The Discovery Center includes replicas of the Oval Office and White House Press Room; a military situation room modeled after the U.S.S. Ronald Reagan naval warship; and a real Air Force One simulator.
“Kids play out a 50-minute, time-critical scenario involving the decision to invade Grenada in 1983,” explained Kelly. “They get a dossier that explains the history of invasion before they arrive for their visit, and they are assigned roles to play from members of the press corps and military officials to the President himself.”
Sound effects, lighting and video elements ratchets up the pressure as student decision-making gets underway in the Discovery Center, with different AV scenarios triggered by whether students choose path A or path B, as a clock counts down anxious moments.
To synchronize the scripted but disparate events, Kelly selected an Alcorn McBride V16 show controller, which locks to timecode and tells a Video Binloop which of 25 different video modules to play. The Binloop also houses audio cuts and sound bites.
Cues from the V16 trigger a Crestron PRO2 control system and 12×8 video matrix switcher that routes certain clips to specific displays. The PRO2 can also prompt the V16 to start an event after a planned or unplanned delay.
An Alcorn McBride DMX Machine feeds lighting cues during the simulation.
After students decide whether or not to invade Grenada, they gather in the jet simulator as if they were flying on Air Force One. There they view archival news footage from the event, combined with video of the kids’ decision-making process as they get the chance to experience a moment in history coming alive.
“Alcorn McBride’s Binloop is great and has worked fantastically well,” reported Kelly, who credited the Alcorn equipment for reliability. “Two or three groups of students pass through the Discovery Center every day – already 50,000 students have experienced the Grenada simulation, and the Center is booked for the next two years. The Alcorn gear has run consistently for two-and-a-half years and has never broken down.”
The Air Force One Discovery Center won a Thea Award in December 2008 for Outstanding Achievement: Learning Experience.
For more information, please visit www.alcorn.com.
