Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2012 - 50

technology is integral for a couple of reasons: "As far back as
when the museum was built, we felt we had a balance of technology and static exhibits, artifacts and such, and we think you
need to strike that balance." He continued, "Some folks are going in the direction of strictly interactive and technology driven,
and we don't think that's correct. This is an art form that is
represented by some great totems or relics, meaning guitars,
clothing, etc., and to see those live and in person, the spirit of
the music is captured in those relics, and we need to have those
here. At the same time it's very hard to tell the entire story, and
it is certainly hard to exhibit the art form which is music itself,
not the relics, without the creative and ever-evolving technology
of the day. On top of that, we've lived so long in this day of interactivity, personal computers, now cell phones, and everything
else that we are driven to that point of technology because that's
what people expect."
The technology scope for this project was relatively
straight forward: provide a cohesive, unified system that was
easy to maintain. The challenges in this project were dealing
with poor acoustics, outdated or insufficient infrastructure,
dealing with old content in outdated formats, and a rethinking how the museum technology staff was going to operate
and maintain the systems. The approach also meshed with
the desire for the museum to leave a green footprint. The
backbone of the system is based on Alcorn McBride's V16Pro
Show Controllers networked together over a new fiber network. The controllers are triggering several Alcorn Digital
Binloop HDs, DVMHD-Pro digital video players, and digital

audio players. This gives the museum the flexibility to take offline individual exhibits without impacting the daily operation
of the facility or drastically reducing the visitor experience.
The system also ties into the new theatrical-based exhibit
lighting system. This system is controlled using the Alcorn
McBride Light Cue Pros running DMX 512 to Altman Smart
Track fixtures retrofitted with Cree LED lamps and Color Kinetics eWCove Linear LED fixtures for case lights installed by
Vincent Lighting Systems and Bright Focus Sales. Traditional
incandescent track fixtures are used on a selective basis for
specific reasons where the quality of the light from the LED
lamps is not sufficient for a specific artifact. This gives the
museum control of lighting at the fixture level, reduces potential damage to the artifacts by virtually eliminating infrared
light and heat, and since the lamps have a 50,000-hour lamp
life, maintenance is reduced as well. The cost for the upgrade
to LED was almost double, but the energy savings and benefits
to the artifacts are substantial.
Displays and projection were upgraded to 1080p and
rethought in some cases as to location and integration to
better tell the story without being intrusive. Audio was carefully planned to minimize acoustical impact in the newly
redesigned circulation. This was critical, as intelligibility of
the content is critical to a museum that focuses on an aural
experience. Audio bleed before the renovation was a major
issue in the museum. We achieved this using a combination of
custom-built Brown Innovations focusing-array loudspeakers
and K-Array KKVB-50 mini line arrays strategically placed to

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theatre design

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2012