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CAVU Designwerks & DreamCraft Attractions are recipients of Thea Award with The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride

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The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride

CAVU Designwerks, the media-based attractions specialist, and DreamCraft Attractions, the integrated ride specialist, have won a Thea Award for The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride.

CAVU Designwerks and DreamCraft Attractions are proud to have been a part of a Thea Award-winning project, The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride at Lionsgate Entertainment World in Zhuhai, China. This is a cutting-edge attraction that puts guests at the heart of the action in the Twilight universe.

Visitors are immersed in the world of Twilight as they don a patented DreamSet VR headset and follow Jacob and his Wolf Pack on a thrilling motorbike ride to regain control of the town of Forks.

Midnight Ride Riders CAVU Designwersk DreamCraft Attractions

A unique VR experience

Astride a real motorcycle, the VR experience allows riders to feel as if they are really racing through the forests of the Pacific Northwest, complete with prowling vampires. The cutting-edge technology allows guests to feel a part of the pack, waving to friends and family along the way. Each experience is different, as riders can take different routes during the ride.

“Working on this attraction became a passion project for our teams,” says Mark Stepanian, CXO, CAVU Designwerks. “We spent every minute of nearly two years refining the feel and physics of the motorbike to ensure it felt as real as possible.

“We pushed to add more layers of special effects. We designed innovative technology like the linear induction powered handlebars to be able to simulate changing road and environment conditions on the fly depending on where riders drive.

“The result – an attraction that truly blurs the line between what is real and what is simulated, an attraction where our guests are lost in the experience as the world that we’ve created becomes real, becomes true and becomes amazing.”

Twilight Midnight Ride_Lionsgate

The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride

The attraction elevates the VR experience, taking the traditional motion-base concept and adding individual motion bases, layered real-time sensory devices, real-time VR and guest agency to create a truly unique experience where visitors leave the role of a passive audience and are fully immersed into an exciting new world.

“We are thrilled that Midnight Ride has been recognized as an outstanding attraction,” says Terry Sanderson, Business Development, DreamCraft Attractions. “Midnight Ride brings together many ‘firsts’ for a VR ride system, and we are thrilled to share this award with Lionsgate Entertainment World and all of the partners involved.

“Midnight Ride was the world’s first hyper-reality VR attraction, and it has helped validate VR as a viable technology by providing guests a deeply immersive experience while maintaining high throughput and hygiene.”

Thanks to the spacing of the bikes and thorough sanitisation of each headset between rides, guests can once again enjoy a fun and safe experience as they return to Lionsgate Entertainment World in the wake of the global pandemic.

The Twilight Saga: Midnight Ride was recognized in the 27th annual Thea Awards, presented by the Themed Entertainment Association (TEA). The attraction was brought to life by CAVU’s ride systems engineering, alongside DreamCraft’s technical prowess, in partnership with Framestore and Thinkwell Group.

CAVU Designwerks and DreamCraft Attractions recently hosted a special session on interactive technology at blooloop V-Expo. Meanwhile, CAVU Designwerks has also announced Quest, the themed entertainment industry’s first walkthrough ride.

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charlotte coates

Charlotte Coates

Charlotte Coates is blooloop's editor. She is from Brighton, UK and previously worked as a librarian. She has a strong interest in arts, culture and information and graduated from the University of Sussex with a degree in English Literature. Charlotte can usually be found either with her head in a book or planning her next travel adventure.

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