When King Kong Encounter opened at Universal Studios Hollywood in 1986, it quickly became the most popular attraction in the park. Tour attendance jumped by more than one million. Based on this success, Universal executives decided to create an even more spectacular Kong attraction to launch their Universal theme park in Orlando, Florida.

The creators of the original attraction came up with a story that would transport guests to the gritty, grafitti-covered streets of New York City circa 1976. Guests entered the attraction through a facade of the original Pennsylvania Station. Inside the massive six story show building an elaborate and intricately detailed production set recreated a New York subway station, the Roosevelt Island Tram station, and the surrounding neighborhood. TV monitors show a breaking news report that King Kong has escaped and is on a rampage. He has already destroyed two elevated subway trains and is heading toward the East River. Guests board the Roosevelt Island Tramway to evacuate the city but helicopters following Kong report over the Emergency Broadcast System that he is moving toward the 59th Street Bridge. A spotlight reveals his shadow on the side of a building. He grabs a power pole and tears it down, causing a transformer to explode in a huge fireball just ahead. Suddenly there he is, hanging off the side of the bridge, directly in the tram’s path. Now at eye-level and roaring with anger, the enraged beast grabs the tram and lifts it in the air. Hit by fire from a police helicopter, he throws the tram down, almost plunging it into the river. The tram recovers and passengers finally escape to the relative safety of Roosevelt Island and realize that their whole experience has been caught on film.

MLA worked with Craig Barr and Peter Alexander on the acoustics and sound system design for Kong. The main challenges in the audio design were achieving the necessary sound levels and accommodating the movement of the tram, the helicopter and the 900 lb gorilla. Sound levels were adjusted using MLA designed and manufactured, computer controlled, VCA cards. In order to adjust levels for the location of the source and receiver, two sets of loudspeakers were generally used for each source. These were positioned so as to cover the necessary range of motion and the audio signal was panned between them. Kong had a loudspeaker in his head so that high frequency sound would come from his mouth along with mid-frequency horns in his chest cavity. In addition subwoofers were located in fixed locations adjacent to his body.

King Kong: The Monster Who Created Universal Studios Florida By Peter Alexander