Orlando, Florida :: November 15, 2011

The Themed Entertainment Association (TEA) presented its annual Award of Outstanding Achievement today to Resorts World Sentosa, the $4.9 billion Integrated Resort in Singapore, for their Crane Dance Attraction. The award was announced by Gene Jeffers, Executive Director, at the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions Expo. For the themed entertainment industry,the TEA award is analogous to the Academy Award for “Best Picture”.
In 2007, Chairman of The Genting Group, which owns Resorts World Sentosa, Tan Sri Lim Kok Thay, commissioned four-time Emmy Award-winning designer, Jeremy Railton and his creative team at the Entertainment Design Corporation (EDC), to create a dynamic work of public art that would embody the spirit of the region’s most exciting resort destination. Railton envisioned giant cranes as the perfect icon for the Resorts World Sentosa brand and worked closely with Chairman Lim and Resorts World Sentosa’s Chief Operating Officer, Tan Hee Teck, throughout the initial development phase.
Weighing in at 160 tons, the Cranes stand 90-feet tall, making them the largest animatronic creatures in the world. Located on a man-made island in the harbor between Resorts World Sentosa and the Singapore mainland, the Cranes “dance”, flap their wings and, via digital artistry, turn into ‘real’ Cranes that bless Resorts World Sentosa’s guests with love, long-life and good fortune.
The Crane Dance is a technical marvel that crosses cultural boundaries and amazes guests of all ages. The wings of each Crane spray thousands of gallons of sea water up to 40-feet in pulsing arcs, thus creating the Crane’s enormous flapping wings. Enhanced with pyrotechnics, theatrical lighting, and audio effects, the Crane Dance is an Animatronic Spectacle that references traditional Crane movements in a jubilant show inspired by an archetypal myth: the power of love to infuse life into inanimate form.

Additional character and personality are expressed via the crane’s specially designed digital eyes: each 6-foot diameter eye can blink, squint, and react to movements, while expressing wonder, amazement, and affection. Two large 26 foot by 26 foot digital screens located on each crane, show video images, illustrating the inner workings of each crane and their affection for the other.
Three years in the making, the project required over 800,000 man hours and employed an international team of themed entertainment experts from 10 countries. Thanks to the confidence and support of Resorts World Sentosa, the “Good Luck Birds” survived the economic downturn of ’08 without “losing any feathers,” while “construction cranes” in other themed entertainment venues all over the world became idle.

Each Dancing Crane has six axes of movement and requires 1,500 HP, equivalent to the power of a small diesel locomotive and is integrated with an ultra-sophisticated computer and motion control system similar to those used on Japanese bullet trains. The control system is so precise that the two independent screens can move into place and become one contiguous screen as the Cranes “project” their love to the audience.
In granting the Award of Outstanding Achievement to EDC, the TEA Award Committee cited “the careful blending of design, engineering and advanced technologies that make this production truly unique and exemplary. The imaginative use of modern industrial and mechanical systems conveys emotion and captivates all who stop to watch this gigantic spectacle. But these technical wonders are virtually invisible to the audience as they are captivated by the magic and grace of The Crane Dance, and the love these robotic figures express.”