High Roller - Illuminating Concepts Concepts... · drawings into construction drawings. Choosing...

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September 2014

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High Roller:A New Attraction Remakes the Las Vegas Strip

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50 • September 2014 • Lighting&Sound America

THEMED ENTERTAINMENT

550' high, the High Roller is a new icon in the LasVegas skyline and has been validated by Guinness

World Records as the tallest observation wheel in theworld. Positioned at the easternmost end of The LINQ,Caesars Entertainment’s new strip-within-the-Stripopening onto one of the busiest street corners in theuniverse, the High Roller, which opened on March 31, is afocal point for the Caesars and Harrah’s properties nowconsolidated under Caesars.

Rotating sedately with a maximum throughput of 1,120people per half-hour circuit, the High Roller is packaged asa full guest experience complete with themedenvironment—and an engineering breakthrough. Its uniquesingle-tube design facilitated the spherical shape of itstwenty-eight 40-passenger stand-up cabins—described by

pop culturist Charles Phoenix as “bubbilicious.” The High Roller is owned and was executive-produced

by Caesars Entertainment Inc. The Caesars team includedGreg Miller (executive vice president, development,Caesars Entertainment) and contractors Randy Printz(project management) and David Codiga (executive projectdirector). Heading the external team were creative directorPhil Hettema, of Pasadena-based The Hettema Group(THG, producer and concept designer), and architecturaldesign company THG of Nevada LLC, formed by Hettemaand John Kasperowicz, AIA (design architect). Wheelengineering and design were provided by Arup NorthAmerica Ltd., whose project manager was Jason Krolicki.

Additional designers included Abigail Rosen Holmes, ofNYXdesign LLC, to light the wheel (under contract to

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The High Roller creates a new focal point on the Las Vegas StripBy: Judith Rubin

Top: Some 2,000 individual LED fixtures are programmed to light up the High Roller at night. Lighting design was provided by AbbeyRosen Holmes, of NYXdesign LLC. Left: The High Roller observation wheel rises 550' at the eastern end of The LINQ, a new retail cor-ridor combining new and existing properties.

At

Reinventing the Wheel

Caesars), featuring Martin Professional fixtures provided byLas Vegas-based 4Wall Entertainment. Lisa Passamonte-Green, of Santa Clarita, California-based Visual Terrain(contracted to THG), provided concept design for lightingthe wheelhouse building, which features gear from ETCand Philips Color Kinetics. Illuminating Conceptsexecuted the design and commissioning of the building’slighting under the architect of record, Klai Juba WaldArchitects Ltd.

Kevin Ruud, of Vegas-based Design Horizons Inc., wasAV and show control systems designer. Ruud wascontracted to National Technology Associates (NTA),whose project manager was Nevin Edwards. NTA wascontracted to Bombard Electric, working in turn undergeneral contractor Richardson Construction.

THG’s team also included project designer JodiRoberdes, designers Kye S. Lee and Juan Acuna, projectdirector Anthony Pruett, project coordinators DianaCimadamore and Corinne Cunningham, and generalmanager Deborah Saale. Mark Goerner provided cabinconcept design, with concept art and illustration byMichael Abbott, Michael Marquez, and Michael Scheffe,and interior design and color selection for the wheel,cabins, and wheelhouse by Maureen Johnston and LauraGarrett. Additional credits appear below.

Theme teamMiller, Codiga, and Printz are all past creative execs withDisney and/or Universal credentials. Kasperowicz, Holmes,Passamonte-Green, and Ruud are all seasoned Disneyalumni, along with wheel engineering consultant FrankWeigand, of The TWT Group. Lance Heywood, ofHeywood Engineering, designer of the wheel’s PLC-basedintegrated ride control system (IRC), has extensiveexperience working on amusement rides. Theme parkcredentials also show up in the High Roller’s day-to-daymanagement: Eric Eberhart (general manager; 15-plusyears with Disney) and James Donahue (operationsmanager; four years with Paramount Parks).

“Theme park experience is really significant for a projectlike this,” says Hettema, “because designing and buildingit is such a multidisciplinary endeavor, mashing together allthe theatrical disciplines, plus architecture, plusengineering.”

“Entertainment design is a spiral,” says Kasperowicz.“You keep revisiting; new information comes in from theperimeter and you have to be flexible to adjust for it,without messing up your process.”

Kasperowicz and Hettema coordinated with The LINQ’sdesign and planning architect David Schwarz Architects todetermine wheel placement relative to The LINQ and theStrip, and with Klai Juba Wald to develop concept design P

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Components of the spherical cabins were fabricated by suppliers in various parts of the globe, and had final assembly in the LasVegas warehouse of Leitner-Poma.


drawings into construction drawings.Choosing Arup to engineer the High Roller was, to

Hettema, a “no-brainer, not just because of priorexperience with big wheels” [design development on theLondon Eye and reference design for the Singapore Flyer],“but because they are of the same school as us: Theirstock-in-trade is anything unusual, around the world. Thelook of the wheel and its configuration were our responsi-bility. Arup figured out how to make it stand up and, withsub-consultants, to make it move.”

Single ring/spherical cabin breakthroughThe High Roller cabins stick out around the rim—a designattribute the London Eye and Singapore Flyer share, but“it was Arup’s engineer, John Lyle, who said, ‘I wonder ifwe could do this with a single ring,’” says Hettema. “Theywent back and did some counts, and then we were ableto say, ‘That means we could do a spherical cabin.’”

“The London Eye has two slewing bearings and a largetruss rim supporting the cabins,” says Krolicki. “We gotthat down to a single slewing bearing and a single rim forthe High Roller; that’s unprecedented and is what allowsthe spherical cabin. The concept of 360° views led to thecabin shape. Elongated cabins, such as on the Eye orFlyer, direct your view. The idea of the High Roller is thatyou’re going for a flight—so it’s important that when at the


The High Roller’s single-ring wheel design made it possible to havethe spherical cabins with unobstructed views, standing 2m outfrom the wheel rim. You can see the Venetian and the Palazzo inthis view.


On the maintenance platform of the High Roller, the drive sys-tems and the emergency retraction systems are visible.

Close-up of the hub-and-spoke construction of the High Roller.

The High Roller under construction. Segments were attached atthe bottom; the wheel would be rotated to add the next section.This picture was taken from the roof of the parking garage ofCaesars Palace.

Cross-section diagram of the wheel rim, at a point where thecabin connects on the top and the spoke cables connect at thebottom.

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top you’re not nested within a structure like the traditionalFerris wheel; instead, you’re flying above it. We were ableto stand the cabin 2m [6.56'] above the rim, which wasvery different from preceding wheels with trusses. Theslewing bearing supports this and allows each cabin torotate in this singular, tubular containment while keepingthe floor level.”

“The single tubular rim is segmented—as opposed tocurved,” says Randy Printz. “The rim is connected to thehub and spindle with one hundred twelve 3" locked coilcables that act as the spokes of the wheel.”

The cabins were computer-modeled at what Hettemacalls “rocket science level” to fine-tune design and sizingof all components, finishes, and systems, mocked up atthe Grand Junction, Colorado shop of Leitner-Poma ofAmerica Inc. (LPOA), design/builder and engineer of recordfor the cabins, and sourced worldwide. Steelwork wasprovided by Laron Inc. in Kingman, Arizona; exterior fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) components were done by Sigma(a sister company to LPOA) in France. Interior FRP wasdone by MFG in Adelanto, California. Parts were shippedto Arizona, integrated into the framework, then trucked toLeitner-Poma’s Las Vegas facility for assembly. Thecurved, tinted, double-glazed curtain walls, crafted bySunglass in Italy, were likewise sent to Las Vegas, theninstalled in the cabins’ steel structure.

Lighting the wheel“There are no positions to throw light from that high in theair,” says Hettema. “But if you put the lights on the wheelitself, what are you pointing at? Light doesn’t travel incurved lines. The solution was about 2,000 very focused,programmable small fixtures that light the entire wheel inaggregate and gave Abbey a canvas to paint on. To createa new icon on the Strip, the most visually busy line ofarchitecture anywhere in the world, the solution was to beclean and simple. Abbey nailed it.”

There are 896 Martin Professional Tripix 300 LED strips

and 1,008 Martin Tripix Wash units with 240 PathwayConnectivity E-Din CMX/RDM splitters (four-way), and 16Pathway Connectivity Pathport E-Din DMX nodes.

“Not every lighting designer gets to be part of changingthe Las Vegas skyline,” says Holmes. “We initially coveredevery prospect on how to treat it. We hauled out andtested lights on roofs of Las Vegas to see how somethinglooks from 500' away. An important requirement was thatboth the system and the programming be successful froma variety of viewing distances: up close for riders, mid-distance from the top of The LINQ, and the very fardistance from across the valley, the airport, etc.”

The process included a full-scale wooden mockup ofone segment of the wheel at Los Angeles-based LexingtonDesign & Fabrication. The actual wheel, made of steel andshipped in huge sections from China, “was not somethingwhere you could take another look and move somethingover a foot or two,” says Holmes.

“Once it left the factory, it could not be modified. Inaddition to the mockup, quite a few 3-D drawings weregenerated,” says Buddy Pope, senior project manager forsystem integrator 4Wall Entertainment.

Holmes’ lighting team included senior designer EmanuelTreeson, also of NYXdesign, who collaborated on thespecification of the lighting system; Troy Shackelton, leadfor the electrical contractor Bombard Electric Inc.; andprogrammer Jason A. Badger. 4Wall project technicianswere Heather Martinez, Shane Stine, David Foley, JamesLeblanc, and Shaun Ballew.

“The wheel itself is the star and we were helping show itoff,” Holmes says. “The lighting intent was to be kineticand exciting but in a sophisticated way, and emphasizethe very clean, modern structure. Programming sequenceschange over a lengthy period and the programmingpatterns were conceived to add dimensionality, toemphasize the curved shape. Using a three-color LEDsystem, we were able to get a lot of variety. The lightingfrequently returns to white to reveal the pure object. Thelighting is intended to appear integral to the wheel itself.Fixtures were given a custom finish to match the wheel,and, where possible, an eyebrow designed by the archi-tects was included to partially mask fixtures.”

Lighting control for the wheel comes from an AlcornMcBride V4 Pro show controller, two Alcorn McBride IO64parallel I/O controllers, two MA Lighting NPUs (NetworkProcessing Units), and two MA Lighting grandMA2 replayunits in the control tower on the dock. The wheel lightsspring into action at sunset every day, starting with about20 minutes of sequences compatible with sunset condi-tions, transitioning to exploit full darkness, andpunctuated by a special sequence every hour on the hour.Other pre-programmed sequences were created forholidays and events. Additional programming was createdto allow an operator to enter custom colors for special


In the fourth-floor rack room, the gear includes 7th Senseservers and Alcorn McBride V16 Pro controllers.

events and occasions.One challenge was to keep the shows oriented on a

rotating object. “The top-of-the-hour show, for instance,starts at the 12 o’clock position and then goes down eachside,” says Pope. “To accomplish this, the V16 takes asignal from the IRC to know which cabin is on top andthen communicate that to the grandMA.”

Most of the Pathway Connectivity opto-splitters are incustom-made enclosures spread out around the wheel.“The easiest way to cable it was to provide each individualfixture with a DMX home run to an opto-splitter, to divideup the DMX data,” says Pope. “The enclosures are in each‘knuckle’—where a cable attaches to a rim section. Forsuch a simple-looking design, it was a complex system.”

A Millennial guest experienceGuests obtain tickets online, from the ticket office or ATM-like machines in The LINQ, then enter the five-story wheel-house, which complements the neo-futurism of the wheelwith its colors, fixtures, and circular motifs. (This building

also contains support offices, an equipment room on thefourth floor, and special event space on the top floor.)

“The experience is there to foster interactions betweenpeople: those you arrived with and those you meet,” saysHettema. “Millennials, the target audience, are wary ofanything too clichéd or ‘theme park-y,’ but they also wantto know they’re being paid attention to. Caesars broughton accesso, the ticketing contractor, to realize the crowd-flow scenarios we planned in a way that can be adjustedover time as needed.”

After the first-floor security queue, you board anescalator for the second floor and emerge into a mood-litroom offering two options: Continue upstairs to board, orkick back first in the bar and lounge. The next escalatorsbrings you to the third-floor departure concourse—a near-circular theatre for stand-up viewing of six Vegas-themedvideos executive produced by THG. Walls painted withScreen Goo form a 232° viewing screen (billed as 270°)that is 13' tall by 120' long/1200 pixels by 9970 pixels. The12.1 audio system uses six JBL AM7212 main screen


Night view of the High Roller. The wheel and its lighting system draw power from a copper rail. The "cake" lighting feature atop thebuilding at the right is programmed to echo the wheel lighting.


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speakers, six JBL AC28/26 rear speakers, and two JBLASB7118 subwoofers. On a platform overhead are sevenChristie Digital WU7K-M projectors and four Martin MACVipers. Content is delivered by 7th Sense Delta and DeltaNano media servers in the fourth-floor rack room.

Equipment racks and PCs in the fourth-floor equipmentroom are part of the AV and show control system designedand engineered under the direction of Kevin Ruud. Theaudio DSP is all BSS London with Crown power usingDCi8 600N, I-T5000HD, CTs2000blu and CTs3000bluamplifiers. Audio distribution throughout is mostly Blu-Linktransmission, with AES digital on other pathways. Videodistribution uses Extron PowerCages and Foxboxreceivers. A video editing area features a MOTU HDExpress interface and Alcorn Pro-TraXX for prerecordedmessaging. There are two Alcorn ShowTouch touch-screens: one for overriding the automated wake-up andshutdown of the systems as well as service access to allsystems, and the other indicating the current location of allcabins on the wheel.

Proceeding from the departure concourse along theloading path lined with stainless-steel railing—composedof a Banker Wire frame and woven wire mesh and ahandrail by R & B Wagner, fabricated by SouthwestArchitectural Metals—you board your High Roller cabinthrough the open doors as it slowly comes into position (oris brought to a brief stop for disabled access or specialevent loading).

“Platform height and building configuration wereinformed by several factors, including the need to be ableto drive emergency vehicles under it,” says Kasperowicz,“We went through a submittal process, concerning flightpaths, to get the maximum height of 550' established.Then we worked our way down, setting the platformheight, the wheelhouse building, floor levels, and loadingplatform. We had to keep a certain distance from themonorail, which cuts through the building. We needed twoways in—one for the general public and another for tourgroups, and to let VIPs skip parts of the regular sequence.Everyone exits through retail and back out to The LINQ.”

Lighting the buildingIlluminating Concepts (IC) was contracted to Klai JubaWald at the conclusion of the concept and schematicphases for most of the architectural and effects lightingand control for the wheel house. The IC team includedKelly Stechschulte (project director), Josh Fisher (seniordesigner), Bruce Culver (designer), Scott Lempert (fieldproject manager), Brandon Youells (contentdesign/programming), and Dawn Shepherd (procurement).

“We provided a peer review to value-engineer designand complete documentation for construction,construction administration, and on-site integration of thelighting systems,” says Stechschulte. “The Philips Color

Kinetics Flex LMX customized for our application was oneof the key modifications, first tested for intensity of effectand controllability through multiple mockups. There was alot of preprogramming and animation time to reach thevision of Caesars and THG.”

The key equipment includes Philips Color KineticsColorFuse Powercore (66 pieces), Color Kinetics iColorflexLMX Gen 2 (custom application nodes 4" on center, 45strands), Beta Calco Bubble RGB pendants in threediameters: (two 24" pieces, three 40" pieces, one 70"piece), an ETC Unison Mosaic control system and ETCSensor 3 dimming racks, and two ELTS (EmergencyLighting Transfer Systems).

The four Martin Mac Vipers, which share space on theprojector platform in the departure concourse to accentthe videos shown there, were handled differently: “THGscoped the fixtures, and Caesars bought them andarranged their installation. Abbey Rosen-Holmes and 4Wallprogrammed them,” says Printz.

“Each of the kinetic fixtures/features was critical in theoverall vision of the space,” says Stechschulte. “Throughcolor and slowly changing lighting features and effects,and a sense of direction via the content of the portals, theintent is to guide visitors through the building. The Bubblependants greet them at points of entry and the Flex nodeslocated within each of the portals create energy anddirection to draw them along and up. It was important tothe client that we synch kinetic portals to time with thevarious video segments.” The lighting palette was coordi-nated with artist Chris Reccardi’s colorful muralsthroughout the pre-show spaces that tell the story of acouple meeting on the High Roller.

No-button control The mainstay of the Windows-based control systemdesigned by Ruud is the network of Alcorn McBride V16Pros (two in the wheelhouse, one on the platform in thecontrol tower, one in each of the 28 cabins) that commu-nicate with the control tower. A cabin reaching the zeroposition at the loading platform signals the tower, whichrelays back to all the others.

The networked V16s are tied to the AV and lightingsystems. This internal clock system automatically turnsitself on in the morning and runs through a half-hour start-up and diagnostics procedure, then carries on throughoutthe day until self-shutdown time.

“The V16Pro and Digital Binloop HD were a natural fitfor the control and synchronous video playback needs ofthe High Roller cabins,” says Scott Harkless, director ofsales, Alcorn McBride. “Since the gear is installed in thefloor of the cabin, access to it is extremely limited. It hadto be compact and ultra-reliable.”

The passengers’ trip to the top is punctuated with infor-mation, music, and entertaining commentary. The V16s




control 28 Alcorn McBride four-channel Digital Binloopsplaying AV in the cabins (one per cabin) on SamsungMD32C 32" monitors. Each cabin has eight monitors, sixfull-range custom Leon PR-400 speakers located betweenmonitors, and one Innovox subwoofer under one of the

two seats. Each cabin also has an AlcornAM4 audio player, and Crown CT8150eight-channel, convection-cooled poweramp, emergency intercom, and surveil-lance camera. Under the floor are the AVrack, two storage cabinets of emergencysupplies and backup HVAC.

Samsung monitors are used in thewheelhouse public spaces. All are 32",except five 55" units in the first-floorsecurity queue and five 40" units at thephoto redemption area near the gift shop.Two Alcorn-McBride Binloops, in thefourth-floor rack room, drive them alongwith three other monitors in the bar andone at the departure concourse. AnotherBinloop in the control tower drives amonitor on the platform.

The control tower houses audioprocessing and amplification for theplatform and the intercom exchangestation. It accommodates two liveoperators to do such things as slow downor stop the wheel for special loading situa-

tions, respond to emergency calls, adjust cabin volume, oroverride programming. Gear includes the AlcornShowTouch touch-screen interface for V16 Pro, BSS BLU-10 BLK programmable touch-screen Controller, BSS BLU-800 networked signal processor, four Crown CTs600BLU

amplifiers, one Alcorn-McBride 8-TraXXwith Ethernet audio playback unit, oneAlcorn McBride Digital Binloop, one AlcornMcBride LightCue Pro, three Extron MTPRL 15HD receivers, TOA intercominterface gear, and one Behringer TRUTHB3030A monitor speaker.

“All cabin and wheel componentscommunicate to the control room over anetwork that is part of the IRCs andconsists of both wired and wirelesselements,” says Printz. “Whereverpossible, the path is wired (including fiber).However, at the points where the systemcrosses sides of moving elements (cabinslewing ring and wheel hub and spindle),the connection is wireless.”

“Bandwidth had to be allocated amongride control, lighting, AV show control, andthe intercoms in each cabin,” says Ruud.“Connections run up through the wheel’sfour support legs to the wheel hub—whichholds a set of wireless network trans-ceivers—and from the hub to the rim on

On The LINQ.

The LINQ as seen from the Strip.

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fiber, with networked distribution points around the rim.Between every two cabins is another set of wireless trans-ceivers. Originally, the system was set up to send eachwireless command three times, but we lost info packets.Now, to ensure receipt, it goes 120 times, which still takesless than a minute.”

The tower will send cue commands to keep the videosegments synchronized in each cabin according to itsprogress along the circuit. The cabin control systemprovided by LPOA provides position updates to all cabins.This information is updated each time a cabin passesthrough a fixed point on the platform.

Drive systems, safety, and seeing it throughArup’s brief included designing the High Roller for a 50-year lifespan and satisfying Clark County building codes.“This involved identifying every possible failure mode andmaking sure they were either statistically improbable or

designed out, and testing all components of backup sys-tems as well,” says Krolicki.

The drive system was provided under a design/buildcontract by Schwager-Davis Inc. Arup handled conceptdesign and SDI was in charge of detail design and fabri-cation. The wheel rotates at the platform level via a total ofeight drive units, each consisting of four Michelin trucktires, 3' in diameter, that are pinched around the drive railand hydraulically linked to push together in one direction.“The whole drive system is 100% redundant from thepower source through to the truck tires,” says Krolicki.Under contract to Schwager-Davis Inc., who fabricated allthe electrical components for the system, HeywoodEngineering designed and programmed the PLC-basedIRC system that runs the wheel.

Electrical systems are fully redundant, to disallow anysingle point of failure. The wheel’s main power comes fromthe Nevada grid. A backup generator has the capacity torun the systems, and a crossover switch at the platformlevel can engage either of two distinct electrical rooms thatfeed a Condutix-Wampfler collector system on the wheel—

similar to electrical bus bars—with a copper rail distrib-uting power around the rim. Power is transferred to thecopper rail by a fully redundant set of electrical shoes thatarticulate with the rim as it turns. Power is similarly fed tothe cabins, distributed from the rim via transformers thatstep down the power.

Should there be no power available, the wheel isevacuable via manual mode recovery drive, a self-functioning, stand-alone diesel-powered mechanism withhydraulic arms that can reach out, grab the rim, and turnthe wheel.

There are multiple ways for maintenance workers orrescuers to traverse the structure. Each leg has ladders andplatforms, stabilized by dampers to keep them from vibratingin the wind. There are attachment locations for cables.

Arup’s team, drawn from its San Francisco and Londonoffices, included Krolicki, Michael Willford, Rob Smith,Adrian Crowther, Mary Ferguson, Brandon Sullivan, NicholasChristie, Brandon Kluzniak, Ibbi Almufti, Alexej Goehring,

Shaun Landman, John Lyle, Pat Dallard, Simon Cardwell,Chris Murgatroyd, Hugo Mulder, and Andrew Allsop.

As lead contractor on the wheel, American Bridge Co.played a design assist role in completing contractdocuments, giving input on construction and erection, anddirecting fabrication by ZMPC and Japan Steel Works. Thewheel drive systems contractor was Schwager Davis Inc.and the systems are housed in a structure on the loadingplatform and run from the control tower.

Arup did the reference design for all engineering of thewheel, proved the concept, then stayed on as engineer ofrecord for structural and geotechnical engineering, and asowner’s engineer for the drives and cabins. “The originalintent was to hand it over completely to design/build,”says Krolicki. “But American Bridge asked us to continue,because we knew the design better than anyone and hada good relationship with the owner. I think there was greatbenefit in terms of the project schedule, and the ability tomake sure others were delivering. Having our people thereto see the initial design and concepts through was goodfor quality.”

“There are no positions to throw light from that high in the air. But if youput the lights on the wheel itself, what are you pointing at? Light doesn’ttravel in curved lines. The solution was about 2,000 very focused, pro-grammable small fixtures that light the entire wheel in aggregate andgave Abbey a canvas to paint on. To create a new icon on the Strip, themost visually busy line of architecture anywhere in the world, the solutionwas to be clean and simple. Abbey nailed it.” — Hettema

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