Christie, the global visual and audio technology company, is delivering vivid, immersive visuals for the new Ghostly Manor dark ride at the UK’s Paulton Park, with its 1DLP laser projectors.
The £3.5 million attraction, developed in a creative and technical partnership between Lagotronics Projects, Mack Rides, Leisure Expert Group, and Themics Philippines, merges physical sets, projection mapping, and interactive gameplay to deliver an exciting ghost-themed adventure. Six Christie DWU1100-GS and two DWU1400-GS laser projectors vividly and precisely animate the haunted scenes.
Ghostly Manor features a new ride concept called Gameplay Theater, developed by Mack Rides and Lagotronics Projects. Vehicles that rotate continuously, each holding eight passengers seated back-to-back, showcase different environments with every turn. Guests use Phantom Phasers, interactive onboard “blasters,” to capture ghosts across eight unique scenes.
The format enables high guest throughput within a compact circular footprint to optimise efficiency and minimise queuing, ending with a score scene displaying guest performance and photos.
Bringing haunted scenes to life
Since the vehicles were near the screen, the team installed projectors from above to prevent shadows from players and to avoid warping and blending artefacts.
Christie provided technical support, and ultra-short-throw lenses with a ratio of 0.37-0.4:1 were used on each projector to produce the intended effect, projecting onto surfaces approximately 10 meters wide by 3.5 meters high (32 ft by 11.5 ft).
The ride was constructed on the site of a former 4D theatre, with the project finished on time within 12 months.
“The audience reactions to the ride were great,” says Jacco Groen in ‘t Wout, CTO, Lagotronics Projects BV.
“Everybody was very enthusiastic about the experience as a whole. Although our work is in the main ride only, everything around the ride, from the exterior to the queue line, made the experience as it is. Paultons and their team did a marvelous job on this as well. It was a great team effort, and we are happy to have been a part of it.”
Christie GS Series laser projectors are compact and quiet models, offering excellent brightness, image quality, and colour accuracy, with a dependable 20,000-hour lifespan and minimal maintenance needs.
Last month, Christie shared that its projection technology has helped Casa Boost, a wellness studio in Geneva, Switzerland, transform yoga into an immersive experience.
