The £78 million Darwin Centre, a new extension to the museum, occupies a spectacular eight-storey-high concrete Cocoon suspended within a glass outer box. It allows museum visitors and scientists to share for the first time the excitement of exploring, studying and preserving the natural world.
Sysco is lead AV contractor on the project, on behalf of project managers Cultural Innovations. Cocoon features an array of exhibits in a curved walkway that spirals through several of its floors. The exhibits make full use of state of the art technology to enhance the visitor experience and provide easy access to multiple layers of information.
Sysco's work is the first sight that greets visitors - in the shape of the 12m wide Climate Change Wall, an unmissable glass wall of high resolution screens that display films and interactive graphics, spotlighting Earth's changing climate and how the Museum's research informs global efforts to understand that change. Motion sensor technology allows visitors to interact with the graphics, an opening statement of Sysco's philosophy toward the project's implementation.
"We worked to a tight brief from the client, the Natural History Museum's design team," says Sysco managing director Hugo Roche. "They wanted us to recommend and develop innovative technology solutions, moving forwards from the familiar touch screen interactives to ideas that would be more unexpected and more subtly engaging for visitors of all ages. The extraordinary shape of the Cocoon presented a lot of exciting challenges, not least the cabling installation, for which we were also awarded the contract, with very complex cable runs through the structure."
On the visual side, Sysco specified extensive quantities of NEC LCD displays, Panasonic PT-DW100, PT-D4000 and PT-DW5100e and Mitsubishi WD2000U projectors interfaced via Gefen extenders. A mixture of Apple Macs, custom built Windows PCs and DVS Blade video servers drive the huge array of content that allows visitors to explore the Darwin Center's 17m insect and three million plant specimens, and delve deep into the heart of the collections, the working life of the museum's world-class scientists and the previously hidden world of scientific research.
Interactives employ a variety of Sysco proprietary technologies incorporating other cutting edge products such as Visual Planet touch foils mounted under glass touch surfaces and motion detection devices.
Audio commentary and subtle sound effects are delivered from multiple HD based sources via an extensive BSS Soundweb network to Cloud CX-A4 and CX-A850 amplifiers. These power a variety of loudspeakers chosen for their specific task and location, including JBL Control 24s and 25s, Panphonics Soundshowers, Visaton FRS recessed units, and Vyper KV50 ultra-flat 3D line array elements. Sysco also installed an Ampetronic induction loop system throughout the Cocoon.
"It has been an amazing and challenging project for us to work on," added Roche, "and we are extremely proud to be part of what is set to be one of the UK's top visitor attractions."
(Jim Evans)
