AAAV / Services

Consultancy

AAAV Systems have a unique knowledge of control systems spanning the industrial, commercial and entertainment industries. This gives us the ability to develop practical, cost effective and most importantly robust solutions to your problems. With our help you can be sure that bespoke and complex projects will be delivered on time and on budget.

The team at Warning Zone had been running a safety workshop and had secured funding to build a semi-perminent walk through based on 8 themes. Each area needed cost effective interactives or effects that would convey or re-inforce the safety theme for that area in a short time. We got involved with the project from a very early stage and through the development design, build and install worked very closely with the client to keep to a very tight budget, specifying much of the basic equipment for Warning Zone to source directly and focusing our efforts on the more complex items. We also worked closely with the scenic team to ensure the equipment could be kept as robust as possible. Through visitor feedback; due to the flexibility of the initial equipment selection, we were easily able to re-program and move items around the zone to make the most of hardware, giving greater levels of impact on the visitors; we continued to assist in the development of each area and subsequently installed new features as further sponsorship was secured.

We have experience in teaching and ran a 10 day course for the students at the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts about how to implement Show Control Systems. We are keen to see this course adapted for other uses and are always happy to work with enthusiastic young people to see their project completed successfully, as we did with the students at the Denes High School as part of the Mincarlo Trawler projec

We are always happy to have a chat with you to see how we can lend our skills to your project, we get some really odd calls and always do our best to help. We once received a call from the special effects crew who were on set filming the Matrix sequels in Australia and spent some 2 hours on the phone discussing the application of various smoke effects.

Control System Design and Development

We work closely with our clients to develop a project scope from their initial idea. At this point we explain any options that may affect the cost or functionality of the project, often trading one off against the other to ensure a cost effective solution that satisfies our client's needs. From the scope AAAV Systems will develop a system blueprint specifying the technical aspects of the system. Once a system has been specified and given the go ahead we manufacture the system in house before conducting thorough tests. The system can be demonstrated to the client, after which modifications can be made before the system is delivered with warranty and documentation.

Our wide experience with hands on knowledge of hydraulic, pneumatic and electrically driven systems enables us to understand the requirements and operation of mechanical systems that often have the biggest single impact on the "guests" to an attraction. This understanding along with the knowledge of the importance of the various component parts of any "show", lighting, sound, motion and physical stimulus, allows us to utilise all elements of an installation to maximise the impact on visitors.

Aswell as high end (high cost) systems, we understand the importance of delivery on tight budgets for maximum impact; projects such as Warning Zone rely on cost effective high impact effects.

We can also work with you to develop existing systems by adding functionality or bringing them up to date to ensure that they are robust and integrate well with other systems you have on site. This fully integrated approach can help you manage the flow of guests ensuring you get full efficiency from your attraction.

Perhaps you just need to add some new effects to an old attraction but your on-site team are stumped by the lack of control outputs, we are expert at adding new sub-systems to enhance the functionality of what you already have.

As well as altering existing systems, we design and build our own systems to incorporate redundancy and flexibility for later additions and alterations on site. During our build and development at Warning Zone, the timing system that controlled the smooth flow of visitors and hosts around the zone was effortlessly developed to add on simple user inputs that allowed the site team to alter timing sequences depending on the use of the zone for different functions.

Project Management

AAAV Systems have been working with electrical, mechanical, AV and control systems for over 15 years. In this time we have built strong relationships with companies that specialise in everything from sculpture to multimedia generation to full mechanical rides.

Small scale projects such as the Armster that needed to be completed in a short time frame are often difficult for a client to source due to the large variety of components and mixtures of trades, in this case we had the system up and running in less than 2 weeks ready for the client to put into their trade stand.

We also carry out medium scale projects such as our recent refurbishment of Mokomos Jungle Rock at Drusillas Park which saw a complete overhaul of a project we built over 20 years ago or the Rainforest gallery at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh, both of which included mechanical, sculptural, scenic and electrical works.

For large scale jobs we would recomend the use of a specialist project management company such as Farmer Attraction Development. Their industry knowledge becomes invaluable for more complicated jobs and they will negotiate the best price with contractors that they have good relationships with and trust. The result is the delivery of high quality solutions within a realistic time frame and budget.

A small selection of the companies that we have built strong working relationships with can be found on the Project Partners page.

Installation

AAAV Systems can source and install a huge range of Control, Audio Visual and bespoke animation equipment. Whether it is a custom built new install or integrating new equipment with your existing shows. We have experience working in really diverse locations, including listed buildings (Warwick Castle) Steel Boats (Mincarlo) and with a whole array of outdoor and touring systems. Our site work takes us right across Europe (and occasionally further afield) bringing with us everything we need to complete complex and diverse installations.

Our first large scale project on a listed building was at Warwick Castle. Here we had to deal with planning issues and the restrictions imposed on listed buildings but maintain the overall design goals such as include signalling from area to area so that the flow of visitors could be as smooth as possible and to utilise as much of the existing cabling and audio system as possible.

In contrast to the large scale and protected status at Warwick Castle but still with an emphasis on preservation, the restored Mincarlo Sidewinder Trawler also posed installation issues for the centrally powered and controlled soundscape audio system. The audio system had to be installed perminently but with as little impact on the fabric of the Trawler as possible; this resulted in some ingenious cable runs both using existing cable tray and some runs though pipes and ducts that were originally for totally different purposes but did connect the different locations.

On scope can vary from project to project in order to meet strict budgets, we installed over 5.5 kilometres of cable whilst carrying out a complete install at Blackpool Tower durning the development for the new Dungeon, again dealing with the issues of re-developing an old building. Where as at Linnanmäki local contractors installed all cabling and services to our drawings in order to minimise the time spent on site..

As well as new builds we have also been fortunate (or unfortunate?) enough to have worked on the refurbishment of the whole lower floor of York Dungeon following severe floods; although everything had been built to deal with a certain degree of water ingress a particularly bad flood resulted in a complete strip out and the refurbishment and subsequent re-installation of 7 show areas. The site was unlucky enough to suffer the same fate a few years later, but due to good design, the costs for the second refurbishment were far lower and the site was open for business much faster than the first time.

Maintenance and Servicing

The majority of systems that we install are run intensively over the holiday periods where it is essential to generate enough revenue in a short time to support the attraction year round. We are committed to ensuring that reliability is priority number one and understand how just an hours down-time can affect your business. For this reason we provide exceptional support and maintenance to follow up any project to ensure its smooth integration and running. We are also happy to inspect and service any existing shows you have and are great at coming up with low cost repairs, developments and additions to keep your attraction profitable all season.

In addition to low level maintenace we have also completed large scale renewal such as the refurbishment of the whole lower floor of York Dungeon following severe floods; although everything had been built to deal with a certain degree of water ingress a particularly bad flood resulted in a complete strip out and the refurbishment and subsequent re-installation of 7 show areas to a tight budget. The site was unlucky enough to suffer the same fate a few years later, but due to good design, the costs for the second refurbishment were far lower and the site was open for business much faster than the first time.

Maintenance and call out can be supplied to cover the full range of Electronic, Electrical and Mechanical services as well as scenic refurbishment.

We have experience over a wide range including pneumatics, hydraulics, motors and drives, PLC and PC based control systems, audio/visual equipment and more basic electrical installation.