The American Civil War Center at Historic Tredegar provides visitors with an engaging Civil War experience from Union, Confederate and African American perspectives. The Center, located along the waterfront in downtown Richmond, VA, offers exhibits, educational programs, conferences and symposia designed to tell “the whole story” of the nation’s historic conflict. Recently, CTSI was tasked with redesigning the technological elements throughout the museum’s facilities and exhibits.
Challenge
Museum curators requested numerous upgrades to the existing multimedia exhibits. Solutions would need to be capable of operating uninterrupted, year around. The technologies must be reliable, low-maintenance, and the control interface must offer user-friendly “hands-off” scheduling capability. It was critical for CTSI’s solutions to incorporate advanced technologies that could remain functional and impactful well into the future. Further, the complete systems had to be installed within a one-week window during the facility’s extensive renovation.
Solution
CTSI’s expert engineers and technicians implemented a comprehensive technology upgrade. In the first major exhibit, the CTSI team installed a 70” LCD panel, and two additional 46” LED/LCD displays to replace the aging plasma units. These brighter, larger displays required far less power than the older units they replaced. In the second major exhibit, techs installed an upgraded Panasonic projector and a series of 19” HD displays. The speaker system was upgraded and repositioned in order to project higher quality audio and reduce noise pollution. CTSI technicians replaced the existing rack of over a dozen DVD players with two Alcorn McBride flash drive high-definition video players. In addition, a new high definition backbone was installed using Cat-6 cabling. This new cabling system occupies less space, and allows for scalability to meet future HD video needs. To enhance visitor experience, CTSI techs installed an upgraded AMX touchpanel control system and motion sensors which activated audiovisual presentations based on visitor proximity. The control system includes programmable scheduling so that the entire audiovisual system can operate automatically, while still offering manual start/stop functions. In addition, CTSI provided a web-based interface to allow curators to operate the system remotely and connect computers to the display.
Results
CTSI deployed a total solution that completely revitalized the American Civil War Center exhibits. CTSI’s solution provides the highest quality HD video, and clear, focused audio throughout the facility. The total solution functions reliably year around, with user-friendly controls that offer the precise degree of “hands-off” automation that museum curators required. The systems easily handled all of the exhibits’ existing audiovisual footage while offering scalability to incorporate advanced HD multimedia according to future needs. In addition, CTSI’s expert technicians installed the complete systems within the allotted window of time. When the CTSI team completed their work, they left an impeccably clean facility, ready to open for business the following day.