The onboard audio for Phoenix Rising was barely working when I rode it 2 weeks ago. I doubt any onboard audio will be working on this ride either. The park is better off just having speakers on the lifts to convey music like the other SW coasters.
Project 2025/Holzfäller: Big Bad Wolf 2 (B&M Family Invert)
- Thread starter Zachary
- Start date
- Status
The inability to keep onboard audio functioning on these coasters is genuinely perplexing to me. Just, HOW?? Do the speakers blow out? Is the wiring bad? Does g-force or vibration mess it up? I just do not understand. It's audio. And in this case, it's brand new.
I feel like I'm doing the "how do NFL kickers just... miss kicks" meme, but really, I don't understand how these things just stop working.
And agreed, just put speakers on the lift hills. Rather that than broken onboard audio.
I feel like I'm doing the "how do NFL kickers just... miss kicks" meme, but really, I don't understand how these things just stop working.
And agreed, just put speakers on the lift hills. Rather that than broken onboard audio.
Short answer from my uncle who’s got a masters in theater arts and second cousin who’s a sound engineer:
Yes.
They suspect independently that even marine sound systems (found on like small boats) would have issues. The second cousin suspects the best way would be to use those open ear style headphone technology, the issue is it needs a spot where the soft tissues offer littler resistance to bone, and the less bones it needs to go through the better. So maybe the best we will get is a seat back that touches your spine of when in contact with your skull you hear it.
They bought portable CD players without the anti-skip feature.
If they go with off-ride audio, B&M chain lifts are significantly quieter than Arrow chain lifts so you'll be able to hear it better. I like the idea of incorporating wolf howls or the bell alert.
I’m not questioning their expertise, but Hollywood Colon Reckless Radiant Ringleader, Guardians, and Hagrid’s Motorbike Adventure With All of the Characters We Haven’t Included Previously all have effective and reliable on-board audio. In fact, I would argue that the music is fundamental to Cosmic Rewind and the sound is very important to the other two, as well.
In their defense they are not coaster people or know everything that went into it so that’s why I gave the short answer. They each had long winded explanations on speaker type, wire type, how the tracks load, things like that which effects the reliability.
For example those coasters might use individual car loaded SSDs for the music/sounds with thicker wiring and speaker cones made of more durable materials with stronger magnets where another one might use a more traditional hard drive on one car relying on wiring to each car that isn’t as thick gauge and not as quality speakers. They also said without being there those rides may be getting regular speaker maintenance as well that we don’t know.
So the long story short answer is yes - it will be difficult to do it reliably over long term, but also no because we don’t know how much maintenance or the components in any of them to really know.
Not to mention Rock ‘n Rollercoaster, which somehow managed to figure out onboard audio 25 years ago.
I previously talked to one of the audio techs for Hagrid's on board audio. He said they spend considerable time keeping it working, and they regularly remove a train from service midday to fix the on board audio. My impression from the conversation was Universal is not a master of on board audio, they just overwelm the problem with money.
Yea, it's a lot of upkeep because of the impact the g-force has, which was their suspicions without knowing. Knowing one of the audio techs is saying that, then the systems where onboard audio for a coaster struggles for 'smaller' parks makes sense since those companies can just throw money at it. On top of it they often have many more trains than other parks, so taking one off for maintenance usually means they have others to work on.
I'd be really curious how often they fix the on board audio for the same problems. Like if it is the speaker going out or some component breaking, is it the entire train that needs it? Given they regularly remove a train every day, maybe it's a rotating issue where they can fix it for a few weeks.
The following is out of Googles AI:
The biggest issues are with cone suspension limits (like ripping) and voice coil limits (they are part of what causes the cone to move) tend to break under a lot of stress.
Powered rails in the station charge on-board batteries for the speakers. I haven't serviced it before but I can't imagine it being too complicated outside of damage to the physical speakers and whatnot.
I know Hagrids uses capacitors and they can apparently hold about 15 minutes of charge for the lights and audio before it dies, but that’s because it recharges when it’s moving through its stations via a 3rd rail. On PR it’s likely something very similar, but not via a continual loading platform.
Buss bars can charge a battery while the trains are stationary as well. It's how the B&M Flyers get power to the onboard computers on the train.
Direct Link to Embedded Media Source
I don't know if anybody caught this or not, but in the very beginning of this video, they officially picked the name for the new attraction, Wölfsreign.
TheCoasterNerd
Previously known as @coasters_bgw
I can't listen to audio right now as I'm in class but how do you know? I'm guessing based on the video that they announced it on the railroad? Or was there something on-site that said it?
I know the vote ended a few days ago, but I’m not aware that they’ve announced the name yet.
Dude didn’t even pronounce the supposedly final name correctly in the video. “Wolfsplain.”
Unless he’s making a joke about how plain the name options were?
The name options weren't plain. They're actually pretty unique. They just aren't good
I think he was trying to pronounce it correctly with some “glottal fry”on the German “R”. Glottal Fry is that phlegm sound you make to Vibrate or fry out your Glottis. But he didn’t make the W a V sound like you should in German. Like -
Vulfs”PHLEGM”eign.
- Status