[DCA] Glow With The Show!

sponono88

sponono88

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Glow With The Show is a new interactive feature that made its debut this week at the Disneyland Resort. The new hats light up and interact with World of Color and react to each scene of the show. They also interact with the new Mad T Party.

The ear hats are also going to interact with other unannounced locations throughout the park, OCRegister reported that some of those locations are Flo's V8 Cafe and Luigi's Flying Tires. Eventually they will also be synced with attractions at Disneyland. Here is more info from the OCRegister:


Shaped like a classic Mickey ears hat, and nicknamed Mickey's Magical Ears, the hat looks deceptively simple but is loaded with sophisticated technology customized by Walt Disney Imagineering, said Steve Davison, a creative-entertainment vice president.

Once the show starts, the hat acts like a receiver that gets signals from emitters throughout Paradise Bay. The signals tell the hat what to do and when, so the ears light from within and become a dynamic canvas filled with pixels that move and groove in sync with the music, water, colored lights and projected animation sequences.

When there are a lot of hats doing that, the result is an eye-catching spectacle.

"The hats are very smart," Davison said.

"We can do many different things, like patterns," he said. "We can make one section pink, another green, or make it eclectic. It sounds simple, but the microchip of the hat is amazing and complex."

For example, the hats can look like a star field for WALL-E and Eve, or an ocean of blue for Ariel the mermaid, he said. Davison has wanted the interactive hats to be part of parades and firework shows as far back as 10 years ago.

"I kept on trying to find a way to do it, but the technology wasn't there yet," he said.
The Imagineers kept on working at it and by the time the type of infrared technology that they needed became available, "World of Color" was the attraction to which it would be applied.
Click to expand...

Read the full article here:

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/hats-359094-hat-world.html

See the hats in action here:

 
sponono88

sponono88

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
The hats interact with the music beat of Mad T Party and also react to the colors of the DJ lighting



The hats work similarly inside Flo's V8 Cafe, where they react to the music playing inside and correspond with the LED lighting inside the building. Haven't tried it yet but it's also supposed to work with Luigi's Flying Tires.. looking forward to discovering new places that will interact with the ears :) probably one of my favorite purchases in the parks!
 
sponono88

sponono88

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
DisneyGeek has new youtube videos of individual scenes of the show - I love how the hats look with the Genie segment:)

Toy Story and Aladdin:



Pirates of the Caribbean:



Pocahontas:

 
sponono88

sponono88

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Just found out via Twitter that the hats interact with most of the buildings and rides in Cars Land

- the hats turn orange when you are in the Cozy Cone area

- in Mater's Junkyard Jamboree, one ear lights up and blinks (just like Mater's headlight)

- In Sarge's Surplus Hut, the ears turn yellow/green.

- At Luigi's Flying Tires, the hats turn green/red/white

pretty cool.
 
Nicole220

Nicole220

Well-Known Member
Got to witness this today and while I wasn't sure about it at first, it was very fun! Such a cool thing and I love how it interacts with various parts of the park. My biggest worry was that it would be distracting from the show but it really wasn't.
 
Cosmic Commando

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
I was prepared to ignore this after reading the first description, but the videos have made me a believer. I think these will be very popular for a long time.

My son spied one of the videos I was watching and promptly told me he "wanted those ears". I politely informed him that we are 3,000 miles away from Disneyland, and that he will have to wait. :cool:
 
Californian Elitist

Californian Elitist

Well-Known Member
Cosmic Commando said:
I was prepared to ignore this after reading the first description, but the videos have made me a believer. I think these will be very popular for a long time.

My son spied one of the videos I was watching and promptly told me he "wanted those ears". I politely informed him that we are 3,000 miles away from Disneyland, and that he will have to wait. :cool:
Click to expand...

Aren't they great, commando? I would like a pair too, count me in with your son.
 
nemofinder22

nemofinder22

Well-Known Member
If merch is going to insist on glow merch make all of it do what these "Glow with the Show" ears do and interact with the shows, and while were at it make them turn off on dark rides.

Otherwise great use of tech and impressive in large numbers.

I would love to see them interact with Fantasmic!, Magical, Believe, and Wintertime Enchantment.
 
sponono88

sponono88

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
^ Well according to Steve Davison, that is the plan - expanding this technology to Disneyland and the shows/rides there. Can't wait!

Something else I heard on Twitter today regarding the hats - they automatically turn off inside dark rides!
 
TP2000

TP2000

Well-Known Member
They've been having special Annual Passholder shows of World of Color this weekend, and there's some neat new videos of the Glow With The Show Ears in action. Here's a fun 30 second clip of the Alladin portion of the show when the Glow Ears go CRAZY!



This concept is so clever!
 
Cosmic Commando

Cosmic Commando

Well-Known Member
TP2000 said:
They've been having special Annual Passholder shows of World of Color this weekend, and there's some neat new videos of the Glow With The Show Ears in action. Here's a fun 30 second clip of the Alladin portion of the show when the Glow Ears go CRAZY!



This concept is so clever!
Click to expand...


And good "coverage", too! Even with half that number of hats, I think the effects would still work. Very cool to see the crowd still wearing the hats when they have to pay for them!
 

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