Orlando, Friday, 29 August 2025.
At IAAPA Expo Orlando last November, leading manufacturers coordinated unveilings that point to a strategic shift: attractions are being sold as integrated ecosystems rather than standalone hardware. Highlights for operators and procurement teams included Vekoma’s teaser for a new coaster and a slate of 2025 openings, Accesso’s Passport guest‑management updates, Dronisos expanding drone‑show integrations with Disneyland Paris, Triotech and Seven announcing a multi‑site media‑based attraction using major IP, Reverchon revealing a next‑generation flume and adaptable restraint systems, and Brogent outlining 2025 partnerships plus a lower‑cost flying‑theatre option. Collectively these launches signal tighter coupling of ride mechanics, media content, guest‑flow software and aerial spectacle—an evolution that will affect capital planning, OPEX forecasts, capacity modelling and procurement timelines. The most intriguing takeaway: suppliers are packaging combined tech, IP and operations tools, so buying decisions now require earlier cross‑disciplinary coordination across design, IT and finance to protect throughput and margin and long-term resilience.
Why Triotech’s ‘Into the Deep’ matters for ecosystem thinking
Triotech’s Into the Deep — described by the company as its largest-ever interactive dark ride and slated for Six Flags Qiddiya City — illustrates the new industry logic: attractions are being conceived as integrated ecosystems that combine ride mechanics, large-format media, IP-driven narratives and guest-management touchpoints rather than as discrete hardware purchases [3]. This project’s scale (more than 2,400 m²) and its turnkey positioning make it a useful case study for operators weighing capital allocation and lifecycle operating costs, because the supplier is selling a packaged experience that implicates creative, technical and operational teams simultaneously [3].
Triotech pairs a coaster-free dark-ride footprint with dense media and interactive systems: Into the Deep is presented as a large-scale interactive dark ride that embeds shooting/interaction hardware alongside projection and show-control systems to create branching guest outcomes across multiple scenes [3]. That architecture forces early coordination of AV rack space, network topology, show-control PLCs and the vehicle or platform kinematics so latency, sync and throughput targets are met — design dependencies operators must budget for in OPEX and IT planning cycles [3][GPT].
Theming and IP: why multi-site rollouts change procurement
Triotech’s announcement that the new project will use a popular IP and open at multiple Saudi locations shows the financial logic behind multi-site IP licensing: standardised media assets reduce per-installation creative cost while driving the supplier’s ability to amortise complex software and media pipelines across sites [3]. For procurement teams this shifts negotiations from component-level specs to bundled agreements covering content licences, update cadence and cross-site support — items that directly affect lifecycle forecasts and capacity modelling [3][GPT].
Operational implications: throughput, maintenance and staff training
Because Into the Deep emphasises interactivity across many scenes, capacity modelling needs to account for non-linear dwell times: riders may spend variable seconds in media-heavy segments interacting with targets or branching storylines, which complicates hourly throughput calculations and staffing models [3][GPT]. Operators should therefore require test-run throughput data, maintenance schedules for interaction hardware and a supplier commitment for spares and software updates during contract negotiations — practices that are becoming standard as suppliers sell systems-plus-content rather than raw hardware [3][1][5].
Engineering innovations and retrofit potential
Triotech’s turnkey approach for Into the Deep suggests modular show-control architecture and standardised media servers so identical shows can run across sites with limited rework [3]. That modularity mirrors other manufacturer trends shown at IAAPA: Reverchon promoted adaptable restraints and a next-generation flume that emphasise retrofit flexibility, and Vekoma teased a novel coaster design and multiple 2025 openings — all pointing to suppliers engineering for easier upgrades and cross-product integrations [5][1].
Financial strategy: capital versus bundled contracting
When a supplier bundles mechanics, media and operations tools, capital procurement transforms: owners face larger single-vendor contracts that may include content licences and ongoing software support, requiring earlier involvement from finance, legal and IT teams to assess total cost of ownership and renewal clauses [3][2][4]. Brogent’s announcement of a lower-cost flying-theatre option (s-Ride) at IAAPA demonstrates market segmentation toward operators with constrained capital, showing how vendors are packaging tiers to capture both high-end and value-minded buyers [2][4].
Integration risks and recommended procurement safeguards
Integrated systems raise three procurement risks operators must mitigate: supplier lock-in through exclusive media formats or backend services; under-specified network and IT requirements that create hidden OPEX; and mismatched update cadences between mechanical maintenance and media/software releases. Mitigation steps include contractual SLAs for software uptime, explicitly defined interface control documents (ICDs) for show-control and IT, and staged acceptance tests that validate throughput under realistic guest behaviours — practices increasingly advised as manufacturers shift to ecosystem sales [3][5][1][GPT].
Timing and next steps for operators
Operators planning comparable projects should move from siloed RFQ timelines to parallel review cycles that include creative, IT and finance teams before awarding contracts, because IAAPA exhibitors signalled that many 2025 openings and product launches will come as bundled offers that require cross-disciplinary integration early in the procurement timeline [1][3][2][5]. Attendees at the Expo also saw suppliers emphasise retrofit-ready products and lower-cost turnkey models, giving operators multiple strategic paths depending on capital availability and appetite for operational complexity [1][2][5][4].
Bronnen