Posted on behalf of Cindy Cheung and John Werner http://www.shogunvulcan.com/BTBW.pdf

26th July 2013
“BORN TO BE WILD” – L’International Feux de Loto-Quebec 2013

It has been almost a month and not a day passes that we don't re-live what happened the night of our show in Montreal. As a first time participant, the thought never came to our minds to keep the show simple, as we were adamant that we would fill the Laronde ramps with lots of fireworks. We achieved that goal with enormous help from the Laronde crew. We would never have finished setting up all the poles, trusses and pontoons on time without their help. We had a total of 44 locations spread out from Ramp 1 to Ramp 5, to which we also added Ramp 4P, 6 and 2T. The weather was also on our side with almost no rain throughout those 5 days.

A firing system is integral to choreographed displays. No matter if you have the best design, the best products, the best soundtrack, the best site, the best crew and the best weather, a choreographed fireworks show is 100% reliant on a fully functioning computer firing system. We have used Galaxis in several competitions and have never had any serious problems. Once you program the system correctly, it basically plugs and plays.

We rented all the equipment from Galaxis in Germany who programmed the devices for us. They have informed us that they are sure the system was programmed correctly. The day after our show, we discovered that 17 out of 54 receivers were set to a different frequency. We have tried to understand and make sense of how this happened, but we have no explanation. Unfortunately, at the same time, we digressed from our standard protocol and did not check the entire system thoroughly, which could have detected the errors. We are committed to making sure this never happens again and that all procedures and protocols will be followed regardless.

Having spent months working on Born to be Wild, from its inception, to the soundtrack, scripting, product testing, and final production, it was immensely disappointing. However, this is a major international competition with no room for excuses. We want to apologize to Laronde again for not presenting a perfect show and the crew for their hard work during those hot days and the extra work de-bombing. We wish you could have seen the fruits of your labour, but all you have is a Born to be Wild T-Shirt.

Mistakes do happen and we believe by being honest and open are the only ways anyone can learn and improve.

Cindy Cheung & John Werner

I'm speechless. Once again.

I think it is the first time I see a team doing a such statement to take full responsabilty of what happened.

A couple of days following Vulcan performance in Montreal and the suggestion I did in another thread regarding a future appearance of that team, I got a nice reply from an official at La Ronde. He wrote me that idea to store the unused stuff until next year and to invite Vulcan to perform the same show in 2014 would be very complicated, but he assured me the organizers want to bring Vulcan back in Montreal for another appearance (without specification regarding the year).

Fred

I think it is the first time I see a team doing a such statement to take full responsabilty of what happened.

Indeed, it's very courageous of Vulcan to do so. I wonder if we will see any press release from Galaxis? My understanding is that there are some other issues at play that hopefully will be fully investigated. A thorough study of the full video is essential to complete this task and I hope that this is done.

Paul.

I still believe that Vulcan Fireworks has nothing to apologize for, and they should not feel compelled to take responsibility for what had occurred!

Given that the overall standard of this year's competition is, to me, somewhat below average (as Fred also previously outlined), I honestly cannot help but wonder if the Chinese display would have truly been the one to really stand out amongst competitors (though we have yet to see the Canadian and Italian performances). Really, from the little that was actually seen, it was enough to strongly suggest a "potentially" memorable and quality show.

Trav.

At the performance of my Master's thesis composition for orchestra and electronic sound playback, the electronic component became disconnected literally seconds before the conductor began the piece. I frantically tried to stop it, but it was too late, and the performance happened without that important part of the piece. As such, I can definitely empathize with Vulcan, even though we work in different mediums. It's a real heartbreaker to see all the work you've put in be for naught.

I'm disappointed to hear from Fred's post that it doesn't look like Vulcan will get to re-present their show next year. I had really hoped that something could be organized to allow that to happen, but I understand that it's not a straightforward situation, and that storing pyrotechnics is anything but simple.

I just hope that the unused products from the Montreal show will go far and wide, bringing joy to the people who'll get to see them, even though we can't. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go pout in the corner for a while.

I'm disappointed to hear from Fred's post that it doesn't look like Vulcan will get to re-present their show next year.

Beyond technical reasons, according to the same source, there is also another consideration: many fireworks companies have already been contacted for the special 30th anniversary edition. I don't believe that you should be disappointed too much.

Fred

Many fireworks companies have already been contacted for the special 30th anniversary edition

I was actually considering posting a new thread about this very issue. I wasn't sure if the organizers were going to do another "Tournament of Champions" (to borrow a term from Jeopardy) next year, so it's reassuring to hear that it might (???) be in the works. My fingers will stay crossed.

You should feel free to speculate about the 2014 line-up in the thread created on this topic one year ago:

http://www.montreal-fireworks.com/forum/index.php?action=vthread&forum =5&topic=2680

Fred

From: http://www.fireworks-forum.org.uk/threads/so-what-did-happen-to-vulcan s-display-in-montreal.20839/page-2 and re-posted without permission, this is the Galaxis take on the problems encountered in the Vulcan display:

The wireless firing system used in Montreal was a rental system from Galaxis Showtechnik GmbH, based in Germany.

The problem was caused solely by the fact that 17 of 54 firing modules were set to the wrong radio channel (i.e. frequency).

Before shipping the system to Montreal it was configured to the system ID of Vulcan and to a specific frequency that is normally used by Vulcan. This configuration was done by a Galaxis staff member.

After that all firing modules (receivers) have been programmed remotely with the cue numbers and step delays. Vulcan provided the script to Galaxis in order to do the programming of the devices before the shipment. This was a special service of Galaxis and the goal was to help the crew by saving some time on site. The same procedure was done for a Vulcan show in Oman some time ago and everybody was happy with this.

The programming was done by one of the owners of Galaxis. During the remote programming every programming step has to be acknowledged by the addressed firing module by sending a feedback command. This is possible because the system operates bi-directionally and the firing modules can send feedback information to the controller or the wireless USB modem which is connected to a computer. During the whole programming no errors occurred at all. Then all firing modules have been successfully switched off by remote commands on the correct radio frequency right before packing. So we are absolutely sure that the whole system was working on the correct frequency before it was shipped to Canada.

After firing the display the crew checked the receivers and found that one third of them was set to radio channel 0.

The system has been returned to Galaxis and has been thoroughly inspected by the freelance technician who was in charge for the system tests, another Vulcan crew member and Galaxis staff. The show was fired again in a dry run and all receivers on the correct radio frequency functioned properly. The receivers on the wrong radio channel did not fire. After setting all receivers to the correct channel all receivers fired perfectly in a second dry run. We took a video of this test and we compared the firing LEDs of the receivers with the firing script and found that all modules performed according to the script. This tells us that all receivers were programmed to the correct system ID and that the cue and step programming was fine.

During the setup of the display the crew checked continuity on all receivers always directly at the devices. They did not perform any remote checks until the show day. The show operator and freelance technician started to address some devices remotely at 8 p.m. on the show night. The devices responded until he reached one on the wrong radio channel. He did not receive any feedback and thought this is because of the long distance and obstacles in between. He continued to check other devices but stopped due to lack of time. Believing all the devices were set to the same channels as had been programmed by Galaxis it did not become apparent there were any major issues.

It is the normal procedure to test the firing modules remotely and Galaxis is strongly recommending to do so.

By performing remote data requests you can test the continuity of the firing lines but in addition you can conveniently obtain much more information about the status of the firing modules:
- charging level of the battery and battery power
- field strength of the signal received at the firing module
- field strength of the feedback signal
- interfering signal strength
- threshold of the resistance metering
- programmed hazard zone
- inner temperature
- information about the humidity in the device to be sure that the desiccant is working
- summary regarding the outputs (number of programmed outputs, number of programmed outputs with a resistance higher than the programmed maximum resistance, number of outputs with no cue programming but connected with an e-match)
- and some more to name just the most important parameters

If you go to the 'details' screen you will see:
- programmed cue numbers
- programmed step delays
- exact resistance of each firing line connected

If a certain parameter is not OK an exclamation mark is being displayed next to it.

By performing the remote access the communication path is being tested as well.

If the freelance technician had spent more time using the remote testing features of the system, which is his usual practice, the problem may have became apparent before the show.


Galaxis Showtechnik GmbH / Vulcan