Disney Partners With Hitachi Vantara For Transportation, Rides, And Show Analytics
Disney Parks people know that the various houses of Mouse thrive on data. But when that data starts to get overwhelming, what do technologically-savvy companies do to cope?
In Disney’s case, they parter with Hitachi Vantara.
Hitachi Vantara is now the “Official Ride and Show Analytics Provider” of the Walt Disney World® Resort in Florida and the Disneyland Resort in California to develop data-driven solutions to enhance the operational efficiency of shows and attractions. The teams deploy industrial Internet of Things technologies (IoT) that build on Disney’s storytelling through technology.
The solutions use DataOps, a methodology for collaborative data management, which helps organizations use data and analytics for real-time insights to transform operations.
Hitachi’s Lumada data management, analytics, and IoT software then collects and analyzes data to provide real-time insights into park operations. The solutions include predictive capabilities and digital twins, virtual software models that represent physical objects, and help organizations understand and optimize performance.
What Now?
Let me put this scientifically:
“Huh?”
Thankfully, Hitachi Vantara thought enough to garner some answers.
Michael Tschanz, Director of Technology and Analysis, Design and Engineering Technology and Analysis at Disney Parks, Experiences and Products explained:
As you would expect, with these technological advancements have come new challenges, which we have responded to by evolving our approach to make sure these rides are fully operational for our guests. Indiana JonesTM Adventure spawned the need for real-time control systems and Industrial Control PLCs that allow rides to have many vehicles on a track at the same time.
Will Park Guests Notice?
But still, how does that directly affect the Disney Park guest?
Tschanz explained:
[T]he attractions at the park generate incredible volumes of data, and like many businesses, our goal is to get the right pieces to the right people precisely when they need it most in order to maintain an excellent guest experience.
Now, by examining this data, we first make sure that attractions are running efficiently. At the same time, we can run predictive and prescriptive analytics to know when maintenance needs arise and then address it off-hours before it can inhibit the guest experience.
Let’s use Toy Story Mania! as an example. That attraction generates huge amounts of data every day. That data is collected by the Disney ADAQ system which then translates it to digital format, and then streams it to Lumada Edge in a sub-second interval. Lumada Edge then ingests all sensor input/output (I/O) data and applies analytical algorithms to the I/O data to generate alerts. Maintenance personnel can view the data live in a web-based dashboard. Michael Tshanz, Disney
Thanks to this data, we are able to deliver the vacation our guests have come to expect.
Now that, I understand.