Medialon Manager Pro and Medialon Lite go backstage at the new “Star of the Future” attraction at Futuroscope in Poitiers, France, to help visitors test their acting prowess and learn about visual effects. The Medialon systems control interactive multimedia systems enable visitors to audition and travel behind the scenes to eight different film sets to discover the secrets of visual-effects wizardry.

Futuroscope is a theme park dedicated to cinema, AV technologies, and visual effects. The new “Star of the Future” attraction allows visitors to take a look inside a major film studio, feel the buzz on the film set, discover the secrets behind special effects, rub shoulders with stars, and take a film role.

Visitors’ acting talents are put to the test at an audition, where an MPEG-2 camera network encodes their acting and transfers them to a server. The audition files are captured on alpha channels so five Only-View systems can seamlessly insert them into pre-existing footage for a proposed movie called “Savior of the Future.” Visitors get to see their auditions displayed on four giant projection screens and one giant plasma screen where they are integrated with numerous high-end visual effects.

Next, visitors board two-seater pods and travel behind the scenes of eight film sets to discover the atmosphere and the technical trickery used in film. The 15-minute ride covers a 200m course over three floors. Ile-de-France-based AV integration company ETC selected Medialon Manager to control the entire installation. Two WiFi terminals allow a single laptop to encode the video, visual effects, lighting, and MPEG-2 camera output without any wires or cables between the computer and the control room.

“Thanks to Medialon Manager all the peripherals of acquisition and diffusion (Camera IP and video server) are easy to operate and quite flexible. Moreover the excellent MXM file management allowed for a perfect implementation of the management of the captured images. To finish, the entire pavilion has been programmed in record time (video, lighting & sound) without being tied down, thanks to ethernet network and WIFI piloting,” comments ETC system engineer Patrick Dury.