Movie World / Village Roadshow fence toppers

[rappa]

7 hours ago, AlexB said:

I was thinking a 4 wire 'dumb' RGB supply. Node upgrade would be an extra 25% or so on fixture cost. Control cabling is only going to add hundreds, not thousands to the cost, and a controller.

if they've run 12\24v supply to each post, then the 'field' issue for the controllers wouldn't be too difficult to resolve.

In the scheme of things, we're probably talking a few extra thousand. It's just a 'i wish they had have...' thought rather than a 'they should have... because they could have...' if that makes sense.

Hopefully, absent the ability to change colours, they've thought about dressing the pillars up a little for the events... perhaps with different lighting, rather than permanent colour changers.

Is this based on any semblance of reality? Of just what was on a quick alibaba search?

You'd be looking at MINIMUM 10 Thousand more to make these lights colour changing controlled. And potential is easily there to double that. 

 

This isnt some rinky dink Kabab shop, you're talking components that need a 10+ year life, full UV and IP66 rating (not just a Chinese sticker that has that written on it). And heavy gauge cable to avoid Voltage Drop issues. That's all before you install quality high output RGB (or more) fixtures. 

 

Please can we not have Armchair Experts on this, it's embarrassing. 

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

They've already run 2 wires out there for the plain white. Another two core run has the cabling sorted. Voltage drop would already have been accounted for in the first run, and if it were run at the same time, there'd have been no extra labour cost to run it out.

The lights already installed would meet the specifications you refer to. I gave a 25% uplift to that, based on my own experience. Granted, my experience isn't commercial grade product, but most fixtures i've seen (chinese, or commercial product) that have a white or RGB option, there isn't more than about a 25% difference in price on them.

The controller is the only wildcard element on costing - and i'm happy to defer to your superior knowledge on this. I know how much a controller would cost that would do the job, but obviously commercial grade, IP rating, and just lifespan will bump that up.

Regardless, for something that's in the MILLIONS, what's an extra $20,000 all said and done? (They probably paid that much for the rakes).

13 hours ago, djrappa said:

Please can we not have Armchair Experts on this, it's embarrassing. 

It's a theme park forum. Not a Lx forum. I'm not professing or claiming to be a lighting expert. I've taken what knowledge I have and extrapolated it out into what I see as a realistic scenario that I would have liked to have seen as an alternative to what's been done. You've picked up some shortfalls in my knowledge, and helpfully corrected  those shortfalls with facts in a totally helpful and friendly way, and i've learned a little something. To the vast majority of the boards, they probably haven't a clue what goes into it - so maybe they've learned something too... but since very few people here design \ build roller coasters and theme park rides - we're pretty much all Armchair Experts in one way or another.

[rappa]

I have no issue with someone saying "I wish they would have done colour changing lights" and/or "surely it wouldn't cost much more".

 

But don't say they should have done it and state fact on costs when in fact you don't know. IMO that's insulting something with no grounds rather than offering an opinion. 

 

And yes people may not ve experts in this or that but when people confidently start using figures, etc it sounds like they are. So they damn well should be. 

Lots and lots of words don't necessarily make a sentence correct.  

[DaptoFunlandGuy]

41 minutes ago, djrappa said:

don't say they should have done it

I didn't - as a matter of fact I specifically said differently:

22 hours ago, AlexB said:

It's just a 'i wish they had have...' thought rather than a 'they should have... because they could have...' if that makes sense.

 

42 minutes ago, djrappa said:

state fact on costs when in fact you don't know.

Well....

22 hours ago, AlexB said:

In the scheme of things, we're probably talking a few extra thousand.

"Probably" "a few" doesn't really come across as stating fact. And whilst I recognise that most people would associate "a few" as meaning "three", the fact is that "in the scheme of things" when you're talking tens of millions of dollars, "a few extra thousand" isn't necessarily limited to three.

Its semantics, but its semantic both ways. I wasn't categorically stating fact. I know how many people on these boards are Lx professionals. Do you think i'd be that stupid as to just speak out of my arse without qualifying what I say when I know full well that industry professionals are going to read and respond to it within hours? And when you then take that knowledge \ awareness, and re-read my comments bearing that in mind, its not impossible to see what I said as speculative, rather than authoritative.

Clearly, you didn't take it that way, but that's how it was intended... so, happy to agree to disagree and move on mate...

 

[Brad2912]

From a technical perspective I have no idea what either of you are talking about... my electronics prowess extends to knowing which hole in my tv I plug the blu-ray player into... 

All I know is the lights are white, it would be cool if they'd have the ability to change that on occasion, but for whatever reason (cost, shortsightedness or plain lack of interest) it didn't happen. 

The End. 

[rappa]

I think a common misconception is that there is a giant project budget and so much money kicking around to throw 'an extra few thousand' at things. 

In reality these projects are budgeted to the cent (yes there's contingency however that is for when bad things happen) and every cent is scrutinized. 

If you think about something as insignificant as lights on a fence blowing out by 20 thousand dollars, imagine the big important stuff. 

Suddenly your 30 million dollar ride costs 40.