|
|
 |
|
AV Systems
|
 |
|
 |
 |
Museum Media
AV helps bring American Indian culture to life
Apr 29, 2005
|
|
by Lisa Horan
|
For most of us, the word “museum” conjures up visions of fossils, artifacts, and antiquated push button displays that never seem to work properly. While that may have been the case for the museums we visited as kids, the same can’t be said about the museums of today, which are relying more than ever before on high tech AV equipment to provide visitors with a more contemporary perspective on history.
One facility that has firmly embraced this concept is the National Museum of the American Indian’s new Washington, DC, location. Unveiled on the National Mall last September, the museum’s unique and extensive media has already taken more than
1 million visitors on a captivating journey into the lives, languages, history, and art of Native Americans.
Purpose-driven Creativity
From the moment visitors enter the architecturally distinct building, which looks much more like a grand scale, stone-crafted Native dwelling than a traditional Smithsonian facility, they are greeted by state-of-the-art technology. The museum’s welcome desk, which features an intricate multi-screen display, is their first taste of the innovative media that awaits within. And this wasn’t coincidental.
 |
| The National Museum of the American Indian, located on the National Mall in Washington, DC, opened last September. |
“One of the core objectives we are attempting to communicate to visitors is that the Native American culture is not a dead culture but is actually a living, breathing part of the modern world, “ explained Kathy Suter, the museum’s media coordinator who oversaw the design and installation of AV elements throughout the building. “To establish a connection between the present and Native American cultures, we deliberately introduced technology into a majority of the exhibits.”
The exhibits that make up two of the main exhibit halls are, in fact, rich in AV technology of one form or another. Numerous flat screen monitors, with sizes less than 20 inches to more than 60 inches (the smaller models from Marshall Electronics, the larger from Panasonic), custom loud speakers from Dakota Audio, Alcorn McBride video players, Digital Projection and Panasonic projection systems, and interactive computer stations using NEC, 3M, and Magenta products make up the core components of the museum, the 18th of the Smithsonian Institution’s world-renowned facilities.
“When Kathy contacted me, she had a very clear vision of what she wanted,” explained Bob Haroutunian, principal of PPI Consulting, the company selected by Suter to head up the design for the entire AV system. One of the primary goals she communicated to Haroutunian was her desire to incorporate media elements but without overpowering guests.
“The key in bringing the creative vision to light was obtaining and incorporating the right technology and ensuring that everything came together at the right time, which Bob was able to accomplish,” said Suter.
Past Meets Present
One of the most intriguing characteristics of the museum is the subtle yet very clever positioning and incorporation of media into the exhibits, and, in many cases, into the artifacts themselves.
Guests are presented with this unique integration just as they enter into the exhibit hall called “Our Lives.” It is here that they must walk through a short, glass-walled tunnel, which is actually a rear projection environment, to gain entrance to the hall. In this tunnel, they are greeted by life-size images of modern Native American people walking right next to them, which fade in and out of view. In addition, thanks to partially silvered mirrors, each visitor’s image materializes and dematerializes as he walks through the entrance, as well.
According to Suter, the purpose behind these effects is to convey to visitors “that they may be walking amongst Native American peoples every day without even knowing it.” Subjects for this piece of footage were shot in HD in front of a green screen, then the footage was manipulated to look semi-transparent, creating a layered effect.
Once inside each of the exhibit halls, a diverse collection of media displays awaits. For example, one exhibit explores the multi-tribal community of American Indians that resides in the city of Chicago.
For this exhibit, the designers created a modern urban living room. Within that living room is a TV set on which a video loop is played, featuring conversations with American Indians that are of a very personal nature. “The individuals featured in these clips are looking right into the camera as they share their own experiences as Native Americans living in a big city,” explained Suter.
In another exhibit, this one concentrating on a community called Igloolik, monitors are stacked in an obscure way. While certainly eye-catching, the exhibit was designed in such a fashion to illustrate a practice inherent to the Iglooik people.
“The Igloolik community traditionally built stacks of rocks to mark landmarks,” explained Suter. “We thought it would be interesting to replicate this by stacking monitors that feature footage of the community engaged in various activities that depict their native culture.”
Four different streams of video are displayed on this stacked monitor setup and is accompanied by very complex audio tracks that feature one dominant storytelling track that moves from stream to stream, in addition to tracks that provide supporting background sound.
Similarly, in another exhibit, a monitor is tucked right into the side of a giant snow mobile called a bombardier, creating a very unique display. The video footage that is shown on the monitor describes how this vehicle is used as a commercial fishing vessel by this particular Native American community.
In the exhibit hall called “Our Universe,” visitors step into a surreal setting that replicates a starry night. The dimmed room is complete with hundreds of tiny, fiber optic stars that light the “sky” above.
Along a large, curved wall that stretches the entire length of the exhibit hall are several viewing stations that feature ground-level rear projection. The video loop shown on these stations features stories about stars. As each of the video loops begins to come to a close, a computerized light begins to blink on the screen, and then a techno-beam moves along the wall and up to the ceiling, where it ends on the constellation that was highlighted in the story.
The footage that appears on the countless displays in the form of video loops throughout the exhibits took Suter, several camera crews, and members of her AV team more than a year to collect. “We traveled the Western Hemisphere, from the Arctic Circle to the tip of Alaska, and visited 22 of the 24 tribal groups that are represented in the galleries to capture authentic footage of Native Americans in their daily lives,” said Suter.
Though the marriage of ancient artifacts with modern day technology proves quite effective to visitors, it wasn’t exactly a match made in heaven. “One of the biggest challenges we faced was making certain that the heat and vibration generated by monitors and speakers did not compromise the integrity of the artifacts with which they were enclosed,” explained Electrosonic’s Chris Hartwell. “We worked closely with the conservation team to determine heat and light levels to ensure that they would not degrade the artifacts in any way.”
Controlling The Elements
This sophisticated network of technology-rich displays required an equally sophisticated, albeit user friendly, control system that could operate all components from a central location. “Part of Kathy’s vision called for an integrated, seamless system that would not only prove reliable, but would feature a high degree of automation,” said Haroutunian.
To accommodate this requirement, a tailored AMX system was designed and incorporated, with the help of the Orlando, FL, branch of Electrosonic. The system is highly automated and does everything from automatically powering up and shutting down the AV equipment every day to monitoring, tracking, and reporting the status of every AV-related component, right down to detecting the failure of a projector bulb.
“If the system detects anything, it sends an alert by e-mail or displays a trouble alert on the control room screen,” said Haroutunian. The rack-mounted touch screen display, on which the alerts are posted, enables operators to see everything from the status of displays to what shows are running. A NetLinx system allows operators to scroll through various pages to see everything in the system.
“Clearly, the AMX system represents a powerful tool because it goes beyond control and allows a high degree of automation and flexibility, requires little maintenance, and is self-monitoring,” said Haroutunian.
Outside companies who provided services for the project played a key role in making the museum a reality, said Hartwell. “Alcorn McBride assisted us with their video and audio player’s protocols while we were programming the NetLinx, and Marshall Electronics provided a series of industrial quality and highly reliable LCD panels that were ready to integrate into the exhibits with very little modification.”
In addition, the system is easy enough for non-technical support staff to operate. With two locations in the building, the main hub for the AMX system is located in the basement, where the IT department’s offices are located.
According to Haroutunian, who has worked on a number of museums, museum-goers of today are much more media-savvy than ever before, and this should be kept in mind during the design phase. “If a museum is going to appeal to the masses today, it has to offer media that enhances its content without overwhelming the senses,” he said. “As the founder of the Ritz chain of hotels once said, ‘If you notice the service, we haven’t done our jobs as well as we should have.’ The same goes for museum media.”
|
Video Monitors - Free Price Quotes
Compare Prices and Save. Visit Now for Free Price Quotes! Audience Voting Equipment for Interactive Meetings & Events
Create exciting and valuable audience polling & game show events by using wireless audience response keypads with audio visual presentation equipment. Buy Audio Video Cables Here - Get It Fast, We Ship Today
Huge selection of AV cables: Component, Composite, S-Video, HDMI, Subwoofer, Toslink, S/PDIF, Coaxial, Speaker Wire, 3.5mm, BNC, RCA, XLR, and more!
|
|
|
Government Video is part of the NewBay Media Community
copyright 2007© NewBay Media LLC.
810 Seventh Avenue, 27th Floor New York, NY 10019 T (212)378-0400 F (212)378-2160
|
|
|
