WASHINGTON, DC – Electrosonic supplied and installed equipment for Washington, D.C.’s National Building Museum exhibit, “House & Home.” Running through spring 2017, “House & Home” presents an array of photos, objects, models and films that show visitors the changes in domestic life over the centuries and what it means to be at home in America.
More details from Electrosonic (http://www.electrosonic.com):
WASHINGTON, DC – Washington, D.C.’s National Building Museum is hosting a major new exhibition, “House & Home,” with galleries featuring equipment supplied and installed by Electrosonic. Running through spring 2017, “House & Home” presents an array of photos, objects, models and films that show visitors the remarkable changes in domestic life over the centuries and what it means to be at home in America.
Located just four blocks from the National Mall, the National Building Museum is housed in its own landmark structure, the former US Pension Bureau headquarters, whose Italianate Great Hall features soaring 75-foot tall Corinthian columns and a magnificent terra cotta frieze. “House & Home,” designed by Ralph Appelbaum Associates, occupies seven second-floor galleries in the museum’s northwest corner.
“The big challenge for us was working in a landmark building,” notes Electrosonic engineering project manager, Randy Sherwood. “The museum is such a cool space, and we had to work with the existing fabric of the building. We used existing lighting tracks to hang speakers in Galleries 5 and 7 because they wanted to avoid new penetrations in the red brick structure that was completed in 1887. In order to avoid acoustic issues, it was imperative to keep the audio localized and at low levels because all the ceilings are domed.”
Electrosonic designed, fabricated, programmed and installed equipment for selected galleries and trained the museum staff to operate and troubleshoot the installation.
The company provided six continuous-play video kiosks to three of the Living at Home galleries. These galleries display hundreds of household goods used over the past several centuries from a butter churn and hand-painted screen door to a must-have fondue set and Farrah Fawcett poster. Each kiosk features a portrait-mounted 32-inch, open-frame i-Tech LCD monitor. The video interface, video player and an Ethernet-controlled power bar are mounted under the floor at the base of the kiosk and are accessible via a security cover. An Ethernet cable leads from the floor to the equipment rack located behind the screens in Gallery 5.
Gallery 5 showcases Experience the Dwelling, a mini-theater with bench seating, where visitors watch “Welcome Home,” a film projected onto two 16×9-foot screens configured in a V-shape. Electrosonic furnished two Christie DHD670-E single-chip DLP projectors mounted from the ceiling at a height and angle designed to clear the seated audience.
The last gallery focuses on House and Community with developers, contractors, residents and real-estate agents giving visitors a look at six different communities. Electrosonic supplied three 42-inch i-Tech LCD monitors, a BrightSign media player and an Ethernet-controlled power bar are mounted within the wall at the monitoring room and accessible via a security cover.
