Automation Technology Rocks Out on Tour with Image Engineering’s Fire Snake
- Shane Novacek
- Jun 10
- 9 min read
Updated: Jun 25
Pyrotechnic spectacle for concerts and other live entertainment turns up the heat and excitement during Disturbed and Trans-Siberian Orchestra tours using automation, EtherCAT, and safety technologies from Beckhoff
As large touring concerts push the limits of stage design to provide fully immersive experiences for audiences, entertainment engineers increasingly leverage high-end automation to earn rave reviews. Image Engineering plays a starring role behind the scenes of some of the most outrageous concert productions of the past few years. The most notable of which were Disturbed’s “Take Back Your Life” rock concert tour of 2023 and Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s 2024 winter tour, "The Lost Christmas Eve."
Based in Curtis Bay, Maryland, Image Engineering has grown its repertoire from an early focus on lighting and lasers to become a pioneering force in pyrotechnic systems. This expansion into advanced flame systems was initially for the NFL and other major sports leagues. Today, Image Engineering’s expertise spans permanent installations, themed entertainment, and concert touring through their sister company Image SFX.
The Image Engineering team pushes the boundaries of special effects technology by integrating advanced automation and controls into their projects. The company’s growth has been driven by an engineering-centric approach. “The company’s owners are all engineers, and since the beginning, engineering has been central to who we are,” says Ian Bottiglieri, Vice President of Operations, Image Engineering. “That sets us apart from our competitors in the live event space, because we rely on true engineered solutions to create special effects that genuinely push the envelope.” The latest example of Image Engineering surpassing the performance limits of pyrotechnic equipment can be witnessed on the road for touring concert productions and truly lives up to its name, the Fire Snake.
The Fire Snake concept developed from the need for never-before-seen, jaw-dropping pyrotechnic effects by top-billed band Disturbed. Other than the typical lighting, the effects were going to be the only stage equipment to provide key visual effects. “I remember sitting in our conference room having conversations with the band and asking, ‘All right, where is the video screen going to be?" recounts Nick Hock, Director of R&D and Installation/Integrations, Image Engineering. “And their answer was, ‘There is no video screen. The fire will be the only visuals for the show.’”
While it was up to Image Engineering to work with the Disturbed production team to provide the visual experience for the Disturbed tour, they also had to ensure that the Fire Snake operated safely and reliably in numerous environments, temperatures, and orientations. As is usually the case with live productions, project timelines are unforgivingly short and inflexible for the companies that support them.
A trial by fire for engineers
Image Engineering poured a tremendous amount of R&D into every aspect of the Fire Snake. This included exactly how to safely feed the appropriate amount of propane at up to 22 psi and maintain a steady pilot light no matter what orientation the Fire Snake is in. The Fire Snake design required replacing traditional burn bars with advanced, responsive burners that could provide more dynamic fire effects. Its linear burn system is capable of creating a 11-foot wall of fire with proportional control for variable height and shape up to 4’ to 6’. In addition, two large burst valves can produce rolling fireballs. The units can move independently via winches to create a wide range of orientations and shapes as it produces enormous flames.
Due to the limited time allotted for concert setup and teardown, the Fire Snake had to be compact and modular to make it easy to transport, assemble, and integrate with existing stage structures from show to show. It was crucial for the automation and safety systems to address these stacked challenges, manage complex fire effects for maximum impact, and provide real time feedback and safety assurances to concert crews and local officials. The previous control platform Image Engineering used was not available in the timeframe of the Fire Snake, so the search was on for a new technology partner.
Meeting the Beckhoff entertainment industry team during the IAAPA 2022 trade show in Orlando was a pivotal moment for Image Engineering. Beckhoff hosts a networking event for the entertainment engineering community during IAAPA every year. “We spent a considerable amount of time talking with the Beckhoff team about our challenges in our applications,” says Claire Bowman, Associate Director of Engineering, Image Engineering. “They shared their entertainment industry expertise and engineering ideas that we could consider in our Fire Snake R&D. The event was also a great networking opportunity to find new customers of our own.”
After follow up meetings, Image Engineering decided to work with Beckhoff to bring the Fire Snake to life. They would leverage advanced PC-based control technology and TwinSAFE programmable safety backed by the EtherCAT industrial Ethernet system. The Disturbed tour needed its pyrotechnics in less than four months, so Image Engineering and Beckhoff quickly went to work.
Beckhoff hardware takes the heat
On the Disturbed tour, the Fire Snake had to actively move and change shape according to routines that synced up with the flow of the setlist. When the band first started playing, the Fire Snake rig would slowly come to life and build into more dynamic movement. “We didn’t fire all the effects with the first song,” Hock recounts. “The setlist started out very gently, and as the heavier songs built the momentum, we added larger and more impressive fire sequences.”
To achieve a building cacophony of flames and music, five segmented Fire Snake units are bolted to a custom truss structure with five winches to change the degree of angle for each unit. Half an inch of clearance between each unit allows free movement yet maintains a continuous, unbroken look to the linear fire effects. Image Engineering’s Touring Accumulator System (TAS) manages the propane from liquid to vapor and feeds it to the effect heads. This is not a trivial amount of fuel. Over an entire Disturbed show, the Fire Snake goes through more than 1,000 pounds of propane. When adjusting Fire Snake units by 45 or 50 degrees, fuel and fire behave differently and the control system has to maintain the effects and safety. “The Beckhoff system provides the flexibility to not only meet the baseline standards for flame effect systems such as those outlined in the NFPA 160 standard for fire effects but exceed them in many local jurisdictions across the U.S.,” Hock says.
The Fire Snake features numerous safety measures controlled via TwinSAFE I/O terminals to ensure trouble-free performances. One e-stop can halt the entire rig, and the operator can see all safety-relevant status information with a glance at the control console. “It was extremely reassuring to local fire marshals to see a safety system demo and witness the entire Fire Snake shut down to a controlled stop at the push of a button,” Hock says.
Unsurprisingly, Image Engineering was also careful to select control hardware that could take the heat from intense pyrotechnic equipment. Installed in the Fire Snake’s shippable Pelican case control boxes are DIN rail-mounted CX5140 and CX8190 Embedded PCs with directly attached EtherCAT I/O as primary and backup controllers respectively. EtherCAT and Safety over EtherCAT (FSoE) establish real-time communication and synchronization throughout for Fire Snake system communication, safety devices, and with equipment used for lighting and other stage effects. “Real time performance is critical for us, because we have to keep perfect time with the band’s music and lighting,” Hock says. “If we were out of sync even a couple milliseconds, audiences would notice. A proven technology like EtherCAT ensures that the Fire Snake keeps perfect time with the music.”
Image Engineering has deeply integrated EtherCAT across its systems. The company was even recognized as the 7,000th member company of EtherCAT Technology Group (ETG). Of course, openness is still important to connect with other networks encountered in the entertainment industry. Therefore, the Fire Snake utilizes various EtherCAT I/O modules and TwinCAT software to connect with devices from other networks such as DMX and OSC, making it highly flexible and adaptable to different configurations. For example, Image Engineering uses the EL6851 single channel DMX interface to trigger the Fire Snake’s flame effects. “Our touring technicians and our programmers are used to working with DMX, and this was no different for them than any other off the shelf DMX product,” Bowman says. “It seamlessly integrated DMX with all our EtherCAT equipment.”
No matter the engineering challenge, the show must go on
Since its completion, the Fire Snake met the requirements for rapid setup and dismantle during multiple tours for Disturbed and Trans-Siberian Orchestra. This is critical because the sheer number of performances can be intense. For example, Image Engineering was responsible for bringing multiple Fire Snakes on the road to 56 Trans-Siberian Orchestra concerts in just 40 days on both the East and West Coasts of the U.S. – at the same time.
The Beckhoff system's ability to operate reliably in extremely high ambient temperatures became another critical benefit on the road. This heat resilience was particularly important for concerts in the summertime. “The heat resiliency of the embedded PC hardware is impressive,” Bowman says. “We've used other embedded systems before that had performance issues on rooftops in Las Vegas when the temperatures reach as high as 120°F. However, the Beckhoff system always performs without fail.”
In addition to extreme climates, unreliable power in different cities was also a major concern for Image Engineering. “We experienced serious power quality issues on our rig at different stops on the tours,” Bowman says. “This was causing major performance issues at the worst possible time. But with troubleshooting help from the Beckhoff team and the PS2001 Power Supply with built-in EtherCAT interface, we were able to solve it and establish reliable power supply no matter the quality of the incoming feed. We also installed a large CU8110 capacitive uninterruptable power supply (UPS) to make sure that our power distribution was good.”
“By combining our data logger with power supplies with the built-in EtherCAT connection, it enables us to look at voltage and current – things that you couldn't normally do with a basic power supply,” explains Jay McNeil, Regional Sales Manager, Beckhoff USA. “This became a critical feature for Image Engineering to monitor power and make any necessary adjustments to ensure peak performance.”
The diagnostic tools available through EtherCAT and Safety over EtherCAT allowed for efficient troubleshooting, reduced potential downtime, and ensured that the system was always ready for performances. “We now have outstanding troubleshooting capabilities with EtherCAT,” Hock says. “We can simply look at the Fire Snake’s HMI and see which nodes are properly connected and those that require troubleshooting. EtherCAT precisely localizes the exact source of any issue in the system. Previously, problem resolution often took hours, it now takes just minutes with EtherCAT and TwinCAT.”
With a user-friendly programming environment integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio®, TwinCAT 3 significantly reduced Image Engineering’s software development time. “We can create robust systems that are also relatively easy to program – especially because we don't have to create our own building blocks to do basic functions,” Bowman says. “These building blocks are already there for you in TwinCAT’s software libraries.”
Since working with Beckhoff, Image Engineering has cut weeks of software development time off their engineering team’s workload. And compared to when the company relied heavily on embedded board development and the required revisions, the standard PC-based control hardware has dramatically cut their hardware development time. “This was one of the first times that we were able to take products off our assembly line and put them immediately into testing and have 90 percent working immediately with very little rework that we needed to do because of the Beckhoff system,” Bottiglieri says. “In addition, the ease of programming and setup reduced development and commissioning time by nearly 50%.”
Encore for the Fire Snake
After its heat-seeking debut, the Fire Snake received universal acclaim from audiences, performers, and industry experts. “The band members of Disturbed loved it and the audiences reacted very positively to it as well,” Hock says. “Everyone just fell in love with it.”
The recognition culminated in the honor of a Parnelli Award for Pyrotechnics Special Effects Company of the Year for Image Engineering’s sister company, Image SFX. The Parnelli is the most significant honor live event companies can win in their industry. “This was our first Parnelli Award win, and it was a big moment for our company and for our engineering team,” Bowman says. “It’s so rewarding to see the Fire Snake recognized by other industry professionals at this level.”
The collaboration with Beckhoff enabled Image Engineering to push the boundaries of what was possible in pyrotechnics. The Fire Snake can now be deployed as a standard solution or highly customized to suit individual productions. It can also easily integrate with other stage control systems used throughout the entertainment industry.
With Beckhoff's support, Image Engineering continues to explore new opportunities and applications, leveraging their expertise to push the boundaries of what is possible in concerts, themed entertainment, and beyond. "Ultimately, the support we've received from the entire Beckhoff team is really second to none,” Bottiglieri says. “Our technology development timelines are always so short and having team members and partners that can help us succeed in all areas of engineering is paramount."
As Image Engineering looks to the future, the continued collaboration with Beckhoff promises to bring even more exciting developments to a show near you. Exploring new technologies such as the circuit board mounted EJ series I/O system and One Cable Automation via EtherCAT P, will further enhance their capabilities. “Most of our competitors are still using automation systems that are not nearly as flexible as Beckhoff technology,” Bottiglieri says. “The work Image Engineering has done with Beckhoff in concert touring gives us a competitive advantage over engineering houses that have been doing the same kind of work for the past 20 or 30 years. We're innovating where others are stagnating.”
Ready to turn up the heat on your automation applications? Contact your local Beckhoff sales engineer today.
Shane Novacek is the Marketing Communications Manager at Beckhoff Automation LLC
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