Lack of Music at Movie World

[Noll_57]

What the heck has happened to all the background music around Movie World? Walking around the park yesterday, the only area that had decent working audio was Main Street. All other areas were either dead silent with no music playing whatsoever or had so many broken speakers that it could hardly be heard. I know this may seem like a somewhat unimportant issue in the scheme of things (and that I’m being a little picky). However, it made for a very dull experience overall and caused many of the areas to feel pretty bland and lack atmosphere. Music is such an essential part of theme parks, helping to create an atmosphere, immerse you in the attractions and assist in making your time within the park a little more exciting, magical and special. Movie World has historically been extremely good at this, with themed music appropriate to each area of the park surrounding you at every turn. However, since 2019 things have taken a noticeable turn for the worse (and they’ve only gone further downhill as time’s gone on). Here’s a quick rundown of the current audio situation (from what I’ve observed) within the park:

*Superman Escape’s external music - not working, hasn’t played since 2019.

*Green Lantern’s queue music - not working, hasn’t played since 2019.

*DC Rivals entrance music - playing, however only one speaker is functioning correctly. 

*DC Rivals queue music - playing, but only the speakers behind the murals and in the station unload area are working. 

*Scooby’s external music - not working during my visit yesterday, only seems to play half the time depending on the day.

*Doomsday - playing, but multiple speakers are clearly damaged (sound very distorted and lacking bass or treble)

*Wild West area - not working, hasn’t played since the WWF upgrade in 2021. 

*Looney Tunes area - not working, hasn’t played correctly since the RRRC upgrade in 2021. New speakers were added around the tree in mid 2022 and the area music briefly played through them for a while. However those are no longer operating either and the land is now back to complete silence. 

*Road Runner queue music - not working, hasn’t played for about 4 months. 

*Main Street locker area - not working, hasn’t played for about 4 months. 

So yeah, as you can see, barley anything is playing at the park right now and the fact that some areas (like outside Superman Escape) haven’t had working audio for over 4 years at this point is pretty ridiculous. This would never happen at any of the Disney, Universal and other “world class” parks out there. I actually managed to ask a maintenance worker I bumped into what the deal was with the lack for audio. He told me that “Superman’s outdoor mushroom speakers were stuffed” and they “were having trouble replacing them”. I’m not sure why they would have such trouble, considering they’re just speakers that sit on the ground (and I discovered that they can be purchased locally from this place in Robina, literally 20 mins up the road):

https://www.scpaudio.com/LS-21-Garden-Speaker-30W-100V-3-Taps

In any case, surly it doesn’t take over 4 years to fix something as simple as a basic audio system with a few speakers. 

As to why the new speakers around the tree in the Loony Tunes area have been turned off again, the worker informed me that they were “clashing with the sound of the carousel”. Considering the carousel and the area music have always played side by side with no issues, I’m not sure why it’s suddenly a problem now. The carousel wasn’t operating during my visit, meaning nothing was playing at all. However, it would have to be blasting pretty loud to effect the audio by the tree. In addition, all of the broken, neglected mushroom speakers in this area have still not been repaired and continue to sit there in silence, rotting away as they have done for years now. 

I understand I may sound a little overly negative here. However, to me music has always been such an important part of the experience of visiting Movie World (or any other theme park for that matter) and it’s incredibly disappointing to see it become so neglected by the park. In my opinion, VRTP have done a pretty good job with MW recently, turning it around and breathing new life into it (through actions such as tidying up the park, refreshing attractions such as JL, improving their annual events, announcing/building new attractions ect.) and they deserve praise for that. Yet despite all of this, the audio problem has persisted and continues to get worse and worse. It’s become so bad that even friends I visit the park with have noticed and commented on it. I’m hoping Movie World will continue the good work they’ve done in other departments and return the auditory experience of the park to its former glory, thereby assisting in making the overall guest experience the best it can possibly be. 

[webslave]

It sounds like you visit often.

[Noll_57]

51 minutes ago, webslave said:

It sounds like you visit often.

Fairly often. I’m local and like to visit the parks when I have the chance. 

[franky]

It's probably more than just buying speakers and throwing them in.

The park seems to have trouble keeping rides open consistently; they need constant attention (GL/DD). Im also assuming the same team responsible for fixing them are maintaining the rides too.

Id also imagine this kind of work would need to be done when the park is closed so they can configure/ adjust sound levels, and they might not have time to do this with the other maintenance going on.

They speakers might have a particular requirement that are rare to find these days or too expensive (for the budget allowed).

There might not even be a budget for their replacement.

Maybe management haven't noticed therefore haven't made it a priority?

[REGIE]

From the view of an onlooker it seems like it wouldn’t be that hard keeping effects working and speakers it seems weird they always break down but again I am not an electrician but it seems like if most these machines and effects are newish they shouldn’t have so many problems. 

[Noll_57]

On 21/1/2023 at 8:51 AM, franky said:

The park seems to have trouble keeping rides open consistently; they need constant attention (GL/DD). Im also assuming the same team responsible for fixing them are maintaining the rides too.

I can understand that the maintenance department have their hands full and have to prioritise jobs. However, I still think it’s a little ridiculous that some of these systems have remained non-functional for over 4 years. I’m sure management would have realised they’re not working by now as it’s quite noticeable. Even if there have been issues with sourcing equipment, surely they could’ve come up with a workaround in that time. This issue doesn’t effect other parks (and wasn’t an issue at Movie World in the past), so I don’t know why it’s currently such a problem at MW. Either way, it’s pretty disappointing. 

[themagician]

Would the ride maintenance team be the ones that would be fixing speakers throughout the park? Would it not be a seperate team/specialist who would be in charge of the parks audio system 

[Brad2912]

They have an AV team completely separate from the ride maintenance team 

[Noll_57]

3 hours ago, Brad2912 said:

They have an AV team completely separate from the ride maintenance team 

From what I’ve observed, the in-house AV team mostly just focus on shows and events. 

[Jason Read]

Hey, been a long time reader of the forums but wanted to drop in and say I've also noticed the lack of music at Movie World and it's bugged me for a long time (especially outside Superman escape). I'm hoping they'll do something about it during the ride's downtime as that would be a perfect opportunity to sort it out.