Projectors for New Museum

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One museum's curving walls provide a real challenge for projection.
 
The Münchner Stadtmuseum opened in 2008 to celebrate the 850th anniversary of the foundation of the Bavarian state capital, housing a lavish exhibition which uses the very latest in projection technology from NEC Display Solutions. The historic arsenal wing of the Münchner Stadtmuseum has been part of the Münchner Stadtmuseum building complex since the museum was established in 1888; its interior has now been completely redesigned and equipped with the latest technologies.

The exhibition attempts to create a picture of the city in all its different guises, under the name ‘Typically Munich!’. Modern projection installations help the exhibition to explore the past and present city over the three floors, covering 2,400 square metres. In total seven NEC NP3150 and four NEC VT700 projectors were deployed.
 
The interior architecture is rather demanding, because it includes curved ceilings, and light, narrow rooms. The highlight of the exhibition is the Loden Lounge: a cylindrical arena-style hall with a diameter of 9 metres where visitors can relax while they learn. The lounge’s curved surfaces are designed to create a more comfortable and intimate atmosphere. A continuous curved bench stretches around the wall where visitors can sit. Projected onto the curved walls around the visitors, with a magnification factor of between five to seven times, is an artistically arranged set of TV documentary clips of the city from 1972 to 2008. This arrangement, according to the director of the museum’s central picture archive, Dr. Michael Teichmann, makes the spectators feel as if they are “present within the actual scenes”.
 
A concave wall surface could require additional hardware and the precise alignment of projector to ensure distortion-free imaging of the videos. However, geometric correction is integrated within the NEC NP3150 projectors, meaning that high quality images can be projected onto rounded or uneven surfaces, such as columns, corners or curved walls. An integrated microprocessor corrects any horizontal, vertical or diagonal key-stoning effects. A covered platform houses the seven projectors to ensure that visitors are not dazzled.

For a museum, it is important that any operational noise of the projectors should be minimal. Dr. Teichmann elaborates, “Especially in the Loden Lounge where the sound of the video presentations tends to mix in with visitors’ conversation, noisy operation of the projectors would have been a particular problem.” When operated in their ECO mode, the NEC projectors are barely noticeable.
 
The projectors had to operate in rooms that were not completely darkened, as visitors need to be able to walk through the rooms. A combination of the high 5,000 ANSI lumens brightness and a contrast ratio of 600:1 in the Loden Lounge meant that colour fidelity remained possible.
 
Different media inputs can be controlled via the RS232 interface, which allows daily playlists with pre-defined playlists to be centrally controlled and individual image content to be directly selected.
 
In the case that the Loden Lounge should be used for special meetings or events, the Windows Vista-certified NEC NP3150 projectors allow files to be accessed via a remote PC using the Remote- Desktop function. They are also equipped with W-LAN functionality.
 
All for One
 
Speaking at DIGITAL SIGNAGE EXPO 2009, Clemens von Braunmühl, Manager of Product Management & Solutions EMEA at NEC Display Solutions Europe, outlined the three main hurdles faced by digital signage: its newness, costs, and number of components which need integrating.

Although digital signage is proving very popular, many marketing agencies still don’t offer digital signage as a service. Customers looking for ways of marketing their products are bombarded with offers for more traditional marketing methods like print, radio, TV and online advertising. A large proportion of the digital signage projects currently underway have actually been initiated by clients themselves.
 
Furthermore, a professional digital signage system involves considerable procurement costs, which raises the question of who will pay these costs – especially when the company being advertised and the system operator are not the same. The system operator needs to procure its own solid cost calculation for procurement and maintenance of the system, as well as undertake a sustainable profitability calculation on the basis of these figures.
 
It is at this point that the operator will encounter the third hurdle, when they attempt to integrate all the components needed. A huge number of components have to be bought – from the network infrastructure through to the hardware and software and content used, and these all need coordinating with each other. Customised solutions further increase the amount of integration work required, and therefore also increase costs.
 
These three problems do make installing a digital signage project rather daunting, but this is where NEC Display Solutions comes in. As a manufacturer of screens and projectors, the company supplies all the central components needed in digital signage systems. Alongside products, a focus on sales, solutions and service forms the backbone of what the company does. Working with partners, NEC Display Solutions has established a unique network of expertise in digital signage and can supply complete turnkey systems from one source. This helps to improve the scope for calculating overall costs.