IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth
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IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth is a fireworks show, performed nightly at Epcot at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. It premiered on October 1, 1999 as IllumiNations 2000: Reflections of Earth as part of the Walt Disney World Millennium Celebration; it was so successful that after the celebration ended the 2000 was dropped from the name and the show was continued. It was previously presented by General Electric, and now Siemens, at a cost of approximately US$17,000 per show.

Show structure
Before the show begins, a 30-minute music loop is played around the lagoon. The loop contains 6 songs:

• Jalan Kopo by Sabbah Habas Mustaph
• Falling through a Cloud by Uttara-Kuru
• Busindre Reel by Hevia
• Gaviotes by Hevia
• Tula by Cusco
• Our Life by Uttara-Kuru

The lights dim, and torches are lit around the lagoon. The beginning of the show is narrated by Jim Cummings, who says: "Good evening, on behalf of Walt Disney World, the place where dreams come true, we welcome all of you to Epcot and World Showcase. We've gathered here tonight, around the fire, as people of all lands have gathered for thousands and thousands of years before us; to share the light and to share a story. An amazing story, as old as time itself but still being written. And though each of us has our own individual stories to tell, a true adventure emerges when we bring them all together as one. We hope you enjoy our story tonight; Reflections of Earth." IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth is split into three acts:

Act I: Chaos. Chaos represents the creation of the planet Earth from a cosmic event. (This part uses the Inferno Barge.)
Act II: Order. The Earth Globe appears. As the Earth cools, it changes from hot white to red to blue. Images appear on the Globe of countries, famous places, objects, and people. Chaos turns to Order.
Act III: Meaning. The Earth Globe opens revealing a torch and 1,000 white fireworks are ignited. The final loud fireworks explode with a white flash and end with a loud crackle.
The post-show announcement is, Thank you for joining us for this celebration of life. All of us at Epcot have enjoyed hosting you at World Showcase Lagoon, and we hope you have enjoyed Reflections of Earth, presented by Sylvania, a Siemens Company. Thank you. The song "Promise" plays directly after this, followed by the theme song for Disney's "What will you Celebrate?" promotion called Celebrate You which is then followed by the Tapestry of Nations medley as guests exit the park. As the music plays, the continents are laser-projected onto Spaceship Earth, making it appear as a spinning globe.

Show Technologies

The Earth Globe

The centerpiece of the show is the Earth Globe, a 350,000 pound globe housed on a barge. The world's first spherical video display system, the globe is wrapped in 15,600 pixels, each consisting of 12 light-emitting diodes. The Earth Globe starts its journey from the edge of the World Showcase Lagoon, a 40-acre (160,000 m2) man-made lake in Epcot, before anchoring itself in the middle of the lagoon. The Globe is 28 feet (8.5 m) in diameter and sits on top of a 10-foot pedestal. It contains 258 FlashWorks mini strobe lights (43 per petal) and is controlled by 6 computer processors. This is the only barge in the show with a driver onboard. The Earth Globe is considered to be the most complicated piece of show action equipment ever made by Disney.

During the first 2 minutes of the show, the Earth globe's LED screens are off. It is brown in color, but invisible in the thick black of the night. The Earth Globe's LED screens turn on in part 2 of the show, showing imagery of the natural world and iconic man-made structures. Slightly fewer than 300 pictures appear on the Globe's spherical video screen during the show. Century III, an Orlando area film company, edited the video portion of the show. The pictures came from the stock libraries of Image Bank, National Geographic and Archive Films, some custom-shot live footage, and a single 3-D graphic animation shot. Jerold Kaplan of Walt Disney Imagineering designed and engineered the Earth Globe and supporting barge. At the end of the show, the Earth Globe blossoms like a flower, revealing a flame torch that rises high above the lagoon. When the show ends, the fires on 19 of the torches keep burning, but the Earth Globe's torch is put out.

The LED video display is run by a Pentium II server running Microsoft Windows 95/8 using a Serial ATA drive. There are two servers constantly running the same programs at the same time for fail-safe support. If one goes down, they can instantly switch to the other server which presumably will still be running. The video control software, written by Brian Seekford (now CEO of Seekford Solutions, Inc.) for Hitech Electronic Displays of Clearwater, Florida, communicates with on-board PLCs using two interfaces. The serial interface is used to receive the 4 character command codes separated by spaces to signify the end of each command. The NIDAQ (National Instrument Data Acquisition) card is used to provide status back to the PLCs. There are 8 optically isolated status channels. One channel is used to provide a heartbeat signal to tell the PLC that the software is on and functioning. The software was called QuickCon Multimedia Presenter. It was originally so named because it used the Quicktime engine, but was modified to use the Windows Media Player engine. The file formats are uncompressed AVIs passed through a masking filter to put the pixels in the spots for the countries.

In the summer of 2008, the show ran a shortened, modified version in order for the Earth Globe to be refurbished. The refurbishment was to install a new LED video system, improving the clarity of the video. The content of the video was not changed.

The Inferno Barge

The Inferno Barge is a liquid-propane system that sends balls of fire soaring 40 to 60 feet (18 m) into the air and on to the surface of the lagoon from 37 nozzles. 400 gallons of propane are used every night for the show. After the show ends, around 10:30 PM, the "Inferno Barge Burn Off" takes place where any extra propane is blown out and burned off safely. On nights when Epcot is open late, this action is visible to guests. It is usually accompanied by an announcement that reminds viewers that the blow off is intentional and controlled, so as not to panic guests thinking that the explosion was a bomb or similar device. This used to be the case, but is now (2008) done during the show on the last inferno barge cue, to save time in de-rig.

The Inferno Barge also houses an air-launch fireworks system. On September 19, 2005, the Inferno Barge was pulled from the show due to the explosion of a firework still inside its mortar tube earlier in the day. The structure took heavy damage; fortunately, no one was injured. The Inferno Barge returned to service on February 1, 2006 without the air launch system on the barge, although the cause of the accident was the firework shell itself and not the air launch system. The shells previously fired from this barge were moved and fired from the center slip. In February 2009 the inferno barge was pulled from the show and underwent a scheduled rehab. It returned on March 10, 2009.

Fireworks

Walt Disney Entertainment created a new way of launching fireworks by using a compressed air system, instead of black powder, which pollutes more and causes the trail of an igniting firework shell to be seen. The compressed air technology allows for explosions to be timed perfectly with the music and for the desired height of the shell to be reached. Not all the shells use the ALF (Air Launch Fireworks) technology. Only the two opening shots of the show are ALF. A timing chip is inserted into the shell and can be programmed to ignite and explode with precision. Eric Tucker, an award winning pyrotechnics designer, was brought on board to design new fireworks effects. Eric and show director Don Dorsey traveled to China, the birthplace of fireworks, to meet with fireworks manufacturers to create these new dazzling effects. 1,105 firework shells are ignited during each show and are launched from 750 mortar tubes and 56 firing modules at 34 locations around the lagoon.

Lasers

Lasers are used in the show, emanating from the American Adventure, Canada and Mexico pavilions. The FAA requires the user of any outdoor laser system to obtain advance permission and to contact local airports prior to use. Consequently, Orlando International Airport is notified every night when the show begins so that air traffic can be advised and directed accordingly.

Moving Lights

A ring of programmable moving searchlights called Syncrolites are used. The lights have color scrollers and dousers that are gelled with Rosco 79 Bright Blue, and Lee 125 Mauve.

Fountain Barges

There are four fountain barges (a.k.a. "Maxi Barges") that have 40 water nozzles per barge. Each barge pumps approximately 4,000 gallons of water per minute. These barges carry pyrotechnics as well.

Torches

Nineteen torches are spaced surrounding the World Showcase Lagoon, representing the nineteen centuries that have passed in the Common Era. A twentieth torch is lit at the end of the show when the Earth Globe blossoms like a flower. Each torch reaches 27 feet (8.2 m) above the lagoon's surface.

Control Booth

The control booth for the show is above the Mexico Pavilion. It houses emergency stop controls, and communication controls to each barge using wireless ethernet, and headset communication to the Earth barge driver. The show is controlled from the boat pontoon nearest the shop. All barges are wired together with multi-core cables, and nothing is left to chance like using wireless as stated above.

Soundtrack

Gavin Greenaway is the composer for IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth. Greenaway's colleague Hans Zimmer, composer of The Lion King, asked Greenaway to take on the project because he was busy with other projects. Zimmer collaborated with Greenaway in the beginning of the process. The score from "Reflections of Earth" was used for ABC 2000 Today, ABC Television's 25 hour-long program that followed the beginning of 2000 around the globe on December 31, 1999/January 1, 2000. ABC also used a modified version for their program ABC 2002 on December 31, 2001/January 1, 2002. Finally, ABC News used a version of the theme for their televised election coverage throughout 2000 and 2004. Most of the score (excluding the Chaos section and the start of We Go On) was used in a laser light show at the 2005 National Scout Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill. The Chaos section was used in the October 4, 2008 fireworks celebration of the 250th anniversary of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ABC also used the music during coverage of the Presidential Inauguration of Barack Obama on January 20, 2009.

Narration

Jim Cummings (the voice of Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Darkwing Duck as well as other characters) provides the narration at the beginning of Reflections of Earth:

Good evening. On behalf of Walt Disney World, the place where dreams come true, we welcome all of you to Epcot and World Showcase. We've gathered here tonight around the fire as people of all lands have gathered for thousands and thousands of years before us... to share the light... and to share a story. An amazing story as old as time itself, but still being written. And though each of us has our own individual stories to tell, a true adventure emerges when we bring them all together as one. We hope you enjoy our story tonight: Reflections of Earth.

The original narration substituted the first two sentences with "Good evening and welcome" but was changed for the Year of a Million Dreams.

Mary Thompson Hunt is the female voice that does the pre-show announcements stating that the show will be starting shortly.

Christmas Version

Starting in 2004 during the holiday season, the finale from Holiday lllumiNations is played after "We Go On". A female announcer says, "And now, at this special time, as we embrace a promise of a new year, we would like to offer one final message." The song "Let There Be Peace On Earth" is played as the Earth Barge closes. After that, there were messages of "Peace on Earth, good will to men" in several languages. When a language is spoken, the pavilion lights up. Walter Cronkite then says, "During this glorious time of year there is one message that rings out around the world in every language. Peace on earth. Good will to men is a wish to hold in our hearts throughout each passing year. A gift of immeasurable value. A treasure being handed down with care, from generation to generation. And so our holiday wish is that everyone, everywhere share in the spirit of the season. Peace on earth, good will to men." The song continues with an uninterrupted firework display, ending with a loud explosion of fireworks. This tag launches just as many pyrotechnic devices as IllumiNations: Reflections of Earth does.

The article text above is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Illuminations: Reflections of Earth".

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