10 January 2016 – CAVU Designwerks stands for Ceiling and Visibility Unlimited. The brains behind the company are Peter R. Schnabel and Daryl White, two experienced pros who presented CAVU and its first product developments in 2015.
“We have taken this as our name as it is a metaphor for our company philosophy to take a ‘blue sky’ approach to solving problems, with unclouded vision and without limits to our growth”, CAVU’s President Daryl White explains.
His German-Canadian partner Peter R. Schnabel adds, “If we want to create something unusual, first we have to ask ourselves what our customers or their guests might want. This is the most important thing in any development process, even in the leisure industry”. CEO Schnabel knows what he’s talking about. He has spent more than 35 years in the industry involved in important new developments such as the LIM rollercoaster drive which premiered in 1995 at the Kings Island and Kings Dominion parks operated today by Cedar Fair. “We’re known as the pioneers in Media Based Attractions. We offer a unique combination of original attraction designs, engineering experience and cutting edge fabrication systems, combined with quality standards at the highest stage”, Schnabel proudly explains.
The key is immersive experiences. Every provider and developer in this attraction segment is out at the moment to create artificially simulated experiences that are as perfectly authentic as possible. No shaky pictures, no static, no break- ups in the projection, and all with the highest quality audio, video and synchronization throughout to deliver an experience as good and as believable as the real thing. Schnabel maintains that many providers work according to the principle of how to best configure their existing technology to correspond with their own targets or those of their customers. He says, “We focus on the target itself, on the customer’s wish, and then we develop the corresponding technology components for new kinds of experiences”. This is the same approach that produced “Storm Chaser™” in a record time period of only four months from the initial idea to the finished product.
The Storm Chaser™ ride system was developed together with Austrian AV and media production company Kraftwerk. This simulation platform has up to ten seats and can rotate 360° on its own axis while simultaneously carrying out tilting movements of up to 90°, while the seats remain upright. In addition, the complete units are driven through the room on a track-linked system. This is a ride system equipped with five DOF that shows great promise in combination with high-end audiovisual applications, especially in the dark ride sector.
CAVU was founded in the spring of 2015, and Peter R. Schnabel and Daryl White represented the company in its first public appearance at the Asian Attractions Expo. They went on in Gothenburg this past October to announce their first upcoming rollercoaster installation, set to be carried out in Southeast Asia. Daryl White adds, “We will also complete another installation by the middle of 2016 in China”. Prior to the recent IAAPA Expo the new company announced its next development of a media-based theater or dark ride: “Amazon Drifter” is the name of the first water-based dark ride set to combine an immersive high-definition media experience with special effects and water. Up to twelve passengers per boat set off on a journey of exploration down a canal, but CAVU claims that its new version will make the experience far more dynamic than ever before. Boats on Amazon Drifter will not only be able to float, but also turn, tilt or even slide to the side via conveyor belts…
Article first appeared on © EuroAmusement Professional Trade Magazine, Issue 1/16, G.P. Probst Verlag, www.eap-magazin.de