In early 2012, Weigl became a Vendor Partner with CEC Entertainment Inc., to help evolve one of the most iconic animatronic venues in the world, the Chuck E. Cheese stage show.
“Circles of Light” was introduced to Chuck E. Cheese stores in the Spring of 2012.
With over 550 restaurants in the US and rapid expansion both domestically and internationally, CEC was planning for the fifth iteration of the main stage attraction when Weigl was asked to engage in the conversation. A major priority was to evolve the technology backbone to allow for more advanced programming and control opportunities.
Weigl hardware is controllable by a variety of custom architectures.
Dubbed Circles of Light, the new stage show includes many new elements designed to further engage the guests and highlight the Chuck character. Features include; a massive HD video wall, enhanced theater-quality lighting, and touch-sensitive LED-backlit wall panels. The new stage is fabricated by Corman and Associates, and continues to use the famous Chuck character produced by the California-based animatronic’s studio, Garner Holt Productions.
Garner Holt Productions has been building Chuck as an animatronic figure since 1998 when the Studio “C” show was introduced. They have built over 450 animatronic shows for locations around the world, in addition to some unique concepts and specialty projects. Company founder Garner Holt says, “CEC Entertainment has been one of GHP’s biggest clients for fifteen years. CEC has been wonderful to work with—it’s a very personal type of relationship, and I am grateful to have them as clients.”
Fabrication of animatronic Chuck E. Cheese characters by Garner Holt Productions.
Weigl worked closely with Garner Holt Productions, Corman and other vendor partners to bring the show control components into the discussion early. This early involvement allowed the stage to take advantage of guest interaction opportunities that were previously cost prohibitive. Together we planned not only for the current show, but future upgrades that can be seamlessly integrated to further evolve the experience down the road. Weigl’s President Mike Blasko says, “Our hardware is extremely flexible and we wanted to put an architecture in place that would be responsive to further development.”
Weigl was tasked to develop a custom version of our ProCommander with an integrated digital media player from CE Labs and a custom Pro I/O to interface with legacy CEC equipment. The ProCommander LTC (Linear Time Code), which fits in a 1U rack space, replaced six large relay panels, a wall sided control panel and dramatically reduced the cabling needs. All of which greatly reduced the installation and maintenance burden for technicians across the country.
A customized edition of the ProCommander LTC features extra DMX and audio outputs required for the CEC needs.
Recently, Weigl has replaced the aging ProCommander® LTC in the product line with the ProCommander® VX, adding dual fully interactive video timelines and digital signage abilities, introducing the ability to use our show control functions to move & fade content around the screen in real-time, while in sync with the physical assets controlled by the same unit.
Additionally, Weigl has expanded their software solutions to take advantage of these new integrated media features, allowing a full mixed media show to be produced from a single content timeline:
Currently all Circles of Light shows and recently renovated restaurants are being powered by Weigl technologies. Scheduled renovations and new store openings are steadily increasing, as well as international expansion.