httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nE8PvsRqjkg&feature=player_embedded
Apple’s magical device is at work in the Magic Kingdom. This video gives a look behind the scenes where engineers — or “imagineers” as Disney calls them — are at work on a New Fantasyland using iPads.
Fantasyland, at the Magic Kingdom Theme Park in Florida, will double in size with new attractions, restaurants and other guest areas that will make up the expansion.
The video shows the iPad at work on the construction site as well as working in tandem with a PC in the office.
“It helps solve problems before they make it to the field,” says engineer Mark Kohl.
Apple’s portable tech helps avoid the age-old construction clash of how great ideas on the drawing board become headaches in the field. They’ve developed what sounds like a proprietary software suite of innovative visualization technology that includes 3D-modeling and is used to schedule the projects, too.
“We finish the design and create the model, each of the subcontractors can see it on the iPad,” says Chad Stachnik of Walt Disney Imagineering. “Then we take it to the field with the digital tablets…and they can identify clashes in the field with what we’ve worked on in the design room.”
And once they spot those conflicts, they can snap a pic with the iPad and set up a live meeting with the architect, contractor etc. over the device using WebEx to get it sorted out.
Another example of how the iPad is put to work: there was “some confusion” on the construction site about the placement of air conditioning ducts on the Little Mermaid ride.
Normally, they go in the ceiling, but Disney’s engineers thought that would interfere with the experience. So bringing that request out to the field helped the contractors understand why they designed it that way.
“It really allows us to do what we do best as imagineers,” says engineer Mark Kohl. “Focus on our show and create a world class attractions for our guests.”
