NEC AV technology brings 'ghostly effect' to new Madame Tussauds exhibition

To create the spectral scene that surrounds the exhibition dedicated to the 'Ghostbusters', four V323-2 screens have been used. 32 inches, seven V423 42, a V463 46 and a NP-P502H projector.

The use of AV technologies is a constant in the exhibitions carried out by the Madame Tussauds wax museum in New York. The last one that has been launched is the one made for the permanent exhibition 'Ghostbusters'.

The objective was to go beyond a simple exhibition with wax statues. We wanted to offer a theatrical experience that would allow us to tell a story and bring the legendary film to life.. Our challenge was to help them find the right technology to achieve that goal.”, explains Bryan Meszaros, CEO and founder of OpenEye Global.

The solution was found in technology NEC Display Solutions. Four V323-2 screens were purchased for the project. 32 inches, seven V423 42 inches, a 46” V463 and an NP-P502H projector.

Using the design made by the company MXW Studios, OpenEye Global created the graphics and visual effects for the exhibition and worked with Sony Pictures to ensure the animations were faithful to the film, including filming costumed actors in front of screens to recreate characters from the film. The firm Czinkota Estudios has been in charge of creating the physical exhibition.

The exhibition

The entrance to the 'Ghostbusters' experience simulates a New York subway station, with tiled walls and signage for lines G and B. As they pass through this hallway an NEC screen of 46 inches is activated with a video by Al Roker, warning New Yorkers that the city is a chaos of ghostly apparitions.

The visit continues until we reach a vagó whose windows are actually three NEC screens of 42 inches showing an animation of an unhappy ghost named Sparky, an insane prisoner executed by electrocution. The animation moves across the three screens, appearing and disappearing, threatening visitors, and producing the effect that it is circling the subway car.

Next, Visitors arrive at a haunted mansion where several portraits hang on the walls. And whose eyes follow them as they go down the hallway. Some portraits that, In fact, there are four screens of 32 inches and another four of 42. The hallway ends at a portrait of Gertrude, whose image appears human until it transforms into its supernatural form and spits 'ectoplasm'(agua) thanks to the installation of motion sensors.

The last room is the headquarters of the Ghostbusters where the characters of this film are exhibited in the form of wax figures and, at the exit, a last specter bids them farewell flying through the fog with its image projected on a screen with an NEC projector.

“There are effects that are not digital, like jets of cold air coming out of the walls, illuminated transparent cement that appears to glow, rocking chairs that move on their own, the smoke, the music that comes towards the visitor from all angles. A complete setting that offers a sensory experience of 360 degrees” comments Meszaros.