Dear FEG Family and Industry Colleagues,

Over 20 years ago, I founded Family Entertainment Group with aspirations, grit, dreams, and a lot of stubbornness. During this time, our industry has undergone significant changes, from equipment advancements to technological innovations. I am incredibly proud of the role that FEG and its dedicated team have played in shaping these transformations. We’ve weathered economic storms, 9/11, and even a global pandemic. From our humble beginnings as an operator in Castaway Bay, Sandusky, Ohio, we’ve grown to become one of the largest and most respected entertainment companies in the world. I cannot say thank you enough to my family, partners, and employees for helping us grow into the market leader we are today.

Reflecting on this journey, I recognize we’ve experienced great successes together. These include leading the greatest team in amusements and having the privilege of contributing to our industry’s growth. Each step of the way has been focused on providing the very best in family entertainment and recruiting and nurturing the best people in the industry.

As companies expand, nurturing their development becomes critical. This involves embracing new technology, upgrading equipment, and attracting additional talent. Today, I’m thrilled to announce a significant step forward in this direction.

Rex Jackson has accepted our offer to join the FEG family as our new CEO and my hand-picked successor. Rex brings a wealth of related industry experience, joining us from Merlin Entertainments as Managing Director of Legoland Parks North America. I’m confident he’ll lead us to even greater heights. He will fully assume the day-to-day responsibilities of CEO, allowing me to transition into the role of Executive Chairman. In this capacity, I’ll focus on long-term strategy and growth initiatives, key industry and client relationships, and providing support to our C-suite.

As the largest single private stockholder and founder of Family Entertainment Group, I remain committed to our success. I look forward to the next chapter and am excited about what we can achieve in the next 20 years!

Thank you all for being part of this incredible journey.

Warm regards,
George Smith
Family Entertainment Group Founder and Executive Chairman

BERLIN, Germany — Not to be confused with Area 51, AREA15 is an immersive entertainment district just moments from the Las Vegas Strip. Already equipped with an X1 system it includes the well-known Illuminarium, an experience located in the AREA15 District. Now following suit in upgrading their audio experience with a HOLOPLOT X1 Matrix Array sound system is The Portal, a multi-use venue and key element of AREA15’s unique type of experiential entertainment. It offers experiences for the whole family, including rides and VR, live performances, DJs, fantastic food, and definitely no top-secret US Government experiments…

“Our motto is ‘AREA15 does not exist’ because you can make your own story,” says Mark Stutzman, CTO at AREA15. “It can be anything you want it to be.”

The Portal is AREA15’s landmark venue. It can be used for private dining, all-night DJ sets, and everything in between. At Halloween, for example, the Rocky Horror Picture Show is projection-mapped on all four walls of the venue and supported by live actors, but it has also been home to fine art shows and corporate events.

Here, the flexibility of the newly installed HOLOPLOT X1 system, which consists of two arrays of two MD96 Audio Modules, topped with two MD80-S, positioned left and right at a height of 25 feet at one end of the room, ensures the space can fulfil the creative ambition of the AREA15 team – to be transformative. Technically there are no limits to the endless possibilities of this space, and for Director of Production JD Bouck, that is the beauty of working there.

Acting as a sandbox for any experience imaginable, The Portal is a vast grey concrete cuboid, allowing a 360-degree projection map across the walls and floor. The visual elements were always stunning, but Bouck found that the original sound system was never able to keep up, owing to acoustics akin to a giant fish tank and highly reflective, smooth walls.

“The Portal was one of the biggest concerns we had,” he recalls. “It is a 7,000 square foot, completely blank canvas. Thanks to our Panasonic projectors, we can make visual landscapes and have great storytelling for the eyes, but the audio picture was never able to complement these.”

In the exploration phase for a new sound system, Bouck and his team began to run into issues.

“The Portal is not built like any other real venue that I’ve ever been to,” he explains. “There is nothing to soften it, no balcony or mezzanine, just hard surfaces. So there was never a product that checked all the boxes.”

“It was the reflective surfaces that we were really trying to tackle with the HOLOPLOT system,” he continues. “The 3D Audio-Beamforming technology allowed us to focus so that we could cut the reflections off the walls and make sure the people at the back of the room were getting the same audio picture as the people at the front of the room. All without having to run a ton of delays or having a bunch of loudspeakers in front of the projection surfaces.”

The HOLOPLOT team supported Bouck throughout the whole process, from system planning to providing room calculations until final commissioning and tuning.

“We finally got X1 into the venue and on the first night we just wanted to fire it up and see what happened, even before we had fine-tuned it,” Bouck enthuses. “Straight away, it was like the weight had just been lifted off our shoulders. The Matrix Arrays sounded like a huge distributed system, like everyone had their own little PA, whether they were standing against the wall, or in the middle of the room. It didn’t matter where they were, their audio experience was not diminished in any position.”

The new system has received excellent feedback. Regular visitors have noticed the positive change, but it’s not just the audience members who have benefitted; there have been healthy changes for the staff, too.

“Loud isn’t always good. Good is good!” Stutzman concludes. “We now have great audio quality without it having to scream in your face. The HOLOPLOT team really worked with us, listening to our ideas and taking it all into consideration. Our DJ shows can be up to five or six hours long. The guests can come and go, but the staff – our technicians, security, and bartenders – are here all night, and we have a duty of care to them, to ensure they’re comfortable. We didn’t want the ear fatigue you usually get from really loud festivals. So now we have a system that is really super versatile, allowing us to adapt the audio for any event without the need to reconfigure the hardware, but always provides that top audio experience to match the visuals in the space.”

WILDWOOD, N.J. — Morey’s Piers, a renowned amusement destination nestled in the heart of Wildwood, New Jersey, is thrilled to announce the celebration of Curley’s Fries’ 50th anniversary, marking five decades of delighting visitors with our iconic Curley’s Fries. To commemorate this special occasion, we invite the public to join us for Curley’s birthday party.

Curley’s birthday party will take place Friday, August 16th, from 12:30 PM until 2 PM at Joe’s Fish Co. Guests can enjoy cake and cookies and sing “Happy Birthday” to Curley himself. Bring your cameras for the chance to take a picture with Curley and his best pal Sunny. Indulge in some Curley’s Fries and sample our limited-edition sauces available throughout the summer.

Don’t miss this opportunity to be part of Curley’s 50th birthday celebration. Stop by Joe’s Fish Co., enjoy the festivities, indulge in our legendary fries, and take home a piece of history with our exclusive merchandise. We look forward to celebrating with you!

SINGAPORE — Embed, the world’s FEC tech partner of choice for the amusement, entertainment, and leisure industries announces its new sales team appointments in the Americas and Europe.

“We proudly reveal the Embed Mavericks who will further champion sales and customer success to continue to provide the best of FEC tech solutions and reliability across our global operations,” says Renee Welsh, CEO at Embed. “We look forward to how this change will advance Embed further and enable, empower, and ease our customers’ business.”

Erika Nonis – Sales Account Manager, EMEA
After joining Embed in 2022 as a Sales and Account Manager and successfully managing accounts in Canada and northeastern US, Erika Nonis is the new EMEA Sales Account Manager. Armed with over five years of experience in operations and event management at Cineplex and The Rec Room, and coming from a long line of family entertainment legacy, Nonis will be based in Dubai, UAE to further Embed’s efforts at driving growth in the EMEA region: 

“We are excited to have Erika Nonis lead the European market in her new role! Her proven track record and customer-centric approach make her the ideal professional to engage untapped market potential while managing Embed’s distribution partner, Bandai Namco,” shares Kash Ahmad, Global Head of Sales.

To advance its service and solutions further in the Americas, the Sales Account Managers Gabriel Wolman and Josh Adkins are set to expand on new territories and promote business growth. 

Gabriel Wolman – Sales Account Manager, NASA
Working with Embed for almost five years, industry veteran Gabriel Wolman takes on the eastern seaboard, as well as Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Nevada. Previously, Wolman’s focus has been managing accounts and building relationships with customers and industry partners in the southeastern US.

Josh Adkins – Sales Account Manager, NASA
With 6 years of experience from his previous role as an Account Manager at Redemption Plus, Josh Adkins will utilise his extensive industry expertise to manage accounts across the Midwest, Great Lakes Region, and Canada.

Julie Lynch – Strategic Account Manager
After joining in 2022 and focusing on new business with customers in the western US, Julie Lynch brings over 20 years of experience in sales and account management of large Enterprise customers, working with tech and software companies like Lexmark and Sprint. Lynch has been promoted to Strategic Account Manager to manage relationships with the largest Embed customers in North America.

“Gabriel, Josh, and Julie provide a strong mix of technical and industry experience for our customers,” shares John Keys, Regional Sales Manager (NASA). “Our focus is to help our customers leverage the Embed system to increase profitability and reduce costs, ultimately driving transformational business growth. This is exactly what you get when you combine the exceptional Embed Sales & Strategic Accounts with the Success Squad™ and other operational teams.”

To complement these new roles in the Americas, the Transformation Growth team’s Embed Success Squad™ extends sales and customer support through payment processing analyses and maximising Embed cloud-based solutions like the Mobile Wallet, BOOKINGS, and STATS.

Comprised of Austen Ward (SaaS Squad Whisperer), Jed Hazlett (Success Ambassador), and Jeremy Dickamore (VP Global Payment Solutions), the Success Squad™ beefed up its line-up with the following members:

• Joshua Chappell is promoted to Field Force Training Manager, with former Microsoft professional Tobie Line taking his former role as Field Force Trainer for Embed GoTrain™ – the FREE staff training Embed offers to drive guest usage and adoption of the Mobile Wallet to drive a 5x increase in average reload value.
• Armed with extensive experience from Global Payments, Will Moser is the new Senior Payment Specialist, joining Dickamore as Payment Gateway Guru to provide complimentary cost-savings analysis on customers’ card payment processing to cut losses from hidden fees or merchant fees and see potential savings operators can get simply by changing their payment provider.

“With the latest expert additions to the Success Squad™, we are more equipped to layer value to the members of the Embed family of FECs,” says Sara Paz, CMO and Transformation Growth Officer. The Success Squad™ was introduced at IAAPA Expo Orlando 2023 – a dedicated team of experts and management consultants that help customers maximise the Embed system to drive transformational growth.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Hurricane Harbor Arlington, the largest water park in North Texas, is thrilled to announce its largest investment in park history with the debut of Splash Island and a variety of new guest amenities set for 2025. This expansion introduces a vibrant coastal-themed area featuring colorful slides and a multi-level interactive play structure, perfect for young guests. Children will have more activities to enjoy than ever before, while families can appreciate the updated dining options, family cabanas, and refurbished restrooms, enhancing the overall park experience. 

Key Features of the Expansion:

• Splash Island: This new 58,000 square foot area features a multi-level water play structure with over 110 water features, seven kid-friendly water slides, and various water gadgets. A 1,000 gallon Texas-sized tipping water bucket adds to the fun, soaking splash-seekers below.  
• Kids Water Slide Area – Splash Island also includes seven additional water slides for smaller riders, including a mini-tornado water slide and a mini wave slide. The addition of Cowabunga, Jellyfish Twist (two slides), RipQurl, Shark Attack, Splashin’ Seal, and Stingray Racer brings the perfect number of drops and twists for little ones seeking a gentle thrill. 
• A new Splash Pad featuring 24 water features. 
• Enhanced Amenities: Guests can rent new family cabanas and oversized umbrellas for added shade and comfort. Junior guest-friendly furniture will also be available, and restrooms in the area will be refurbished. 
• Enhanced Dining Options: The signature restaurant will be renovated to enhance the culinary experience for guests, along with other revitalized dining features. 

“This historic expansion at Six Flags Hurricane Harbor represents a whole new experience for families next year,” said Richard Douaihy, Park President of Six Flags Over Texas and Hurricane Harbor. “We are transforming the water park with exciting new family attractions and enhanced comfort and dining options, making it the premier destination for family waterpark fun in North Texas. Plus, with a Gold and Prestige season pass, guests can enjoy unlimited access to both Hurricane Harbor and Six Flags Over Texas, offering unparalleled value in family entertainment.” 

ALTOONA, Iowa — Adventureland Resort continues its 50^th celebration by offering a gift to its guests. The Home of Iowa’s Best Thrills is extending its summer season by adding three days to its calendar along with more hours each day this week. Adventureland will extend its daily operations through August 21, providing even more time to ride theme park favorites like the reimagined Underground, Monster, Flying Viking and more.  

The Altoona theme park is also opening an hour earlier through August 18 and extending hours later into the night August 16 through 18 for its first-ever drone shows. This weekend, the park will host the largest 3D drone show to ever take flight in the state. Featuring iconic park images representing Adventureland, including one unique design voted on by guests. Parkgoers had the opportunity to choose between four unique drone designs including Monster, Underground, Tornado, Outlaw and Draken Falls. The winning design will be revealed at the first show on Friday, August 16.  

“The drone show is unlike anything we’ve ever done before. It showcases the park’s forward-thinking spirit and is the perfect way to kick off our lineup of fall events,” Adventureland General Manager Mike Lusky said. “Our extended season offers families and thrill-seekers more fun-filled days of endless entertainment and unforgettable memories.” 

Celebrating its 10^th year, Adventureland’s beloved Oktoberfest event will feature live music, games, contests and wrestling along with Adventureland’s most popular rides. The following week, fear kicks into gear with Iowa’s largest Halloween event, Phantom Fall Fest. The haunts are back and scarier than ever with four scare zones, four terrifying haunted houses and a spooky new take on the reimagined Underground, the world’s only indoor wooden roller coaster.  

Visitors can enjoy all that’s to come for the year when they purchase a 2025 Season Pass. The Home of Iowa’s Best Thrills is offering free admission for the rest of 2024 with the purchase of a 2025 Season Pass. In addition to the drone show and extra days, select passes will also include the fan-favorite 21-plus Oktoberfest event on September 14 and Phantom Fall Fest on select days September 21-October 27.  

For a limited time, parkgoers can save up to $60 on 2025 Season Passes and get the rest of 2024 for free. Current Passholders can also save up to $70 if they renew now. 

CHICAGO — Since its grand opening in March 2024, Flyover in Chicago by Pursuit at Navy Pier has mesmerized thousands with a breath-taking immersive experience, culminating in an aerial journey over the Windy City, highlighting its iconic landmarks. Flyover constructed this 61-seat theatre, installed a Brogent ride system and brought in other specialists to work on the audio-visual elements.

Kraftwerk Living Technologies (KLT), renowned for its expertise in flight ride attraction technology, designed and supplied an advanced audio-visual (AV) setup featuring projection, control, and audio further enhanced by the state-of-the-art IOSONO spatial audio system supplied and supported by ENCIRCLED.

ENCIRCLED has provided IOSONO systems not only for Flyover in Chicago but also for an upgraded system in Vancouver, Canada.

“ENCIRCLED takes pride in offering one of the most flexible immersive rendering solutions with excellent integration features. The company’s expertise was instrumental throughout various project stages, from working with KLT’s Audio System Designer Philipp Hartl, Immersive Sound Designer Tim Archer of Masters Digital and the Flyover team in planning the loudspeaker setup to helping KLT again on the final fine-tuning sound calibration, as well as developing the object-based content production workflow to be prepared for the newest immersive audio creation tools or the multitude of channel-based formats,” said Jan Langhammer, joint managing director at ENCIRCLED.

Eric Sambell, Global Director, Construction and Entertainment Technology, added, “We wanted a simple system that could be used across our attractions, one that could provide a breathtaking audio experience for our guests and a consistent workflow for our content and technical teams.”

The Flyover team enlisted the support of key vendors to launch their Chicago attraction. This includes TechMD’s Dave Revel as the project consultant, Kraftwerk Living Technologies as the AV system integrator, and Tim Archer from Masters Digital as the sound designer and mixer.

Curious about how immersive audio inside a flight ride attraction actually works?
At Flyover in Chicago, KLT’s meticulous multichannel loudspeaker design ensures riders receive a tailored soundscape and experience. The system features 34 JBL AM7215 loudspeakers positioned behind and to the sides of the 435 sqm perforated screen from Endurescreens plus 4 2×18” JBL ASB7128 subwoofers stacked on the floor, all driven by Crown DCiDA series Dante enabled amplifiers. In addition, there are integrated in-seat speakers powered by Innosonix multi-channel high-density amplifiers, and the advanced ENCIRCLED IOSONO spatial audio processor powered by IOSONO inside software, which manages calibration, content playback, and live input rendering.

“ENCIRCLED played a pivotal role by planning the loudspeaker layout, selecting appropriate speaker types, configuring the software on the spatial audio processor, and conducting acoustic calibration post initial speaker tuning by KLT,” said Kevin Murphy, Senior VP Sales and Business Development at Kraftwerk Living Technologies. “ENCIRCLED optimized loudspeaker directional aiming, assisted with the fine tuning of the system to meet the requirements of the ENCIRCLED processor and workflow tuning, and supported the content production process for future adaptation of content or new movies to IOSONO’s object-based format.”

The spatial audio system’s design allows precise localization of sound both horizontally and vertically, enhancing the visual content displayed on the giant screen. “Unlike traditional immersive audio formats, which often have limited possibilities in vertical panning of audio sources, the IOSONO rendering system’s unique multilayer approach utilizes multiple loudspeaker groups to achieve sound positioning across the screen,” said Murphy.

The middle layer’s high-resolution speakers enable accurate sound localization through Wave Field Synthesis, creating stable point source objects on the screen and ensuring consistent sound perception from all seats. A significant challenge was the playback of existing content, which ENCIRCLED overcame using IOSONO’s Spatial Audio Workstation. This tool treats multichannel content as a virtual speaker setup within the newly built dome, allowing precise matching of each channel’s position to the existing speakers used in other flight ride attractions. Newly produced content benefits from an object-based workflow, where individual sounds are stored with 3D position metadata, allowing the same content file to be rendered across different loudspeaker layouts, ensuring superior quality and easy content transfer.

“ENCIRCLED are extremely proud to be part of this project and grateful for the trust placed in us to support the design of the loudspeaker setup for the main show. With over 10 previous flight ride installations around the globe, we brought valuable knowledge to the table and contributed confidently to the acoustical design of this state-of-the-art flight ride attraction system,” added Max Röhrbein, joint managing director at ENCIRCLED.

The integration of IOSONO spatial audio system from ENCIRCLED not only enhances the immersive experience but also sets a new standard for audio quality and versatility for flight ride attractions, providing visitors with a uniquely engaging and memorable experience.

Gold Medal Products Co., the leader in concession equipment and supplies, is thrilled to announce the launch of four fresh and innovative cotton candy bag designs. These bags, featuring enchanting and vibrant artwork, are designed to engage and delight customers of all ages.

The new collection includes:

1. Baby Unicorn Dragon Cotton Candy Bag: This eye-catching bag features a pink baby unicorn dragon munching on a cloud of cotton candy. The bright and colorful design is perfect for children’s parties, carnivals, or other fun events.
2. Troll Cotton Candy Bag: Featuring a whimsical blue troll holding rainbow-colored balloons and cotton candy, this bag’s playful and bright design will spark joy and imagination in kids and adults alike.
3. American Eagle Cotton Candy Bag: Celebrating America, this bag showcases a majestic red, white, and blue eagle with an American flag backdrop. Ideal for patriotic celebrations such as Fourth of July, Memorial Day, and Veterans Day.
4. Zombie Cotton Candy Bag: Perfect for Halloween, this spooky bag depicts a mob of creepy zombies. Dark and eerie, it adds a frightfully fun touch to any fall event.

Each bag measures 12” x 18” and is made from high-quality, 1-mil thick clear plastic, ensuring that the cotton candy inside remains fresh and appealing. The bags are packaged in cases of 1,000 and come with twist ties for easy sealing.

Adam Browning, president of Gold Medal stated, “Our goal is to offer fun and innovative products that enhance the experience for both vendors and consumers. Whether you’re hosting a child’s birthday party, a patriotic celebration, or a spooky Halloween event, our new cotton candy bags will add an extra touch of magic and excitement.”

The top 15 applicants competed yesterday, Aug. 7^th, in a Brick Factor competition held at American Dream with LEGOLAND Discovery Center New Jersey. Their skills were put to the test with creative challenges and timed model builds in front of a panel of judges from LEGOLAND Resorts across the country.

After a day featuring builds that included interpretations of Atlas Statue at Rockefeller Center, galaxies and planets, knights, and contestants’ dreams, six finalists were selected to compete in the final Brick Factor at LEGOLAND New York on Wednesday, Aug. 14.

• Marquis Aquino – Central Valley, NY
• Louis Flatt – Warren, PA
• Leif Lindholm – Croton-on-Hudson, NY
• John “Jack” Mohan – Port Jervis, NY
• Asa Nelson – New Windsor, NY
• Benjamin Wilkins – Byron, NY

The public is invited to watch the final round at LEGOLAND New York on Aug. 14. Join us as we crown the new Model Builder for the Park! The event can be experienced by purchasing a same day visit to the Park.

LEGOLAND New York Resort is searching for its next Model Builder to join its team, giving LEGO enthusiasts the chance to secure the ultimate dream job. This hands-on role will ultimately be responsible for more than 15,000 LEGO models made from more than 30 million bricks, showcasing their creativity and imagination on a full-time basis.

Laramie Coffey, of Stillwater, Okla., has joined Eastern States Exposition’s Agriculture department as the organization’s Livestock Program Coordinator. Coffey is responsible for coordinating all competitive livestock events during The Big E and year-round shows; developing and maintaining strong working relationships with breed representatives, regional and national associations, and other agricultural fairs; as well as supporting livestock show facilitation, initiatives and educational programming.

Coffey obtained a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources from Oklahoma State University in May 2024. She graduated with a major in Agricultural Communications and minor in Agribusiness.

She has held livestock internship positions with several agricultural organizations, including Oklahoma Youth Expo, Cattlemen’s Congress and the New Mexico State Fair. In addition to those experiences, Coffey was a Youth Activities intern at the American Hereford Association, where she assisted the youth department in planning and executing summer activities for more than 800 junior members.

Prior to joining the Exposition’s fulltime staff, Coffey initially came on board as Livestock Program Assistant in a contractor role following her graduation. She most recently worked with the Oklahoma 4-H Foundation as a Communications Student Worker, preparing correspondence mailings, designing social media graphics tailored to the foundation, creating digital content, and assisting in creating and printing various marketing materials.

“I am thrilled to join the team at Eastern States Exposition as the Livestock Program Coordinator,” said Coffey. “With a background in livestock show management and valuable experience from previous internships, I am eager to apply my skills, deepen my knowledge of livestock shows in New England, and meet the dedicated exhibitors who make these events so special,” she added.

The Big E, produced by Eastern States Exposition, takes place Sept. 13-29 in West Springfield, Mass. The Big E is the seventh largest fair in North America and is recognized as the largest event on the East Coast by attendance numbers. Advance discount tickets are now available at TheBigE.com and select Rocky’s Ace Hardware locations. Visit the website for a full schedule of events and check out the fairtime excitement on social media.