latest news headlines
Martin Audio ‘Over the Front' in Major WW1 Expo
With Australia's World War One aviation heroics now almost the stuff of folklore, the Australian War Memorial (AWM) in Canberra recently embarked on a major exhibit, recording and reproducing the very-real exploits of Australian pilots in the skies over the Western Front in France and in the Middle East.
In a collaborative trans-Tasman effort, Over The Front brought artefacts and visuals from these campaigns to visitors.
Bruce Brown, project manager with Mental Media in Sydney, oversaw the AV installation which included consulting on the hardware design, speci?cation, and documentation in collaboration with Alex Smythe, AV Manager at the Memorial.
The technical infrastructure drew heavily on cinema loudspeakers from Martin Audio.
The exhibit itself featured ?ve aircraft - three Allied types and two rare German ?ghter planes - along with other artefacts including the left boot of The Red Baron (Baron von Richthofen). Aside from the AV, the aircraft and collection objects were displayed in an exhibition designed by Freeman Ryan Design, and including a 21m x 3.5m curved projection screen.
Situated in the Anzac Hall, the virtual blank canvas did represent a number of challenges including non-intrusion or disruption to the rest of the exhibitions in the hall, noted Bruce Brown. "This was achieved by careful choice and placement of the components and by expert system tuning undertaken by Anthony Russo from Technical Audio Group (TAG)."
Russo worked with local dealer Darren Russell from Elite Sound and Lighting and Glen Harrison from HME Engineering, who was responsible for all the tricky steel fabrication to produce a turnkey solution and overcome the vast areas of hard re?ective surfaces.
Suspended behind the curved screen in L/C/R con?guration were three Martin Audio Screen 5 THX-approved cinema active three-way systems, with dual 15-inch low frequency drivers, a large-format mid/high horn containing six-inch horn-loaded midrange, and a one-inch compression driver.
The surround speakers, consisting of two Martin Audio Screen Sub 1A high-powered 18-inch sub-bass units, to THX spec, were suspended far left and right of the space with an overhead dead centre effect speaker.
The sound was produced in 7.1 Dolby Digital Cinema surround sound and once the seven channels left the decoder they were duly processed in the system's DSP.
Using the Martin Audio system components Russo knew he could achieve a sense of realism, stating, "It's mostly about putting sound exactly where you want it and nowhere else. The choice of speakers gave me genuine pattern control down to 300Hz which helped me conquer the space.
"The Screen 5 from Martin Audio is a THX Hollywood cinema-size cabinet and stands well over two metres high. The large format mid/high horn gives hi-?-sounding results but at concert levels. I wanted the people to feel like they were in the cockpit during the air battles, such that the ?y-bys really felt like a plane had just buzzed through the Memorial and over their heads.
"It's a ?ne line between too much volume and effect, and making it realistic. It's no different to riding a major theatre show - a quarter of a dB here or there can make all the difference."
TAG also had to consider the ongoing maintenance of the system, and employed close fault monitoring, so that alerts could be instantly flagged by SMS or email.
In addition, the visual projection was installed by the AWM AV staff with the screen and rigging points ?ne-tuned by Glen Harris of Harris Movement Technology. The visual content was produced by none other
than New Zealand ?lmmaker Peter Jackson - better known for his epic elf wars.
Working with his production company, Wingnut Film Production, Jackson also devised an awe-inspiring piece which made the most of the wrap-around screen. With visual effects by Weta Digital, the installation provided the audience with remarkable insight, enhanced by the audiovisual system.
The entire presentation was controlled by a Medialon system installed and programmed by Interactive Controls as part of the AWM's overall multimedia control system. The production itself was delivered by the Dataton Watchout application running on four computers. Lighting control was from the Medialon system via a pre-installed Jands Vista console and Dynalite dimmers.
Ultimately, the project was required to satisfy a number of principal criteria, not least of which ensuring that the hardware installation had a very low visual impact.
And with a nine-month turn-around from concept to completion, the display has been a high-?ying success. As Bruce Brown summed up: "It looks good, it sounds good, everything works as expected, the client is happy - what more could you ask for?"
3rd November 2009
HEADLINES
news archive
search stories
FOOTNOTE: Select the news type you require in the red band above; this will enable you to see the current news stories from that section
© 1999 - 2012 Entertainment Technology Press Limited News Stories
