre below water and
round housing the world’s largest commercial pool rise one metre above water in order to accommodate
which is 160 feet in diameter and 26 feet deep. It holds underwater and above water props and performances.
3.7 million gallons of water. A vomitory lift is the lift system that runs from the
Labelle developed the concept of lifting the 7497-sq.-ft edge of the stage pool area (on-stage), down the exit/
stage out of the water, thereby converting an aquatic area entry corridors to the on-stage from off-stage or back
into a solid floor for performers to use as a stage. stage area. It serves as a dry walkway for incoming
“No one had ever done anything like this before,” says performers and then disappears into the water so that
Bilodeau. Sea Doos or boats can travel from off-stage to on-stage.
To support Labelle’s concept, Jacek Kaminski P. Eng. There are three corridors or Vomitories in this theatre
Chief Engineer and Eng. Manager for City of Dreams located at 3, 6, 9 o’clock where 12 o’clock is the prosce-
Project for Handling Specialty Manufacturing Ltd. nium. The total area of the 3 vomitory lifts is 1,056 sq. ft,
(Grimsby, Ontario) and other engineers designed, manu- the dynamic capacity is 52,800 lbs, and the static capac-
factured, and installed an underwater stage lift system, ity is 132,000 lbs.
6 www.entertainmentengineering.com

4. Handling Specialty engineered and installed all of the or levelness. One of the greatest engineering challenges,
systems required to complete the controls, hydraulics, according to Bilodeau, was having the control system
structure, skirting, guides, and astragals. Astragals are perform reliably over time.
shear zone safety protection devices that are installed all “We have two shows per day and operate five days per
around the underside of every edge of every lift. Their week,” explains Bilodeau. “Every time the stage moves,
purpose is to immediate halt motion should the edge of the control system has to operate with a precision of
any lift encounter an obstacle such as a piece of scenery within 5 mm.”
or a performer. RMC150E series of controllers from Delta Computer
Six hydraulic power units from Parker Hannifin Systems (Battle Ground, WA) were chosen to perform
(Mayfield Heights, OH) are used to actuate the lifts. the task of controlling the 32 hydraulic cylinders that
An electronic controls system enables the lifts to move move the sections of the main stage in the theater. “The
independently or in synchronization. The total dynamic controller provided many feedback options and were
capacity of the main lifts is 322,000 lb. able to interface with our magnetostrictive linear dis-
The control system is continuously fed with informa- placement transducers without the need for signal con-
tion from each cylinder to tell it where they are in their ditioners,” says Beach. “The software provided was found
stroke path. The computers can receive the signals and to be user friendly and a very powerful setup and tuning
instantly alter the flow of fluids into the cylinders so as tool.”
to keep them all level or to run any number at different While the electromechanical motion controllers used
speeds with different targets and so on. by Handling Specialty in the past considered only speed
“All of the safety mechanisms such as the astragals, are and position, the Delta Computer Systems controller
monitored in real time with the computers so that opera- now permitted pressure to be part of the equation and
tors know the system is in a safe operating condition,” anticipated the motion of a hydraulic system.
says Tom Beach, president of Handling Specialty. “The
computers also can change the flow rate and the speed of For More Information Click Below:
the lifts in either direction so operators can create very Handling Specialty Home >
special EFX with the motion control.” Handling Specialty Turnkey Capabilities >
Electronic probes integral of the cylinders provide Handling Specialty Entertainment Solutions >
the I/O feedback that the computers need in order to House of Dancing Waters >
maintain full control of speed, distance, ramping, targets
HOUSE OF DANCING W TER CONTROLLERS
A
Eight platform stage lifts travel vertically 26 feet frames and keep the platforms perfectly flat at all times.
underwater and then rise one foot above water to con- The Delta controllers support a special synchronization
vert an aquatic stage to a solid dry floor in the House function for this purpose. The motion of each cylinder
of Dancing Water theatre (Macau, China). When the is tightly controlled to follow commands from a “master”
6,441 sq. ft platforms transition from traveling through
air to traveling through the water, the hydraulic system
must adapt to the huge drag from the water. The unique
hydraulic system parameters and algorithms provided in
the Delta Computer Systems controllers were up to the
task.
A dozen Delta RMC150 electro-hydraulic motion con-
trollers were used to control the hydraulic cylinders that
moved the eight stage platforms and three stage entrance
hallway platforms. Each of the moving platforms is lifted
by four long Parker-Hannifin hydraulic cylinders, one at
each corner. Closed-loop motion control is required for
two main reasons:
1) The motion of the four cylinders on each platform
needs to be synchronized to ensure that they all move
by the same amount, to avoid racking of the platform
www.entertainmentengineering.com 7

5. project, and Fisher Technical Services, Inc. (Las Vegas,
NV) was involved with integrating the controls. Delta
assisted with the programming and tuning of the system
and worked closely with MTS, Fisher Technical Services,
and Comoso to help with the integration process, which
included the HPU, plumbing, control enclosures and
the full integration into the theater. COMOSO cus-
tom designed the hydraulic system and its plumbing
and worked with Parker Hannifin (Cleveland, OH)
to design a custom servo cylinder for the main plat-
forms. Additionally, COMOSO utilized Fisher Technical
Services to provide and integrate the control hardware
and tuning for the entire system.
As you know the system consisted of eight underwa-
ter lifts making up the main platform. These lifts are
capable of independent operation, or gearing together
PLC. The MTS transducers provide the position infor- in any way imaginable. Additionally the VOM lifts were
mation on each cylinder to enable the Delta controllers independently controlled, yet were capable of gearing
to close the control loop. Each RMC150 can control up themselves to its adjacent main platform to create a seam
to eight hydraulic axes, but each one is handling four at their edges. The Main Lift cylinders were controlled
axes in the Dancing Waters application. by remote valve stands located in the basement of the
2) Closed-loop motion control is also needed to com- theater, beneath the pool floor itself.
pensate for the compressibility of the large volumes of Jeff Potter and Matt Schoenbachler from COMOSO
hydraulic oil that are used in the 30-foot-long cylinders. and Vic Trujillo from Fisher Technical Services also
A second-order equation is used in the control loop to made significant contributions to the project.
enable damping of the transient effects that occur when
the motion starts and stops. Control commands are For More Information Click Below:
provided from the Delta RMC directly to servo-quality Delta Computer Systems Home >
proportional hydraulic valves. This ensures that the plat- Delta Motion Controllers >
forms move smoothly with no oscillations. Parker Hannifin Home >
Control Motion Solutions, Inc. (Santa Ana, CA), Parker Products >
a.k.a. COMOSO, was the hydraulics distributor for the
HOUSE OF DANCING W TER HYDRAULICS
A
Greg Paddock, Hydraulic Territory Manager, at Parker Hannifin Corporation’s Hydraulics Group explains
below the critical role hydraulics played in the stage’s motion control system
8 www.entertainmentengineering.com

6. The design and component selection for the HPU was
critical with regard to the overall success of the project.
The HPU had to be capable of providing smooth, ripple
free flow without response lag whether there was motion
demand from only one of the small vomitory stages,
or from all of the large main stages working in unison.
Fourteen Parker PV270 variable volume piston pumps
responded precisely to any system flow demand regard-
less of the magnitude and rate of the motion profile
required by the stages collectively, or independently. The
PV270’s extremely fast on and off stroke response (< 85
msec & < 75 msec respectively) were key to the stability
of the pressure and flow supplied to the servo axis’.
With recommendations on component selection from
Parker personnel, Comoso integrated all of the HPU
components into a highly engineered HPU with two key
design challenges presented to them. One, the electri-
cal power available for the HPU was limited so overall rod and piston seals where necessary to ensure the criti-
system efficiency was a key design criteria in component cal performance of the cylinders.
selection, and two, the fact that the HPU had to physi- The Parker D41FH Proportional/servo valves were
cally fit through a very limited access galley to where the final critical elements in the stage motion and con-
the HPU’s would be permanently located. It was decided trol loop. The stability of the D41FH and extremely
that the HPU would be designed in a modular configu- high dynamic response were key to maintaining the
ration with two symmetrical halves and then reconnect- commanded cylinder motion profiles demanded by the
ed once in their final installation location. Mark Force director of the show. The stage design did not allow for
and Matt Schoenbachler of Comoso exceeded everyone’s a mechanical means to ensure that each cylinder would
expectations with the HPU design and layout. maintain a level position relative to the other three
The 32 Parker custom designed and built cylinders cylinders supporting each corner of the eight stages,
where designed specifically in order to accommodate therefore each cylinder had to be precisely controlled via
the extreme environmental conditions and challenges of electronic magnetostrictive feedback devises, Delta digi-
this application which included continuous submersion tal motion controllers and Parker D41FH proportional/
in chlorinated pool water, load induced side loads on servo valves to ensure all of the cylinders on each stage
the cylinder rods, and very low friction seals which were maintained highly precise synchronized motion profiles
necessary to achieve the desired motion profile of the relative to each other. This required complex external
stages. Special coatings, stainless steel rods, a proprietary position and velocity loop control as well as a valve
process to achieve the cylinder rod finish, and special capable of carrying out the precise system commands to
ensure each cylinder maintained their desired motion
profile. A series of dynamic performance calculations
were carried out by Parker Hydraulic Systems Engineer,
Rich Duder to ensure proper valve selection and sizing
as well as predicting overall loop stability. The valves
also provided a number of key safety elements which
were of paramount importance for the overall system
design as there are live actors and support personnel
underwater, above and below the stages while the stages
are in motion during performances. The D41FH spring
centered servo spool with mechanically adjustable bias
insured that upon an emergency abort event or power
outage the stages would come to a rapid and predictable
safe stop without fail. This helped to ensure the safety of
all show personnel.
For More Information Click Below:
Delta Computer Systems Home >
Handling Specialty Home >
Parker Hannifin Home >
Parker Hydraulic Products >
www.entertainmentengineering.com 9