Absen’s NX Series LED panels have been installed as part of a large-scale curved video exhibit at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, in Indiana, forming a centrepiece in its recent renovation. The museum celebrates over a century of racing history at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, a historic motor racing circuit that is the venue for the Indianapolis 500 race, as well as NASCAR’s Brickyard 400 and Pennzoil 250 races.
The display is built using a combination of 1.8mm pixel pitch LED modules and is supported by a custom-engineered mounting system developed by Draper. The L-shaped LED installation includes a near-16ft-high end wall and a 61ft-wide ceiling display that aims to replicate the sensory atmosphere of race day at the historic venue. Clair Global Integration worked alongside Absen and Draper to design and implement the structure, which now immerses visitors in video content featuring flyovers, fireworks, and scenes from the track.
A combination of Absen NX Series panels in 960 x 540mm and 240 x 540mm formats were used to achieve the curved layout, allowing the display to conform to the exhibit’s unique architectural dimensions.
Now occupying a prominent space within the 80,000sqft museum, which hosts over 150 cars and more than 55,000 artefacts, the new LED exhibit forms part of a wider effort to enhance visitor engagement through immersive AV technology.
Mandi Bender, VP of operations at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, said: “We really wanted to provide guests the experience of what it’s like to be on the grid – that immersive experience of what that morning feels like. When the cannon goes off and the fireworks are happening, that’s all happening above you and it’s just really fantastic.”
Mounting the display required careful structural coordination, given the constraints of the existing building. Philip DiPaula, director of immersive systems at Clair Global Integration, noted that the team used LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) scans to map out the facility’s current layout.
DiPaula explained: “The challenge was the coordination of fitting the mounting frame into the building, attaching it to the building structure and distributing the weight loads in the way that we required. There were LiDAR scans done so we knew where the beams were that we could attach to in reality, not what the blueprint said.”
The project also required close coordination with Boston Productions, the content creation team behind the display media. Because of the curvature and scale of the LED structure, content development and display installation had to be closely aligned.
DiPaula added: “They wanted to be able to pre-vis this wall, so we had to try to get the wall installed early in the process. The media team needed to take into account the curvature of the display, something it couldn’t do at its own offices.”
