The new gallery is designed as a giant aluminium ‘bonnet’ with the same yellow livery in Ferrari’s logo Picture: cento29 for Fondazione Casa Enzo Ferrari
ITALY Living the dream
A new multimedia installation at the Ferrari founder’s birthplace/museum is helping to bring his story to a wider audience, writes Mike Clark
THE NEW Casa Enzo Ferrari Museum in the Italian city of Modena is dedicated to one of the country’s legendary figures – Enzo Ferrari, the man, driver and car maker. The museum, built at a cost of some €18 million, stands alongside the house where Ferrari was born and, together with his workshop, has been merged with a futuristic new gallery: a giant aluminium ‘bonnet’ with the same yellow livery as the background for the prancing horse in Ferrari’s world- famous trademark. The international competition for the museum’s design was won by Future Systems of London and, as well as the cutting- edge technology installed, the museum emphasises energy conservation and environmental sustainability. For example, a geothermal source supplies the radiant air-conditioning systems, thermal solar panels produce hot water, and exhibition areas without direct natural light are powered by
features a multimedia display of pictures, unpublished films and mementoes of Ferrari’s life as visitors embark on an exciting journey, through the age of huge challenges and passion for speed, to discover the myth. The new gallery, on the other hand, features the protagonists of The Great Ferrari-Maserati Challenges, dedicated to the competition between the two world- famous names in Italian car racing. Nineteen cars, carefully chosen from among the two companies’ most representative and prestigious, are on show like real works of art, on custom stands. To highlight the story of
Ferrari’s life and some of Italian automobile history’s most beautiful cars, in accordance with the architects, specialist firm Videoworks designed and installed a complex AV system for the house and gallery.
LIFE STORY The company’s system engineer, Carlo Bellocchio, says: “Our brief was to design and install a multimedia system able to enthral visitors as it accompanied them through the story of Ferrari’s life.”
The museum’s particularly complex audio set-up consists of a series of systems which, as well as having specific functions (EN54-compliant voice evacuation throughout, general background with selectable audio sources, effects, Dolby playback in the projection room and sound reinforcement for the conference and training rooms), are all interconnected and can in fact be considered as one large system when necessary.
Bellocchio continues: “It’s
hard to compare this project with others. It really was tailor-made to meet the specific requisites of the venue, with features such as the realisation of a perimeter loudspeaker system playing
[INSTALLED]
VIDEO Samsung SMP2770 and SM743EM monitors Elo 2639L LCD open-frame touch monitors BenQ V2200 Eco LCD monitors Albiral 3 Pack monitors Comm-Tec 43FA-M120-IR motorised screen Mitsubishi WD8200 and FD-630 projectors BrightSign HD410 and HD110 video players Alcorn McBride Digital Binloop SD+4 video player Denon DBP-2010 Blu-ray player Denon AVR-3310 multi-zone receiver Sony EVI-D70P robotic video cameras LifeSize Team MP videoconferencing system Extron MVX 44 VGA A and MMX 42 switchers Extron DVS304 and RGB- HDMI 300 A scalers Extron P/2 DA4xi VGA distribution amplifiers Extron MTP T 15HD A VGA and audio transmitters Extron MTP RL 15HD A SEQ VGA and audio receivers with skew equalisation Extron HDMI 201 extenders Kramer VP-32K and VP- 161xl switchers Crestron TPS-6L and TPS-6X touchpanels
CONTROL Crestron PRO2 control systems Crestron DMCI card interface Crestron HD-DA-2 splitter Crestron DM-RMC-100-C receiver + room controllers Crestron CP2E control system Crestron MC2E compact control system Crestron MPC-M25-W-T programmable control system Cisco WS-C2960-24-S Ethernet switches Dell Vostro slim PCs
AUDIO Soundtube HP590iW speakers Tannoy Q-Flex 24, Arena HL500, i9, Di5W and i7 Contour speakers Tannoy TS1201 subwoofer InOut SM1-P microphone systems and DA480R amps MC2 T1000 amplifier Audio-Technica ATW-3141B and ATW-3110BP mics Biamp Vocia DS-10 desktop networked paging system Biamp Vocia VA-8600 amps Biamp Vocia AM-600 amp Biamp Logic Box programmable I/O control interface Biamp Audia Flex CM Cobranet modules Apart PCR3000R media players