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Electrosonic integrates interactive solutions for museum remodel

Electrosonic has provided AV equipment and integration services for the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame as part of the remodelling of the venue’s first floor gallery.

Electrosonic has provided AV equipment and integration services for the National Cowgirl Museum and Hall of Fame as part of the remodelling of the venue’s first floor gallery.

The 33,000sqft museum, located in Fort Worth, Texas, has an archive with more than 4,000 artefacts and information about over 750 remarkable women; the Hall of Fame has 220 honourees, including author Laura Ingalls Wilder, Hollywood’s Dale Evans, and Lewis and Clark’s guide Sacagawea.

“Even though the museum couldn’t have a more American focus, the project was actually a global collaboration,” said Electrosonic program manager Tom Rowat. “The design consultant was a French company and the exhibit fabricator was an Italian company.”

The museum’s new signature piece is an interactive mobile, a hanging sculpture suspended in the Grand Rotunda’s atrium and held in equilibrium by rods and weighted objects that balance each other.

The mobile includes rotating graphic panels and a dozen rotating projection screens, all hanging from rods suspended from the ceiling. Electrosonic furnished BrightSign players that feed NEC LED projectors, which display video clips onto the 12 projected screens. The projectors are also part of the mobile itself mounted on their sides in double-sided casings. In addition, the mobile’s video content can be changed to support special events taking place in the Grand Rotunda.

The new permanent first-floor gallery highlights cowgirls in Wild West shows and the legendary sharpshooter, Annie Oakley. Four small and one large Pepper’s ghost exhibits are triggered by motion detectors buried in the walls. Visitors approach a viewport-style hole where they can view the special effects formed by pairs of 20in video monitors and half-silvered mirrors. A life-size Pepper’s ghost of Annie Oakley was created with a ceiling-mounted Panasonic projector.

Electrosonic also provided five double-sided hanging glass screens, each illuminated by a Panasonic projector and a BrightSign player. Five more BrightSign players feed 48in Samsung monitors hung in portrait orientation. Additionally, five wall-mounted interactive exhibits are driven by Dell computers and feature Elo Touch Solutions 32in touchscreens.

A photo booth, where visitors can pose with historical images and print or email themselves a picture, is outfitted with a Dell computer, a Point Grey Flea camera, a small Elo Touch Solutions touchscreen and monitors.

Electrosonic programmed the Crestron system that controls a total of 31 BrightSign players, an array of projectors and monitors throughout the gallery.

“We have remote access to the museum if there are any issues to deal with,” noted Rowat. “With the TeamViewer utility, I can log onto the site and check the status of the operator panel. But everything is working well, and everyone is very happy with the Grand Rotunda’s mobile and new gallery.”