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AV Systems
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History meets entertainment
Museum celebrates Lincoln with high-tech exhibits
Feb 23, 2006
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by Lisa Horan
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"Awesome!" "Incredible!" "Unbelievable!" "I've never seen anything like it in my life!"
These aren't exactly typical comments you'd expect from people who have just attended, of all places, a museum. Then again, these visitors didn't just attend a typical museum.
"People are absolutely flabbergasted when they come here," said Bob Rodgers, founder and CEO of Imagination Arts (BRC), the company that was hired by the state of Illinois to create, design, produce, install, and program the permanent guest experiences inside the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum. "It really catches people by surprise, especially kids, because they expect to visit what they think is going to be their everyday museum."
Rigorous Research
Quite the contrary, with its high-tech gadgetry, special effects, and dramatic use of all things AV, the ALPLM, situated in downtown Springfield, is more like a theme park attraction than it is a museum. Despite its unconventional approach to presenting history, however, the museum is far from just an attraction; it's based on world-class scholarship and features the largest collection of pre-presidential Lincoln materials ever assembled.
In fact, the museum was developed with the help of nearly 40 of the world's leading Lincoln scholars, three Illinois history teachers, and 40 other institutions, government agencies, and volunteers. "We assembled an amazing team of people to ensure that the scholarship and the education would be at the highest level possible," said Rogers.
To present the historical content in a fresh and engaging manner, a team of writers and artists from BRC took on the challenging task of transforming historical accounts into emotional experiences for visitors. "Lincoln is indeed the hero here, but we didn't present his story as a proud march from one stunning success to the next, as most of the history books do," said Rogers. "We wanted to depict his life as it actually happened, and it was truly filled with a lot of tribulation. This truth makes his story very compelling, and visitors really start to empathize with him."
BRC was not only charged with developing the creative content featured within the walls of the 200,000-square-foot complex, but also with much of the building's design. "We were selected at the very beginning of the project, even prior to the architect, so we had the opportunity to design the museum from the inside out," explained Rogers. "And we started as far inside as one can go -- in the heart of the guest."
In this regard, Rogers said the creative team was conscious of the fact it was performing behavior modification during the design process, asking questions like, "What does the guest need to experience in order to be ever-changed?" and "What can we do to help each guest to be permanently attracted to the life and times of Abraham Lincoln?"
Something Old, Something New
Forever changing guests? Permanently attracting guests to Lincoln's life? Indeed, these goals were ambitious. However, in the end, they actually proved to be attainable. With annual attendance projected to be 250,000, just nine months after the museum opened its doors in April of 2005, more than half a million people had visited the museum.
So exactly what is it about this place that has created such a phenomenal public response? The answer lies in the clever marriage of next-generation technology with the stories of yesterday.
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| "Ghosts of the Library," one of many high-tech exhibits at the Abraham Lincoln Museum, features Civil War ghosts flowing out of an open book. PHOTO COURTESY OF BRC IMAGINATION ARTS |
"In this era of big screen theaters, high-tech video games, and digital technology, today's museums are competing with so many sources of entertainment that visitors' expectations are very high," said Dan Jemele, founder and chief systems designer for MediaMation, a sub-contractor on the project. With this in mind, museum creators focused on intertwining historical information with state-of-the-art technology, special effects, technical wizardry, interactive displays, and multimedia programs to attract visitors.
Technology is used in a way that sweeps visitors back in time, transforming them from outsiders peering at glass-enclosed exhibits into participants in the story of Lincoln's life. "We like to say that the museum is a place where scholarship meets showmanship," explained Rogers. "We rejected the idea that we had to make a choice and compromise on one or the other, and decided that we could design a museum that was 100 percent scholarly and 100 percent entertaining at the same time."
The museum's two main exhibition galleries, Journey One and Journey Two, are, in fact, replete with both an impressive collection of Lincoln mementoes as well as a feast of AV treats. From the moment visitors embark upon their journey into Lincoln's boyhood home, they are greeted with dramatic lighting, sound effects, and visual images. As they continue, these elements combine to create a solemn, eerie tone, which sets the stage for what one historian involved with the project calls the "real evil of slavery: the break up of the black family," and draws in visitors on an emotional level.
In another section of Journey One, multiple monitors are set up to resemble a television news control room, thereby putting a modern twist on one of the most divisive presidential campaigns in history: the campaign of 1860. Here, the political battle is presented as it would had modern technology been available at the time, with candidates voicing their opinions and Tim Russert from Meet the Press moderating.
More Than A Movie
At the heart of the AV wizardry in Journey One is the Union Theater, a grand, 250-seat special effects theater featuring a show that would be right at home at a theme park. It uses a MediaMation VIDSHOW HD+ controller with three synchronized channels of HD video that feed three Sanyo PLC-UF10 and two PLC-XP41 projectors, plus 24-channel synchronized, full symphonic audio with Professional Audio System speakers and mechanical effects and rigging.
With three synchronized, 30-foot stages equipped with HD playbacks, the theater's main show, "Lincoln's Eyes," simulates the complete story of Abraham Lincoln -- from his childhood through the Civil War to his death -- in a unique way.
The show is based around a movie that brings the stage to life. "A full-size figure emerges from behind curtains on the stage at the beginning of the show, giving the audience the sense that he is a live person and they are in a real theater," explained Jemele. In addition to numerous visual effects, such as spectacular lightning bolts that light up the sky during the battle scene that depicts the Civil War, Ethernet-controlled units cause cannons to blast, theater seats to shake, and underseat strobe lights to flicker.
"We knew that today's museum-goers wouldn't be satisfied with just seeing a movie, so we went the extra mile and incorporated visually surprising and unusual elements that, when used in conjunction with a great script, create an incredible level of excitement and emotional involvement on the part of audience members," said Rogers.
The theater can also transform into two alternate modes, as well, thanks to custom software that allows non-programmers to use key audio and video-controlled elements. In the storyteller mode, teachers, students, and museum curators can create their own shows and, using handheld clickers, can show video, create sound effects, activate lighting presets, and use the projection system. The third mode, or special events mode, is used for live events such as speeches, parties, and meetings, and provides on-stage access for laptops that can be used for PowerPoint presentations and a variety of activities.
The exhibits that make up Journey Two are equally AV-rich. The exhibit opens with the commencement of Lincoln's presidency and takes visitors through the Lincoln White House, where they get a personal look at what the Lincolns endured. Visitors travel through a room with a twisted doorway and twisted walls that are covered with cruel political cartoons. As they view the malicious images, they hear the whispers of Lincoln critics, which are played on four separate tracks via a focused sound system.
As visitors enter into a shadowy area, gloomy lighting and special effects help visitors gain a better understanding of how Lincoln was battered by those who opposed his decision to end slavery. And they have the opportunity to experience The Civil War in unique fashion, as the "4-Minute Map" plays out the entire event, digitally animating shifting battle lines and devastating casualty numbers as they escalate. And a holographic theater, which features the "Ghosts of the Library" live stage show, allows historical artifacts to seemingly come to life as they "float" around the stage.
Special Recognition
Undeniably a gargantuan undertaking, the museum project cost $150 million. While the design and construction of the Union Theater alone took two years, it was the programming that was the biggest hurdle for Jemele and his team.
"Creating a start-up and test procedure was definitely the most challenging aspect of the whole job from our perspective," explained Jemele. "Because there are so many systems involved and we needed to make it so automated, creating a daily start-up procedure became very difficult because it required a lot of programming."
Though the programming is an ongoing process, as museum operators discover new processes they'd like to have automated, the Abraham Lincoln Museum has already been hailed as a success. "We received word that the museum will be receiving two very distinguished awards this year: the THEA Award, from the Themed Entertainment Association, which will be bestowing awards to both Disney and Universal as well, and an award from a very prestigious group of Lincoln scholars in New York, which will be honoring the museum for its outstanding scholarship," said Rogers.
Perhaps the most impressive compliment the museum has received comes from its intrigued visitors who just can't seem to get enough. In the words of one guest: "This isn't history, it's an adventure."
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