Part of the University of Manchester, the Discovery Centre works alongside the Observatory to educate visitors about the research and the live science that is carried out by the Jodrell Bank team. The new £3m project includes a new entrance building, the Planet Pavilion, and a new Space Pavilion for exhibitions and events.
Teresa Anderson, director of the Discovery Centre says, "We are delighted with the exhibition. It's a huge improvement on the last centre and the visitors are really enjoying the interactive elements. The exhibition enables us to inspire visitors in an exciting and fun way."
Housed in the Planet Pavilion is the introductory exhibit, the 'Live Science Wall', designed to help explain the current work of the telescope to visitors. A 42-inch LCD panel shows 'live' images from the telescope, whilst a 22-inch LCD panel displays a looping video sequence.
The Space Pavilion is a combination of class room, events space and exhibition. The exhibition features a line of exhibits supported by a 'Film Pod' that shows short films about the history of Jodrell Bank on a continuous basis. The 'People of Jodrell Bank' exhibit allows visitors, using a 21-inch touch screen, to choose a person working at the Discovery Centre and ask them questions about the work they are doing. The person concerned appears on a 42-inch LCD panel.
A second exhibit demonstrates the importance of non-visible radiation using an infra-red camera connected to a 42-inch LCD panel. Visitors can interpose different materials between themselves and the camera to show their absorption effect. Other interactive exhibits include touch screen displays covering topics such as the Big Bang, pulsars and black holes.
"Electrosonic was very proactive in sourcing the most suitable equipment for Jodrell Bank whilst staying within their budget. The installation was very stress free on our part, and the aftersales service has been most appreciated," commented Jeff Davis, director of The Moule Partnership.
The AV technology installed by Electrosonic included Panphonic electrostatic directional loudspeakers, Roku Brightsign digital video players and IDEAL MP3 solid state audio players. An interesting point about the installation was that the client specified that only computers with a clock range between 1.8 and 2.2 GHz could be used. Computers with other clock frequencies, cell phones and laptop computers are not allowed on site because of the possibility of interference.
Exhibition design was jointly carried out by Thomas Matthews and Norton Allison, with Horseshoeshape as media producers.
(Jim Evans)
