Orlando, Sunday, 16 November 2025.
At IAAPA Expo 2025 in Orlando, held Friday to Sunday, major suppliers — Brogent, Triotech (with Seven), Attractions.io, Alterface, Reverchon and Embed — unveiled a coordinated wave of products targeting capacity, safety and guest experience. Highlights included next‑generation water flume engineering and novel rider restraints from Reverchon, media‑driven dark rides and modular, faster‑to‑deploy attraction concepts from Triotech and Alterface, and an AI‑driven guest assistant for operational personalization and queue management. Embed showcased cashless and analytics upgrades that materially boost pre‑visit reloads and revenue. For operators and procurement teams, the most intriguing development is the clear pivot to integrated hardware‑software offerings and modular attraction packages designed to shorten timelines and reduce capital strain. That strategy, coupled with renewed investment in ride‑safety engineering, has immediate implications for master planning, lifecycle maintenance budgets and supplier selection—forcing a rethink of procurement criteria away from standalone rides toward interoperable, service‑based partnerships and international expansion implications.
Reverchon’s next‑generation Flume and rethought restraints: the technical heart of IAAPA 2025
Reverchon used its IAAPA stand to foreground a technically ambitious next‑generation Flume ride and a new individual safety‑bar restraint system, positioning the package as a combined vehicle‑and‑safety upgrade rather than a simple re‑theme or add‑on [4]. The company’s communication to buyers emphasised adaptability: the restraint concept is described as capable of fitting earlier car designs as well as new prototypes, signalling a retrofit pathway for operators who must extend the life of existing assets while meeting tighter safety expectations [4]. This pairing—water‑raft engineering and modular restraint hardware—changes procurement conversations by turning what was previously an isolated ride purchase into a systems purchase that affects maintenance regimes, spare‑parts inventories and ride‑downtime planning [4].
What ‘next‑generation’ means in mechanical terms
Reverchon’s announcement framed the Flume as an evolution in ride dynamics and control: improvements comprise redesigned boat/chassis interfaces, refined center‑of‑gravity tuning for spinning and non‑spinning elements, and more flexible restraint anchor points to support the new individual bars—engineering changes intended to moderate lateral accelerations and reduce occupant displacement during splash and turn sequences [4]. Those design goals reflect an operational imperative: allowing more precise control of rider kinematics so parks can preserve throughput while tightening safety envelopes and lowering cycle‑time variability caused by manual restraint adjustments [4].
Restraint innovation: ergonomics, retrofits and regulatory implications
The new individual safety bars were presented as both ergonomic and adaptable: by moving from fixed bench or lap systems to independently secured bars, Reverchon claims greater accommodation across body sizes and easier verification by attendants during loading—features that can materially affect dispatch time and compliance reporting [4]. The retrofit potential means parks with older Reverchon flumes can avoid full‑car replacement, but must plan for updated anchor plates and inspection schedules; this influences lifecycle budgets and may require updated acceptance tests during annual inspections [4][alert! ‘Regulatory acceptance timelines vary by jurisdiction and the source does not detail certification processes for each market’].
Engineering choices that reduce capital strain and construction time
Reverchon’s approach at the show mirrors a broader supplier trend toward modular attraction kits that simplify on‑site assembly and shorten install windows—a theme echoed by other exhibitors at IAAPA who presented modular or faster‑to‑deploy attraction concepts [2][3][1]. For operators, embracing modular ride components and retrofitable safety systems can reduce initial capital outlay and civil‑works complexity, but shifts more lifecycle risk and supply‑chain dependence onto vendors, changing procurement evaluation criteria toward longer service agreements and interoperability clauses [2][3][1].
Cross‑pollination with media and interactivity: where flumes meet immersive content
While Reverchon focused on mechanical and restraint engineering, other IAAPA exhibitors demonstrated the industry’s complementary direction: media‑driven dark rides, interactive stations and modular theatre systems that allow operators to pair hardware with content packages. Triotech highlighted large‑scale interactive dark rides and multi‑location IP projects, and Alterface showcased a compact Imagination Playground with four interactive stations intended to be dropped into varied footprints—both point to a market where hardware is sold as a content‑ready platform rather than a standalone ride [2][3]. For water rides, this suggests future Flume installations could incorporate synchronized media elements, show scenes or interactive effects that require tighter timing and electronic integration between the ride PLCs and show control systems—requirements that alter cabling plans and maintenance skillsets on the operator side [2][3].
Operational and business ramifications: throughput, cashless revenue and service models
Operators at IAAPA were particularly attentive to how integrated solutions affect throughput and on‑site revenue. Embed presented cashless and analytics upgrades showing a substantial uplift in average reload value when guests use mobile wallets: Embed reported an increase from US$9.90 (cash) to US$50.57 (mobile wallet) in average reload amounts among its customers—data that not only demonstrates higher per‑guest spend but also alters guest flow patterns because 60% of reloads were reported to occur pre‑visit [5]. To quantify the magnitude of that reported change, the percentage increase in average reload value using only Embed’s numbers is 410.808 [5]. Those financial dynamics feed directly into how parks model return on investment for new attractions: higher pre‑visit monetisation can justify investments in premium, shorter‑run experiences that prioritise per‑guest spend over raw hourly capacity [5].
IAAPA signalling: coordinated launches and modular product strategies
The coordinated wave of supplier announcements at IAAPA—Brogent presenting a budget‑friendly s‑Ride flying theatre platform, Triotech and partner Seven unveiling large‑scale interactive projects, Alterface demonstrating the Imagination Playground hands‑on, and Reverchon revealing both the Flume and new restraints—reveals a clear pivot toward hardware‑software bundles and modular packages designed for faster deployment and international roll‑outs [1][2][3][4]. These strategies respond to rising capital costs and compressed construction timelines by offering operators proven, integrable modules that reduce bespoke engineering and civil‑works uncertainty [1][2][3][4].
What procurement teams must change in practice
Procurement needs to shift from a purchase‑centric checklist to contractual frameworks that emphasise: interoperability (APIs and show control interfaces), lifecycle service (SaaS and parts availability), retrofit pathways (clear scope for anchor and interface upgrades), and shared‑risk scheduling (supplier‑backed install guarantees). The presence of companies such as Brogent, Triotech and Alterface emphasising modular, content‑ready platforms at IAAPA underlines that future supplier selection will increasingly weigh software roadmaps and service packages on par with mechanical specifications [1][2][3].
On‑site logistics and auxiliary systems highlighted at the show
Beyond rides themselves, suppliers exhibited operational enablers relevant to Flume deployments: cashless systems and analytics from Embed that change pre‑visit purchase behaviour [5], and mobility/cargo solutions for patrol and logistic teams—such as Trikke’s three‑wheel electric patrol and cargo vehicles—that reduce reliance on on‑foot staff and speed response times across large sites [7]. These supporting technologies reduce non‑ride bottlenecks (guest services, first aid, operations), a necessary complement when introducing higher‑throughput or more complex attractions requiring tight dispatch cadence and rapid incident response [5][7].
Market context and where the Flume fits in a modular future
Reverchon’s Flume plus restraint package exemplifies a broader industry recalibration visible across IAAPA: suppliers are combining mechanical innovation with retrofitability and software‑enabled services to give operators options that fit constrained capital and aggressive opening schedules [4][2][3][1]. This pattern suggests that mid‑to‑large parks planning master plans must now budget for integrated supplier ecosystems—hardware, content, cashless and mobility support—rather than isolated attractions, because the latter approach increases integration risk and lifecycle TCO (total cost of ownership) [4][2][3][5].
Bronnen