SOLUTIONS: DAVID BOWIE IS, VICTORIA & ALBERT MUSEUM, LONDON
work as an actor. The “Heroes”section
features audio played out across a 3D soundscape through hidden Neumann and Klein + Hummel speakers. Because the original mono and stereo audio sources are of varying quality, an upmix algorithm – created by Gregor Zielinksy, international recording applications manager at Sennheiser, was used to create audio suitable for 3D reproduction. The V&A has a sizeable
inventory of audiovisual equipment. Therefore “some of the hardware decisions were based on available stock, some were based on the story that the V&A wanted to tell”, explains Roche.
“Most of the projectors and
TVs we had already,” adds Grosvenor. “We want to take this exhibition on a six-venue world tour, and when we do that, we may use other equipment.” Roche says that the part of
the exhibition where the need to use existing inventory had the greatest effect on the installation process was for the large projection, “where we have double-stacked and edge- blended 10 projectiondesign devices in order to achieve the size and brightness of image that 59 Productions was after. A simpler solution would have been to use a brighter projector and only use half the number of them. It presented us with an interesting challenge during the commissioning to pixelmap those projectors that accurately – it was time- consuming.”
RETRO LOOK One somewhat quirky visual attraction is a 3 x 3 array of old CRT televisions – not, one senses, Hugo Roche’s favourite part of the exhibition. “They had more or less come out of retirement for an exhibition last year, and they must have been at the forefront of someone’s mind at the time.” They were presumably chosen, he says, to lend an element of ’70s or ’80s retro – “it certainly wasn’t because they’d run out of screens. But, boy was it hard work to nurse them into life!”
This is one of the areas of
the exhibition that is run by the CueServer master show control. Each CRT screen has its own Brightsign media player, which sits on the
www.installation-international.com
In the foreground, puppets with projected faces; in the background, a 3 x 3 array of old CRT TVs
the O2 rather than the V&A. “People seem to like it,”
says Marsh, “from hardcore fans to people who don’t know much about Bowie. We’ve created an exhibition appropriate to the subject. It’s also the first exhibition in the UK where sound has been so integral to the visitor experience, as one ‘interpretation track’ to mix with other sounds and text.” The presentation is also
main network and plays content according to cues from the CueServer. According to Tom Grosvenor, it would take all day to watch all of this content from beginning to end. The CueServer also sends cues to the Dataton Watchout servers that drive the main projection, and to the Catalyst servers in the Berlin area, adds Roche. The most significant issue
for Sysco, says Roche, was the time available to do the job. “The installation budget and the commissioning budget were both cut by a week, so we lost two weeks over the normal turnaround period.” Because the event was back-to-back with another AV-heavy show, the company had less than 24 hours to remove the old cabling and install all the new cabling into the exhibition. With no in-house AV technician, support duties are being fulfilled by Sysco. “We provided tech support during the opening period up to the week after Easter – now we’re on call for any eventualities should they need us,” explains Roche. “We’ve put in place quite a lot of remote diagnostics and remote access so that as much of that can be done offsite as possible.” Unfortunately that doesn’t include the CRTs, which have some rather delicate potentiometers that have required adjustment on site. Roche had good feelings about the exhibition before it opened. “When I finally saw the whole thing together as one show, I was very impressed and very pleased to have been involved with it. I think the work that 59 did on the media content was excellent, a lot of the exhibits have interesting historical aspects. I think it’s a good show.”
May 2013 55
The exhibition was hotly anticipated – it sold 47,000 tickets before it opened on 23 March – the V&A’s highest-ever pre-opening figure. And the exhibition has received excellent reviews – although one influential critic thought that it should be at
appropriate to the demands of the audience. “Within 30 years, all our customers will have been brought up in a world with sound on demand,” says Marsh. In 2002, Bowie told the New York Times: “Music itself is going to become like running water or electricity.” He was referring to how the internet was poised to revolutionise the music industry – but given the seamless way that audio has
been incorporated into the V&A show, he could just as easily have been describing ‘David Bowie is’.
www.59productions.co.uk www.adder.com www.agneovo.com www.audicapro.co.uk www.brightsign.biz www.dataton.com www.guideport.com www.hantarex.com www.hiveindustries.com www.interactive-online.com www.joeco.co.uk www.krksys.com www.mauvecom.co.uk www.motu.com www.neumann-kh-line.com www.optoma.com www.panasonic.net/avc/projector www.pro-systems-group.com www.projectiondesign.com www.realstudios.co.uk www.brightsign.biz www.samsung.com www.vivitek.eu www.wyrestorm.com
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