X-Seat Press Release
March 21st, 2008

Maurer Sohne, the manufacturer of Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit, now has a link on their front page showing off the Multimedia X-Seat that will be used for the attraction. While the link takes you to an old press release and makes no mention of the ride, it does give some good information about what we can expect.

Maurer’s X-Car now equipped with a new multi-media seat

MUNICH (September 2007) – An integrated sound system and a video camera – these are the new features added to the spectacular X-Seat of Munich roller coaster producer Maurer Soehne. Maurer Soehne’s patented X-Car has been awarded several prizes for letting riders experience the fun of inversions and uplifting forces without disturbing shoulder or additional leg harnesses.

Core of the X-Car is the X-Seat, the innovative seat safety system, which also wins through its excellent ergonomics, its first class design and extraordinary quality. The amusement ride professionals based in Munich do not rest on their laurels but are adding new features to their extraordinary seat system: the multi-media version of the X-Set owns an integrated sound system and a built in video camera.

The multi-media X-Seat’s back rest has been extended to reach above the height of the shoulders and is equipped with stereo loudspeakers. The passengers may individually choose his favoured music piece and adjust the volume by using the control panel installed in the hip bar.

The video option of the multi-media X-Seat has a camera integrated into the reverse of the seat’s back rest. It takes an on-ride video of the passenger. This high-value extra produces a special kick and creates an unforgettable experience. When built in together, the sound and the video system clearly increase the attraction of each and every X-Car Coaster.

LIGHTS . . . CAMERA . . . COASTER!
Universal Orlando Resort Announces Brand-New Roller Coaster
That Features Total Immersion Entertainment and Puts Guests In The Director’s Seat

ORLANDO, FL (March 19, 2008) – Adrenaline pumping and music thumping, you find yourself heading straight toward the sky.  Suddenly, you are doing 65 mph, 17 stories over Universal Studios.  Gasping with excitement, you rock out to a song you picked before strapping in.  And, it’s all on video.  Once the adventure is over, you edit the video to send to your friends.   

This is true high-tech, customizable, multi-sensory entertainment.  Scheduled to open in spring 2009, Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit will stake its claim as the most technologically advanced roller coaster in the world.  The Universal Creative team is combining audio and special effects engineering, sophisticated on- and off-board video and one-of-a-kind guest personalization to create a roller coaster experience unlike any other.   

“This is the perfect intersection of the digital age and theme park entertainment,” said Mark Woodbury, President of Creative for Universal Parks & Resorts.  “Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit blends roller coaster intensity and guest interaction in a way where no two experiences will be the same.” 

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit touts six near-miss moments and first-ever thrills including a record-breaking loop.  Ride vehicles feature the brightest and most innovative color changing LEDs in the world.  High-energy visual displays fill the queue line.  With up to four ride vehicles on the tracks at any given time, and with concert lighting and special effects mixed in, Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit will be a true high-intensity, multi-sensory experience that is unmatched. 

Guests can customize their ride experience by choosing what song will play while they’re on the roller coaster.  LED boards in the queue lines will display song options from five genres (classic rock, rap, country, pop and disco).  Once on-board, guests can choose their song or let the coaster’s digital sound system choose for them.  When the ride is over, guests will be able to customize footage from their experience and compile it into a take-home music video. 

Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit will be located near the Jimmy Neutron attraction traveling the southern perimeter of the Universal Studios theme park, over to the CityWalk lagoon and back. 

About Universal Orlando Resort
Universal Orlando Resort has created some of the world’s most innovative theme park attractions based on pop culture’s most compelling films and stories.  Guests experience two exciting theme parks – Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure as well as Universal CityWalk, a 30-acre restaurant, shopping and nighttime entertainment complex; and three magnificently themed on-site Loews hotels – the Portofino Bay Hotel, Hard Rock Hotel and the Royal Pacific Resort.  Flagship experiences featured in the theme parks include “Shrek 4-D,” “Seuss Landing,” “Jurassic Park River Adventure” and “The Amazing Adventures of Spider-Man.”  More information is available at www.universalorlando.com.

From the Orlando Sentinel
March 19th, 2008

Universal Studios is about to build a new signature ride: a high-tech roller coaster full of lights, music, loops, twists and turns — and a quick trip over the heads of people walking through the nearby CityWalk entertainment district.

The Hollywood Rip, Ride, Rockit is planned to be big, bright and brash enough to become the new visual symbol for the theme park when the coaster opens in about a year. Universal Orlando officials said Tuesday that it also will feature enough digital technology to appeal directly to what they refer to as the "YouTube culture."

Universal Orlando officials said the coaster will rise 167feet into the air and feature numerous loops and corkscrew turns. Rockit — the first big, outdoor thrill ride for Universal Studios — is set to open in spring 2009.

It will provide another link in Universal Orlando's recent chain of big new attractions. An overhauled version of an old ride, renamed Disaster!, opened in January. The Simpsons Ride, a 3-D fantasy-simulation ride replacing the old Back to the Future, is set to open in a few weeks. And several still-undisclosed attractions are to open together in late 2009 as the "Wizarding World of Harry Potter" in Universal Studios' sister park, Islands of Adventure.

The flurry of activity follows a dormant period of nearly three years during which Universal offered no big new rides.

Although it will be the tallest coaster in Central Florida and one of the fastest in the state, the Rockit will be nowhere near the tallest or fastest in the amusement-park business. But like the Incredible Hulk in Islands of Adventure and several other Florida coasters, it aims to use innovation and novelty to make up for any lack of record-setting height or speed.

"We like to go for the best," said Mark Woodbury, president of Universal Parks & Resorts' creative division — though Universal would not comment on the project's cost.

Rockit will offer high-energy video displays in the waiting line; high-intensity, color-changing LED lighting and digital audio and video effects during the ride; and various engineering innovations.

And unlike any of the other big roller coasters in Central Florida, Rockit will loom over its park's entrance and beyond. Universal plans to squeeze its track between the Jimmy Neutron's Nicktoon Blast ride and the Sharp Aquos Theatre, which houses the Blue Man Group show. From there the track would run along the boundary between Universal Studios and Universal's sound stages, then rise over the fence to twist over the sidewalks of CityWalk, outside the theme park — a brightly lit, scream-filled advertisement for the park.

"We like to look at this as taking the thrill ride to a whole new level, both physically and figuratively," Woodbury said. "It's iconographic in its position. It's going to do some things no ride has done before. And it combines entry into the digital age with the ability to customize and personalize the ride for each rider."

That particular digital-age feature will allow riders to select their own music and create a music video of the ride. Afterward, a rider could download the video and use it on personal Web pages or video-sharing sites.

But the ride — which Universal officials had referred to for months by the code name "Project Rumble" — still draws principally on the basic thrills of a roller coaster: speed, height, loops, corkscrews, twists, turns and drops. Universal officials said Rockit would have several signature moves and a record-breaking loop, though they would not elaborate. The artist's rendering that they released shows the track climbing a 167-foot-tall peak, then corkscrewing downward, twisting eight times.

The ride's Internet-based theme digresses a bit from Universal Studios' original theme, which was all about "riding" the movies. But Universal officials insisted that the coaster will justify the inclusion of the word "Hollywood" in its name — a term also adopted earlier this year by Walt Disney World when it renamed its rival movie-studio theme park.

"We've always fancied ourselves as embedded into the Hollywood culture with Universal. It's part of our essence. It's a natural for us," Woodbury said. "The name is very specific to the attributes of the ride. It combines creating your own movie, to customize it; that's the 'rip' part. You can download it to your personal site. And you ride it, of course. You have the 'Rockit' part, which combines the thrill and the music.