9/11 Anniversary: AV and digital signage technology to commemorate and remember the victims of the terrorist attacks

Thirteen years after the most tragic terrorist attack in history: he 11 September 2001 in New York and Washington, the museum and space dedicated to the memory and remembrance of its victims pays emotional tribute to them, with audiovisual and digital signage technologies as fundamental tools of this evocation.

El National September 11 Memorial & Museum especially attracts international attention on that day in the commemoration of the thirteenth anniversary of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, a date that has been marked in world history, in which they died 2.976 personas.

This space, created as a place of tribute, cult, reflection and remembrance of the victims of 9/11, It fully opened its doors a few months ago with the inauguration of the museum by the president of the United States, Barack Obama, and is located on the block where the twin towers that made up the World Trade Center were originally located., a commercial and business complex in Lower Manhattan made up of seven buildings and in which some 35.000 personas, which was destroyed after the terrorist attacks.

many emotions, reactions and memories are those experienced when visiting this museum, where audiovisual and digital signage technologies are a fundamental element in the recreation of images, videos, projections,…of that tragic day and, by extension, of many more after the attack and its reconstruction to try to understand what happened.

Nearly a hundred multimedia installations make up the National September 11 Memorial & Museum; a complex work in conceptualization and engineering carried out for almost ten years to try to channel the pain, support and remember each of the victims who died in the attack.

Visitors enter the museum through a pavilion in the atrium of which two original steel tridents have been placed, belonging to the facade of the north tower of the WTC, as well as the fuselage of one of the planes, while the main exhibition is located in the original foundations and below ground level of the complex.

The museum's AV and digital signage systems have been supplied by the multinational Electrosonic. Six large vertical screens, in a vertical configuration and staggered by a ramp that gives access to the museum, they show the first contents of the tragedy, which is complemented by the portion of a world map that is projected on each of the displays and that gives uniformity and cohesion to the set of audiovisual elements., along with sixteen ceiling-mounted speakers through which a voice-over recounts in several languages ​​the moments leading up to the fateful day.

The last column

In the Foundation Hall area, better known as the Last Column (Last column), a piece of steel more than ten meters high belonging to the Twin Towers presides over the space, along with two touch screens 55 inches, in which visitors can scroll up and down the length of the column to view the names of the victims and the memories that appear next to them.

Besides, eight interactive tables are distributed to search in detail the photograph of the face of your loved ones, whose photos are also displayed on the wall; biographies and more images provided by their relatives.

On the three walls that surround visitors in this space, seven projectors are responsible for showing the video, eleven minutes long, made by filmmaker Jim Whitaker over the past thirteen years, fruit of a laborious selection of images captured and selected by this professional from the environment in which the museum is currently located; from its ruined state, its cleaning until reconstruction.

Multidisciplinary spaces for reflection and education

The museum also has four education classrooms, equipped with digital whiteboards, document cameras, video conferencing systems, etc. in which various matters related to safety are explained to visitors and schoolchildren, the history and consequences of the attacks,…

Electrosonic has also provided the audiovisual systems for the auditorium pavilion, a multidisciplinary space with 150 seats, approximately, which is used to show the 9/11 videos, related movies and also used for holding conferences and events.

Another of the spaces that involve visitors in their tours are some cabins., equipped with screens, so that each person can record their own story, testimony or memory of 9/11, which is then projected onto a large format digital screen.

The audiovisual systems distributed throughout the different rooms of the museum are managed from three service control rooms, where the racks are housed. The auditorium has its own control room and Electrosonic technicians are responsible for maintaining on-site equipment maintenance and its correct operation..