The Canadian Museum of Human Rights breaks molds with its state-of-the-art AV facility

The architecture of the building that houses the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg has posed to Electrosonic important challenges when it comes to implementing the complex AV infrastructure of its 11 Galleries.

The new Canadian Museum for Human Rights (Canadian Museum for Human Rights) of Winnipeg (Manitoba) presents an innovative architectural design, made by the American Antoine Predock, in which steel stone has been used, glass and concrete for its construction and which has been equipped with alabaster ramps and stone-lined bridges, crisscrossing an atrium of 51,8 metre.

A design that has posed significant challenges to Electrosonic when integrating the complex AV installation with which the building has been equipped.

Electrosonic has been responsible, next to Advance Pro, of the installation of the audiovisual design of the eleven galleries that make up the museum and where a large number of interactive touch screens and projection equipment have been installed, as well as an audio infrastructure that has had to adapt to the acoustics of the building. A project in which companies have also participated SH Acoustics, Milford & Connecticut LLC to provide sound structure.

“This is not a museum with the typical galleries as there is not a single wall at right angles, some are triangular with less than half a meter of space at their widest point. It is designed so that you can see from the first floor the exhibitions held on the fifth floor, aspects that had to be taken into account when making the audio infrastructure", explains Steve Haas, president and consultant of SH Acoustics.

likewise, throughout the museum are arranged different theaters, there is even an outdoor one in which three projectors have been installed on the roof ship HDX-W20 Flex that are managed with the system Dataton Watchout to be able to make the projections.

The Indigenous Perspectives gallery is one of the most spectacular space of the museum that focuses attention on a theater where a curved 360º screen has been installed where visitors can see a video where stories of indigenous rights and responsibilities are shared, told through four different generations. The room also has six projectors Barco CNWU-61B and a seventh available for special presentations. An infrastructure that is also managed by Watchout software.

The Canadian Journeys Room, the largest in the museum, explore dozens of Canadian stories, from democratic rights to linguistic rights and from freedom of conscience to non-discrimination. It has a theater with a single projector Barco CNWU-61B, and a digital canvas that conveys stories through a screen of 29 metre. It also has four projectors Panasonic PT-DS20KU.

Another gallery, the Examining the Holocaust, presents a single screen and a projector Boat CNWU-61B. On its walls are shown fragments symbolizing the 'Infamous Kristallnacht' of the Nazis. A second theatre, view a movie with the Ukrainian Holocaust (Ukrainian Holodomor), presenting a similar configuration. A combination of four projectors feed the projection of 24,3 metre.

last, in the Rights Today gallery have been installed three equipment Barco CNWU-61Bs that view the contents, on the surface of an interactive wall, that are made using a TVOne system. It also has a small theater that seeks to make the visitor think critically about what is seen and read.

Interactive AV infrastructure

Visitors also have, during his visit to the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, of numerous interactive screens, among which you can see touch models Elo Touch of 27 Inch. To ensure that interactive services are accessible to all, Electrosonic worked closely with the museum team to design Key Pads that allow people with disabilities to also enjoy this technology.

The museum has an audiovisual infrastructure that includes equipment from different manufacturers, so in the Canadian Journeys there are arranged different teams of Samsumg, Nec and Viewsonic; while the Protecting Rights in Canada gallery has 15 information points that integrate Elo touch screens and monitors Samsung of 65 Inch.

Four interactive stations have been installed in the gallery of the exploration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, each of them integrated by two Samsung monitors of 55 inches mounted in portrait format and equipped with gesture recognition technology Microsoft Kinect. You can also see a digital study table composed of 12 MultiTouch touch screens 55 inches mounted on your back, side by side. A Media Literacy Theater incorporates two Samsung monitors 75 Inch, which is hung in portrait mode, one on top of the other.

Actions Count, a gallery aimed at young visitors, presents a visual solution composed of three interactive tables that offers a gesture recognition game with which it is intended that visitors reflect on how the decisions that are made in daily life affect others. To complete the experience the room has three projectors Boat CNWU-61B.

Sound and audio

In this museum of challenging architecture, sets of compact linear speakers and ceiling arrays have been deployed. Brown Innovations, Renkus Heinz and shelving equipment Tannoy 2-D to improve the feeling of immersion in theaters. Examining the Holocaust and Breaking the Silence galleries have used speakers from Innovox, embedded in banks.

The Indigenous Perspectives, which has benches located throughout the room to facilitate the visualization of the large widescreen and visual access to the central area where guest artists participate posed to the technicians a great challenge. Instead of directing the sound through the room, Tannoy speakers were placed behind the screens.

It has also arranged a wooden wall in a wavy shape that creates the perfect diffusion in this circular room and offers another element of design 'visually unique’ with compact subwoofers of James Loudspeaker placed under benches.

Biamp AudiaFLEX CMs were the main audio processors used in the museum, while Medialon Manager provides supervision and control of most of the equipment in the museum.

Other articles on ship, Biamp, Brown Innovations, Dataton, Electrosonic, Elo TouchSystems, Innovox, James Loudspeaker, Microsoft, Nec, NEC Display Solutions Europe, Panasonic, Renkus-Heinz, Samsung, SH Acoustics, Tannoy, ViewSonic