Every October for the past 17 years, the tranquil rural corner of Downholland near Ormskirk in Lancashire has awoken to a frightful force, as Farmaggedon opens it's doors with "October Fear Fest". For 2023, this ghoulish entertainment is being triggered by a new power - OSCA from Nemesis Research.

Farmaggedon Scare is the brainchild of farmer and expert scare attraction designer Mark Edwards, who opens his fiery gates each year to a new set of ever more horrible experiences, designed to terrify and tantalise visitors with a unique combination of scare attractions. For 2023, part of the new line-up includes the Zombie War Zone, hosting 60 visitors at a time to an action packed 12-minute arena horror experience.

Combining a truly immersive experience with sound, lighting, lasers and flame effects, the Zombie War Zone is set to raise the bar for audience scaring in a few day time!

From a technical perspective, creating the total experience relies on perfect and tight control. For the technical team involved once again in helping to create Farmaggedon 2023, Infinity Technical & Production Services, a core element of this year's brief was to find a new way to deliver complete control via a simple system, with the daily programme involving performances every 20 minutes.

The team have been involved in the annual horror-ganza for the last three years, as the sole provider of technical kit and product management for the event. Project manager and engineer Sam Robinson-Davies, together with Dave Murray worked closely on this year's project and decided very early on to utilise Figure 53's QLab as the core system, providing the level of control needed for this complex immersive show.

But the hunt was still on to find a new solution for controlling the complex pyrotechnic elements. After a good look around the market, they identified a scarily simple option - the new OSCA show control range from Nemesis Research, designed to unlock the massive power of OSC's interoperability, accuracy and flexibility.

Sam elaborates: "The ability to use OSC to provide all the control around the arena was a major attraction, coupled with OSCA, which is a very carefully thought-out and packaged product. With OSCA-R5 5-way OSC programmable button boxes in the control room, and seven OSCA-O4 4-channel OSC GPO outputs boxes located around the arena, the show technician can run the entire production single-handed, including operating all the contact closures required to operate the pyro elements that are a key feature of the attraction. We were really impressed with everything, the OSCA units worked first time out of the box".

The design principle behind the OSCA range is to deliver easy-to-use options for controlling multiple devices across all entertainment applications. From lighting consoles and rigging motors, to sound desks, QLab or video software, OSCA removes the need for high-cost central servers or complex show control infrastructures. In addition, it adds the ability to manually trigger events from multiple locations and control non-OSC equipped devices via contact closure.

The Farmageddon installation is a prime example of OSCA's versatility, illustrating its suitability for providing cost-effective, simple to operate control for theme parks and immersive attractions.

The Zombie War Zone attraction formally opens on 30th September, alongside eight other brand new shows arranged in 4 "scare houses" at the location.