Ride Entertainment Group

Ride Entertainment is a firm based in the United States specializing in the construction, sales, service, and operation of amusement rides.

Company history

In 1998 Ed Hiller started Ride Entertainment Systems, Inc. as a sales company serving the amusement industry. When Ed opened Ride Entertainment Systems he represented some of the largest ride manufacturers in the industry: S&S Power, Thrilltime, Hafema, Custom Coasters, Gerstlauer, and Maurer-Soehne. Over time the company consolidated its sales portfolio and represented fewer ride manufacturers. Together with a venture capital firm Ride Entertainment purchased a collection of revenue share attractions at Six Flags properties (S&S Sky Slings, Skycoasters® and Funtime Slingshots) in 2005. That year the company also purchased the assets of Thrilltime (Skycoaster® and Top Eliminator Dragsters) out of bankruptcy. In 2006 the company opened their Installation division.

In 2008 the company opened a revenue share package at the Columbus Zoo, which represented their first new financial partnership. Two years later Ride Entertainment re-branded and updated the way they presented themselves to the industry. The company now had several different disciplines and they created a brand family to reflect that. The mother company was the Ride Entertainment Group of Companies, under that umbrella Ride Entertainment Systems continued to handle sales, Entertainment Finance Group handled revenue shares, and Entertainment Management Group performed ride installations.

Two years later the company opened their first operations, the Flushing Meadows and Forest Park Carousels, under the company moniker Ride Operations Group. In 2015 the company again honed their message, conceptually putting every product and service they offered under the banner of Ride Entertainment, with Operations, Financial Partnerships, and Installations falling under Services and the attractions Ride Entertainment and their sales partners produced falling under Products.^[1]

Executive Team

• Ed Hiller - CEO and Founder of Ride Entertainment Group. Ed has managed the growth and evolution of Ride Entertainment Group from a primarily sales-based company into the umbrella organization it has become.^[2]
• Adam Sandy - Chief Business Development Officer. Since joining Ride Entertainment in 2004 Adam has overseen hundreds of millions in sales and projects.^[2]
• Ami Abramson - Chief Financial Officer. Ami Joined Ride Entertainment Group in January 2011 and brings financial expertise from his experience with dozens of start-ups and financial restructuring of companies.^[2]
• Bill Wright - Managing Director: Installations. Bill has more than 40 years of experience with the amusement industry and has worked on over 40 ride installations for Ride Entertainment Group.^[2]
• David Galst - Managing Director Operations. David joined Ride Entertainment in 2012. Before joining Ride Entertainment David worked in Corporate Engineering for Six Flags, as General Manager of Victorian Gardens Amusement Park, and Director of Operations for Luna Park.^[2]
• Mark Rosenzweig - Managing Director: Skycoaster(R) & Financial Partnerships. Mark joined Ride Entertainment in 2007 and oversees sales, service, operations certifications for the more than 80 Skycoaster(R) sites worldwide. In addition Mark oversees Ride Entertainment's portfolio of Financial Partnerships.^[2]
• Beau Berni - Managing Director: Strategic Initiatives and Vice President of Ride Entertainment Operations. Beau joined Ride Entertainment in 2016 and has a lifetime of experience in theme park design, operations, and sales.^[2]
• Jessica Aponte - Controller. Jessica joined Ride Entertainment in 2013 and works in support of the Operations and Financial Partnerships divisions.^[2]

Divisions

Sales

The Sales division is responsible for the sale of amusement rides. A number of firms have partnerships with this division, including:

• Gerstlauer – all of Gerstlauer's sales in the Western Hemisphere are handled by Ride Entertainment.^[3] The company's products are manufactured in a factory in Germany.^[4] Dare Devil Dive, Untamed, and FireChaser Express are among the roller coasters Ride Entertainment has sold.^[3][5]
  

  The Iron Shark Euro-Fighter at Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier in Galveston, Texas. This ride was manufactured by Gerstlauer.
• Funtime – North American sales of the Austrian company's products are handled by Ride Entertainment Systems.^[6] Star Flyers and Slingshots are among the most common products, having been installed at many Six Flags amusement parks (e.g. SkyScreamers).^[5]
  

  The Slingshot at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, is a 72-meter Slingshot from Funtime.
• Skyline Attractions – Established in 2014, Skyline is focused on the new genre of Games-U-Ride. Ride Entertainment is responsible for sales for Skyline attractions such as Skywarp, Crazy Couch, and Strike-U-Up.^[7]
• HIT Entertainment – Ride Entertainment manages the amusement park integration of HIT Entertainment brands including Thomas the Tank Engine, Bob the Builder, and Barney the Dinosaur. This includes the Thomas Towns installed at Six Flags amusement parks, as well as the Thomas Towns at Drayton Manor and Fuji-Q Highland.^[8]
• Ropes Courses, Inc. – Ride Entertainment is the North American distributor of Ropes Courses, Inc. products for amusement parks.^[9][10] Ropes courses at Indiana Beach and West Edmonton Mall were sold and installed by Ride Entertainment Group.^[11]
  

  The Ghastly Gangplank Sky Trail ropes course at Nick Universe in the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota. The ride was manufactured by Ropes Courses, Inc.
• Lagotronics Projects – Ride Entertainment is responsible for distribution for Lagotronics in North America. Lagotronics offers on-board interactive shooter style games. The unique approach allows their technology to be added to most types of attractions.^[12]
• Valtiner & Partner – Valtiner & Partner has developed the most advanced theater systems in the world, capable of effects such as smell, wind, and motion. Their two designs include the E-Motionboard(R), designed for 39 passengers, and E-Motioncube, which has a smaller footprint and accommodates 20 passengers at a time.^[13] Ride Entertainment is responsible for North American sales.
• KCL Engineering – Ride Entertainment is the sales partner for KCL Engineering's unique attraction lighting system. This system can be fitted to attractions ranging from coasters to towers and nearly everything in between.^[14]

Operations

Ride Entertainment operates a variety of family parks and stand alone attractions throughout North America,^[15] including:

The Corona Cobra Roller Coaster at Fantasy Forest Amusement Park in Flushing, Queens, New York.

• Fantasy Forest at the Flushing Meadows Carousel − With eight rides and four games this park is the self proclaimed happiest corner of Flushing Meadows - Corona Park.^[16]
• The Seaglass Carousel − Located in The Battery in New York City, this unique carousel operates on turntables instead of the traditional center pole.^[17]
• The Forest Park Carousel - The carousel has been an anchor of Forest Park since 1973.^[18]
• The Greenway Carousel - Located in Boston, MA; this carousel offers the opportunity to ride with an animal native to Boston such as a lobster, cod, harbor seal, and more.^[19]
• The Hudson River Carousel - Located in Chelsea, NY; this carousel features 33 hand carved animals.^[20]
• Staten Island Fun Park - Located in Staten Island, NY this park features GoKarts, Batting Cages, and Mini Golf.

Financial Partnerships

The Tundra Air Zipline at the Toronto Zoo in Toronto, Canada.

This divisions works with various entertainment venues and provides the capital for attractions for many of the top locations around the world. The Financial Partnerships division of Ride Entertainment is regarded as the largest financial partnerships division in the world,^[21] and has partnerships in places such as:

• Conservation Carousel - Custom Designed Carousel - Toronto Zoo
• Ropes Course - Skytrail(R) Explorer - Killington Resort
• Skycoaster(R) - 180-foot monopole Skycoaster(R) - The Great Escape
• Soaring Eagle - Zipline - The Beach
• Slingshot - 42-meter Slingshot - Scream Zone

Installations

This division installs and rehabs amusement rides around the world.

The SkyScreamer, a StarFlyer ride at Six Flags Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, Texas, being erected.

The company has worked with many different park groups like Six Flags, OCT, and the Roller Coaster at New York, New York. Ride Entertainment is responsible for erecting the world record vertical vertical swing ride from funtime. They have worked on everything from roller coasters to flat rides and have the ability to construct new builds or relocate attractions within location or across the country.^[22] Rehabilitation and safety modifications can be done on all rides and attractions helping to restore attractions increasing guest safety and comfort as well as improving reliability and reducing wear costs.^[23]

Ride Entertainment is partnered with Skyline Attractions in order to offer custom engineering and fabrication. With unique and simple solutions for everything from custom ride engineering to ride stations all the way down to queue gates. Ride Entertainment and Skyline can also create custom-designed ride vehicles or retrofit and enhance existing attractions to bring them up to ASTM standards.^[24]

Ride Entertainment's installations division is also responsible for making enhancements to existing attractions with technology such as Velocity Magnetics magnetic brakes. Retrofitting a coaster or flat ride with magnetic brakes provides a smoother stop with a lower cost to maintain and repair than traditional. brakes^[25]

SkyCoaster

SkyCoaster is the most successful attraction in the amusement industry with over 75 locations worldwide.

SkyCoaster, Inc. operated as a wholly owned division of ThrillTime Entertainment International.^[26] In 2005, SkyCoaster, Inc. as well as ThrillTime's other amusement ride, Top Eliminator,^[26] were sold to Ride Entertainment.^[27] This was followed in 2006 by a reverse merger transaction where ThrillTime was acquired by Advanced Proteome Therapeutics.^[28]

The Skycoaster® at Elitch Gardens in Denver, Colorado is a Dual Lattice 173-foot Skycoaster.

References

External links

• Official website