The Bellagio Hotel Bets on Robust, Reliable Echelon Control System

Tens of thousands of people come daily to view the magnificent water display at casino mogul Steve Wynn’s $1.6 billion Bellagio Resort Hotel in Las Vegas. The Bellagio is truly making a splash with its $40 million, 900-foot-long series of fountains located in a 12-acre lake in front of the hotel. Specially designed stage lighting, original orchestration, and crisp choreography enhance the movement of the shimmering water. Two popular performances feature water dancing in a synchronized line to “A Chorus Line” and pulsing to “Singing in the Rain.” The liquid peaks when Pavarotti hits a high note. These intricately staged productions would be ruined by faulty water pumps or leaky pipes.

The Bellagio Hotel turned to the White Rabbit Corporation to ensure the faultless operation of its unique attraction. Founded in 1994, White Rabbit (e-mail: rdh@cts.com) designs and implements industrial control systems for the entertainment industry and various government projects. The company also works with both the U.S. and international nuclear safeguards communities to provide fuel storage, tracking, and monitoring systems. White Rabbit selected a LonWorks solution from Echelon to monitor and control the fountains, thereby ensuring that Bellagio’s water display will continue to be a major draw for the hotel.

Unique Attraction Required State-of-the-Art Control and Monitoring System

Bellagio’s water display, placed within a 27-million-gallon lake, can shoot up to 17,000 gallons of water more than 250 feet in the air at any one time. Created and built by WET Design, the fountains use 213 underwater Oarsman™ jets for the dancing water effects. The hotel’s primary challenge was to have the requisite control over the water jets while minimizing costs and ensuring a safe environment. According to Robert Harvey, president of White Rabbit, “It is prohibitively expensive to place large central equipment and power vaults under the water. With 7.5 megawatts of electrical power used for the water display, water leaks would create potentially lethal safety hazards.”

Uninterrupted operation was also a high priority. However, the numerous mechanical and electronic elements involved in the complex water display created the potential for frequent problems. “The hotel needed a state-of-the-art monitoring capability that would quickly detect malfunctioning equipment, water leaks, changes in electrical current, and temperature variances,” comments Harvey.

White Rabbit Pulls an Open Echelon System Out of its Hat

White Rabbit hit the jackpot at the Bellagio Hotel with Echelon’s open LonWorks system. “The lake’s complex water feature required a control system with numerous repeaters and routers,” says Harvey. “The open LonWorks network ensured that we would be able to easily integrate components from various manufacturers.” Another selling factor was ease of installation and use. “We did not have to worry about developing the network layers and could concentrate solely on the application layer,” emphasizes Harvey.

White Rabbit designed a control network that includes a 1.25-megabit fiber optic ring that encircles the lake and connects the four equipment vaults and central control room on shore. A star-wired, free topology twisted-pair connection links each underwater Oarsman unit to the appropriate equipment vault.

The individual Oarsman units contain a two-axis servo motor controller and drive amplifier, a three-phase variable speed pump drive, four 250-watt lights, leak detectors, and switching gear for the lights and Oarsman air lift. The servo device controls the articulating nozzle, and the variable speed drive controls the 0-to-80-foot stream of water out of the nozzle. Software for the controller and variable speed drive can be downloaded over the LonWorks network. The fountain complex also includes 1,175 water-jet heads and 6,200 light fixtures and speaker clusters.

The Bellagio Hotel depends heavily on the Echelon control system to monitor and control the underwater Oarsman units. Voltage, current, temperature, and water leak sensors transmit data through the LonWorks network to the corresponding equipment vault. This information is then distributed along the fiber optic connection to the data logging and alarm system within the main control room. Audible alarms alert the staff to problems within the fountains.

The Bellagio Hotel Reaps Millions of Dollars from Draw of Fountains

The Echelon system helps the Bellagio Hotel achieve substantial savings in the operation of its fountains. “We can now find problems before a situation becomes catastrophic,” states Harvey. "Damage to the gearing and motors of the gimbaled head could easily reach thousands of dollars if a cable or hose were to become stuck on a nozzle. Previously, we would not have been aware of the problem until the unit stopped working."

The continuous monitoring provided by the LonWorks network enables repairs to be completed quickly. “The network offers very fast diagnosis, allowing divers to be dispatched quickly to fix cables and other components that can be repaired underwater,” comments Harvey. “Compare this to having to pull the entire unit out of the water and perform the diagnosis onshore.” He estimates that the diagnostic capabilities of the LonWorks network will help the Bellagio Hotel save more than a million dollars in annual repair costs.

The hotel’s ability to run the water shows without interruption contributes substantially to the hotel’s commercial success. “Tens of thousands of people visit the resort every day, bringing in revenues of more than $7.5 million daily,” notes Harvey. “The magnificent display of choreographed water shows is a tremendous draw. A feature that does not work, or that functions poorly, affects the upscale image of the hotel. The impact on revenues could potentially reach millions of dollars each day.”

The LonWorks control and monitoring system implemented by White Rabbit ensures that the Bellagio Hotel’s spectacular water show will continue to provide entertainment to the millions of people visiting the resort each year. “The work that I do is invisible,” muses Harvey. “The invisible LonWorks system, which people viewing the show cannot see, contributes to their enjoyment and makes them feel good about being here. It’s a feeling similar to the one produced by a big white rabbit that helped James Stewart in a very famous movie called ‘Harvey’!”

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