MUSEUM Photo: Courtesy of Communications Engineering, Inc.

July 2008 • Lighting&Sound America By : Judith Rubin

elocating from Arlington, Virginia, for the Hearst Corporation Orientation exhibits, to project content onto Newseum has settled into a Theatres and the exhibit. screens, and to produce sound that is brand-new, ultramodern building in Next stop is Level 7, via the central clear, contained, and intelligible. the heart of Washington, D.C., near elevator, which is an exhibit in itself, Glass is not an especially sound- the , where it anticipates traveling in a glass shaft that lets you absorptive material, yet the glass- welcoming some two million visitors admire all of its intricate workings. curtained broadcast studio used for annually. Polshek Partnership Visitors work their way down through Stephanopoulos’ show faces a major Architects LLP and designer the building. Their options include the thoroughfare. “Every day, police Ralph Appelbaum Associates created 9/11 Gallery, sponsored by Comcast; motorcades with blaring sirens go by the look of this glass-curtained, skylit, the Cox Enterprises First Amendment on ,” notes and sun-filled building, of which the Gallery; the Time-Warner World News Steve Haas of SH Acoustics, which 250,000-sq-.ft Newseum takes up Gallery; the Journalists Memorial; provided the loudspeaker layout seven levels with galleries, theatres, Pulitzer Prize Photographs; the ABC design and acoustic engineering for and event spaces, blending news Changing Exhibits Gallery; Sports most spaces of Newseum. Haas history with cutting-edge technology Theatre; Documentary Theatre; Ethics produced a computer simulation that and hands-on exhibits. The primary Center; Early News Gallery; the Walter modeled how the motorcade would funder is The , a and Lenore Annenberg Theatre; the sound, using three types of exterior nonpartisan foundation. Sponsors Robert H. and Clarice Smith Big glass, which affected the final choice include an A List of prominent news Screen Theatre; the of material for the curtain wall. agencies, as evidenced by the News History Gallery; and the Pulliam Haas implemented a strategy of naming of most galleries and theatres. Family Great Books Gallery. applying acoustic materials onto Thanks to its great view of The abundance of natural light surfaces, and incorporating highly Pennsylvania Avenue, the $450-million passing through Newseum’s generous directional sound arrays where ampli- Newseum had become a favored windows, window-walls, and skylights, fication is used, keeping levels low broadcast location even before shining on its reflective surfaces, is and clarity high even in the most opening to the public on April 11. refreshing to visitors. It also has a challenging areas. “Working with the ABC News broadcasts This Week metaphorical purpose—to symbolize architect, we came up with a wide with every the openness and transparency that palette of materials that fit the nature Sunday from the 1,100-sq.-ft. Knight are fundamental to a free press. The of the building,” says Haas. “Because Studio on Pennsylvania Avenue. The exhibits seek to convey a definition of of the open architecture in the atrium Capitol building is clearly visible in the news and how it is created, and to and galleries, the sound travels background through the glass curtain motivate visitors to protect its free- vertically as well as horizontally. wall. This is one of two state-of-the- doms. The journalist is presented as And, because this building is about art HD TV studios in the building, the inquisitive adventurer, chronicler, and technology, materials, such as larger one being 2,800 sq. ft. a champion of the people. perforated and slatted metals and Visitors pass through the main woods, complemented what the entrance into — architects were doing and tied into Ochs-Sulzberger Family Great Hall of the whole mission of the client.” News (the atrium space), where they The acoustician established and are met by a gigantic Barco video Open, light-filled spaces in a museum tuned five global volume presets, display and its high-resolution news present special challenges for those allowing the volume to be raised and footage. From there, it’s on to Level 1 whose task it is to shed light on the lowered in response to visitor numbers,

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • July 2008 MUSEUM

and yet to stay balanced. “On opening A graphical interface allows the was going to sound hollow or boomy, day, we ran everything on #5, and it operator to create the route. The walls but it is very, very clean. It’s almost worked: everything running, not of the Great Hall support seven 10' tall uncanny when you consider you’ve got bleeding, balanced with the crowd Dakota Audio FLA line arrays fitted a huge area of terrazzo floor, all that noise, and penetrating just enough,” with 4" speakers, vertically placed and glass, and concrete balcony fronts.” says Haas. “We used a whole network complemented by Bag End S10E-I A cubicle farm of individual of Peavey NION digital signal subwoofers; custom 3" Dakota box interactive stations is found in the processors, to tonally shape and raise loudspeakers in troughs on the NBC Interactive Newsroom on Level each sound source a specific amount.” balconies; and EAW CIS400 ceiling 2, running programs that let the user Virtually all the spaces in Newseum loudspeakers over the bridges. “We role-play as a journalist, photographer, are set up to accommodate special even have feedback-free line arrays etc., each with its own mini-acoustic events of all types, and are divided behind the stage—great support for environment plus a pair of embedded into 80 sound zones that can operate an individual speaker,” notes Haas. Dakota mini-arrays arranged independently or together in order to The systems integrator, Electrosonic, horizontally in the perforated metal accommodate a wide range of Inc., installed these and most other sides of the enclosure, specified by possibilities for room setup. Thirty- loudspeakers in the building, SH Acoustics to deliver and contain two jacks, well-distributed on wall including the public-address system the sound. Each mini-array is about plates throughout the building, carry designed by Electrosonic’s business 3' long and made up of fifteen 2" CobraNet digital audio from portable development manager, Andrew Kidd, speakers. “When you’re sitting in the media consoles to the centrally located which consists mostly of EAW zone, you’re enveloped by the sound, DSP system. Each media cart is fitted CIS400s, processed by Peavey but you step back 2-3' and the sound up with a mixer, wireless mics, CD MediaMatrix NION. “Altogether, there drops off dramatically,” says Haas. player, and CobraNet interface. Each are about 800 PA speakers in the “The multiple small sources combine CobraNet connection allows the building,” says Kidd. “Steve Haas did to give you the same level as one big sound from that cart to be routed to a very good job on the acoustic treat- speaker, but each speaker can be wherever it needs to go in the building. ment. We were slightly concerned it significantly lower in level. The total

The NBC Interactive Newsroom lets visitors role-play as journalists and photographers.

July 2008 • Lighting&Sound America Polshek Partnership Architects LLP designed the building that houses Newseum.

number of decibels is the same, but job well done in an unexpected way, system at Newseum. “There are also individual elements are not as loud. during the pre-opening test period. approximately 75 receiver frequencies, Time delays make it very precise, so “A couple of girls snuck into a bay including 25 Lectrosonics UM400 all the sound reaches your ear at the that wasn’t being used and figured body packs, 25 UT transmitters, and same time.” out how to operate it themselves,” 24 RFPL belt packs,” says Dugan. Running along the rear wall of this says Laspa. He adds that Lectrosonics’ VR Series room is a stage with a line of eight Be a TV Reporter uses modern TV Venue modular receiver systems were open video production bays that form equipment and Chromakey blue- especially helpful. “We wanted to the Be a TV Reporter experience, an screen technology from ReflecMedia move receivers and re-allocated the immediate hit with the younger set and Broadcast Pix. “The backdrop usage of systems,” he says, “so the and an enjoyable spectacle for other surface is highly reflective, and there’s VR frame concept was perfect.” The visitors. The user buys a ticket and is a ring of LED lights around the rest of the venue’s lineup of entered into the system. He or she camera lens so that, when you’re off- Lectrosonics gear includes 25 R1a chooses a backdrop and a script, and register, you see a faint green or blue belt pack receivers, two SM trans- is led by a docent through a photo glow but, when you look right into the mitters, and four UCR411a compact snap, a rehearsal, and then the ring light, it just pops into full vibrant receivers with tracking front ends, all recording process, after which he or color,” says Laspa. “The reflectivity used in two theatre spaces, three she receives a souvenir photo; one keeps the effect from breaking down conference rooms, four mobile equip- can later download one’s entire video in ambient light, which is very impor- ment carts, the central equipment from Newseum’s website. tant because the space is open to the room, and the two broadcast studios. Electrosonic handled the design, atrium and sunlight can come in.” equipment specification, installation, Lectrosonics wireless systems are commissioning, and software used throughout the facility. Nine of programming. “We had to write a fairly the company’s IFB transmitters and Barco supplied the show-stopping complex piece of software for that,” 12 RFPL bases transmit frequencies giant LED screen that is the central says Electrosonic project manager simultaneously to eight different feature of the New York Times— Dan Laspa. (“There’s a lot of studios and exhibits, using fiber and Ochs-Sulzberger Family Great Hall of media-file management going on in coax cable, says Jim Dugan, project News. It is visible from the street out- the background,” says Andrew Kidd.) engineer for Bexel ASG, the overseer side and, inside, visitors may view it The company received validation of a of the large distributed antenna across the atrium from each level of Photos: Left: Courtesy of Communications Engineering, Inc. Right: Sam Kittner/Newseum

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • July 2008 MUSEUM

The New York Times–Ochs-Sulzberger Family Great Hall of News.

Newseum. The 40' x 22' screen winch, which was installed by Pook end, running in tandem. It was very employs a Barco ILite 6 XP display Diemont & Ohl (PDO). important, before we put the center consisting of 405 individual tiles with “It flies up and down over people’s linkage of the hoist in place, to make a total pixel resolution of 1944 x heads all day long, so multiple safety sure the motors were rotating in 1080—more than two million individual features were engineered into the opposite directions, so they would pixels of ultra-high-resolution video design,” notes Mark Fink, project turn the shaft properly.” Sensors will (6mm), with 14-bit color processing manager for Barbizon. “The winch automatically halt the mechanism if it and Level 2 calibration to optimize uses 5/8" Dyform cable, squeezed to is out of alignment, or if one of the light output, color, and enhanced make it harder and stronger in the motors overloads. The winch mecha- grayscales for the indoor conditions. manufacturing process. If one cable nism is always visible above the giant The content—breaking news, historic news presentations, documentaries— is pumped from the main control room. It accepts and reproduces a native serial digital HD signal along with a wide range of other incoming signals—analog, S-Video, composite, RGB, YUV, SDI, HDSDI, or data DVI up to SXGA. It is powered by Barco’s DX-700 video processor. To hang the Barco screen, which weighs some 21,500lbs., and enable should snap, the other can still support screen. “Because it is such a focal it to be raised and lowered (positions the screen. It uses a pushbutton and piece, this behemoth had to be a range from 2'-50' above the floor), key interface—a key switch to enable nice-looking piece of machinery, and Barbizon Capital called on the rigging the system and a dead-man switch in it is balanced and symmetrical, very specialists at J.R. Clancy to design each direction of movement. There elegant for something that has all of and produce a monster winch: a are also limit switches at the top and this brute strength,” says Fink. 12,500lb., double-purchase, self- bottom and midpoints. It uses two Noting that the combined weight supporting, self-climbing, lineshaft 10-horsepower motors, one at each of the screen plus the hoist is about

July 2008 • Lighting&Sound America 34,000 lbs, J.R. Clancy’s project blocks was supposed to be,” says move would be, fired off an e-mail manager, Anthony Seifritz, says, “The Fink. “The holes hadn’t been cut yet, describing it and showing the photos, lifting cables are set up in a double- the entire atrium was filled with and got everybody mobilized. By the purchase arrangement that go around scaffolding, we were up there with four next day, we had all agreed.” loft blocks above the ceiling and tie big steel sheaves to mount, and we Barbizon and Bill Price, the compa- off back to the winch base, so the found out there was a big piece of ny’s director of systems, were involved winch only has to lift half of the steel in the way.” A rapid regrouping in the first iteration of Newseum in capacity—17,000lbs—and the took place. “In another five weeks, we Arlington, where Barbizon provided the building takes the other half.” Due were going to install the hoist and it studio lighting. This time around, the to the enormity of the winch, it was had to line up with the sheaves. In company played a heftier role, starting shipped in two 20' sections, requiring between, we would have to remove the out as integrator for rigging systems in intricate handling. scaffolding, after which we wouldn’t be the Great Hall (as described above) It was necessary to coordinate able to get back to the sheaves easily. and lighting and rigging systems for installation of the winch with the They had to be right. We couldn’t just the two Knight Studios and the building construction. “The loft blocks move one of the holes, because the Annenberg Theatre. The role expanded that the cables go over are installed spacing between sheaves had to be to onsite project management and field above the ceiling for each of the four consistent to what had already been coordination for the building-wide lift lines,” says Fink. “All that had to built for the winch. We had to figure architectural lighting control system, be located and installed while that out the dimension to move the entire and the event lighting fixture package atrium was still full of scaffolding. It assembly—it ended up moving a installed in the Great Hall. The latter was very important to have accurate distance of just under 2'. That includes 14 Robe ColorSpot 1200 AT measurements from the surveyors, so changed the final position of the automated fixtures, 24 Elektralite the ceiling people could cut holes in screen itself, so the architect had to be Paintcan automated color-mixing units, the right spots, and, once the scaf- part of the discussion. It was about a two Martin Professional MAC TW1 folding was cleared out of the atrium, half-hour from the discovery to going- tungsten automated lights, and 20 for us to get up on a lift and put the into-solution mode. That’s why having Selador x7 Xtra-21 LED fixtures. The cables over the loft blocks.” an onsite project manager is so impor- lighting is controlled by ETC’s Congo While doing the latter, there was a tant: The installer was able to call me, console, with connections provided by setback. “There was a piece of struc- I went up, we took digital photos, Pathway Connectivity’s Pathport UNO tural bracing installed where one of the figured out what the dimension of the single-port DMX nodes.

One of Newseum’s audio control rooms. Photos: Left: Maria Bryk/Newseum. Right: Courtesy of Communications Engineering, Inc.

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • July 2008 MUSEUM

A control room for one of the broadcast production studios.

two JBL Control 19CTs and one QSC About 195 seats are animated; CX 602V amplifier. these are in the center of the theatre, With I-Witness: A 4-D Time Travel Inside the theatre, a custom motor- within the optimal cone of vision for Adventure, The Walter and Lenore ized chain-track curtain system, using the 3-D media. Another block of Annenberg Theatre, on Level 1, puts Trumpf 95 and Cue-Track products about 150 seats offers stationary visitors in the journalist’s seat. Using provided by Gerriets, with curtains by views. Three custom 22' rolldrop about half the space available in the Stage Decoration & Supplies, was scrims, built by Hawkeye Scenic, multi-purpose theatre, a presentation installed by PDO, under Barbizon’s are lowered from the ceiling to help dramatizes the respective contribu- supervision, to conceal and reveal the guide viewers into the central seating tions of Nelly Bly, the first female screen and enable the theatre to area as they enter the room; they reporter, and Edward R. Murrow, the double as a live auditorium, a 4-D also serve as the projection surface pioneer television reporter and theatre, and broadcast venue. It was for the introductory portion of the interviewer, to the field of investigative designed by John Sergio Fisher & show. When the drapes part, the new reporting. Seats that rock and Associates; the firm also designed the main Stewart Filmscreen reveals vibrate (supplied by Irwin and rigging and dimming systems and itself as 57' wide by 25' tall. customized by Oceaneering seating layout. The rigging system can The projectors are Christie HD Entertainment Systems, including one be operated from the main control products, as are most of the video Buttkicker per seat), plus wind and console or a handheld LCD touch- projectors in the various theatres water effects, give the experience its screen pendant. An overhead catwalk throughout Newseum: two CP2000s extra dimension. Cortina Productions system allows access to all the for the 3-D main show, one DW6K, was the media producer. lighting for the 4-D show and and two DS+65s for the scrims. The The designer of the audio visual broadcast use. Three DeSisti batten CP-2000s are front-projection units systems and primary integrator for hoists raise and lower the rigging operating from a booth at the back the theatre was Electrosonic, working equipment. Loudspeakers on a line- of the theatre, where they share with Barbizon to create the show shaft winch can be used to change space with two DVS HD compres- lighting and effects. The theatre’s the acoustical profile of the room. A sion-less video playback servers: A pre-show experience is provided by a custom logic cabinet by PDO provides Fostex D2424LV multitrack hard disk pair of Toshiba P47LHA displays, the control integration, which is, in audio player, and the show control, with audio provided by 11 EAW turn, controlled by an ETC Expression run by Electrosonic ESCAN software, CIS400 ceiling loudspeakers, plus console with an Emphasis 3D server. and a Crestron TPS 6000 touch

July 2008 • Lighting&Sound America panel. The main loudspeaker system to various items that live on Level 2 in consists of a left-right-center the master control room: a Vista arrangement of one Renkus-Heinz A long, rectangular space on Level 5 Systems Spider video processor that PN151T/12A, two PN151T/9As, and is divided into several areas, all calculates the edge-blending, and a three QSC CX1102 amps. The sub containing audio visual elements: Medialon show-control system that bass system consists of five Bag the Robert H. and Clarice Smith Big receives its five channels of content End S18E-I IFs, two Bag End INFRA- Screen Theatre, the News Corporation (a repeated program interspersed MXB low-frequency processors, and News History Gallery, the Pulliam with breaking news clips) from Grass four QSC CX702 amps. Front fill is Family Great Books Gallery, and Valley K2 servers, all installed by CEI. provided by six EAW JF60s and several pocket theatres. These congruent zones posed three QSC CX302 amps. The left and The News History Gallery contains multiple challenges for SH Acoustics. right surround system includes six a long swath of glass cabinets holding “In the theatre with the 90' wide Tannoy V12s and three QSC CX502 a vast archive of articles that visitors screen, the client was adamant about amps. The show runs from a single can slide out and view, accompanied even coverage,” says Haas. “We used control panel. A Telex assisted by projected murals and touch-screen a proximity stereo effect to get the listening system is available for the displays with mimic screens above. sound as close to the audience as hard-of-hearing. Electrosonic installed some 20 possible, and localize it to the images Communications Engineering Inc. Christie DS+25W projectors in this onscreen. This approach also gave us (CEI) added some broadcast capa- area. “The architecture provided fairly the relative containment we needed, bility to the Annenberg Theatre in the form of camera drops and connec- tivity. Nancy Schertler designed the theatre’s lighting, which includes 90 ETC Source Fours in various degree sizes, 50 Selecon Rama Fresnels, and eight Martin Mac 700 Profiles. An ETC Congo light server receives S232 commands from the show-control system, and executes all programs and cues and curtain moves. “There are base panel controls on the light server, of course, but it’s more convenient to have the external keyboard,” says Fink. All the lighting consoles throughout Newseum are ETC Congo and Congo jr models. “The Congo line is ETC’s product for live The master control room operates all audio, visual and IT systems at the Newseum, except the two TV studios. events and production events, as opposed to the Eos and Ion models good challenges to getting the so that the sound drops off a lot for the theatrical market; a lot of projection right,” notes Dan Laspa. when you move away.” The custom what happens at Newseum is not “There were not all that many places 5" x 5" speakers from Dakota were scripted—with the 4-D show being a to put things, and it was a challenge positioned in Bessel arrays: five massive exception—so you want installing heavy equipment around the blocks of 25 speakers arranged in 5 x something that gives the ability to lighting and the exhibit vendor, who 5 grids. (According to the AES E- quickly affect and manipulate the was putting in enormous quantities of Library, “The Bessel array is a config- lighting rig. When there’s a live event expensive glass cases.” uration of five, seven, or nine identical in the Annenberg, they bring in the The Big Screen Theatre has casual speakers in an equal-spaced line Congo jr and connect it to the server. tiered seating running the width of its array that provides the same overall Any of the consoles can be used in 90' x 10' HD custom screen from polar pattern as a single speaker of any of the spaces—it’s just a matter Stewart Filmscreen, which CEI the array.”) “The approach goes back of loading the right patch and right installed along with five Christie to the 1950s,” says Haas, “and was show file.” DW3K projectors. The projectors talk found by my former colleague, Bill Photos: Left: Courtesy of Communications Engineering, Inc.

www.lightingandsoundamerica.com • July 2008 MUSEUM

Lobb, when he was doing research galleries. There are nine customized museum-wide control system, for this theatre. It provides the wide- Barco 50" DLP rear-projector handled by Electrosonic’s spread sound needed, and doesn’t displays and an Evertz MVP video ESCAN software. occupy much space behind the processor with 64 inputs. screen, which is good because there Also on Level 3 are two HD was little depth to work with.” broadcast production control rooms, Between the News History Gallery identical in capabilities, that work The best way to summarize and the Sidebar Theatres, “we had with the two Knight TV Studios. Newseum is to imitate it and deliver to worry about sound leaking all Either control room can work with some quotes: over the place,” says Haas, who either studio. The primary equipment “At a time when journalists are relied on careful placement of is the Kalypso production switcher, reeling from scathing rebukes and acoustical materials, embedded with four M/E and full HD capabili- public skepticism about their profes- sound panels plastered inside the ties. “It’s basically a video mixer,” sion, the gleaming Newseum is walls, and “activated” screens made says Alkhayat. On the audio side is a poised to become a welcome of a synthetic material with trans- Euphonix Max Air digital audio mixer. reminder of all that’s good about the ducers embedded in them. A monitor wall shows various dis- business.” — Jessica Meyers, plays: six customized Barco 50" American Journalism Review displays and an Evertz MVP with “Nothing ever clarified for me the 48 inputs. power and nature of print like the CEI, a company with a broadcast There are five Avid edit suites set displays in the cavernous ‘history of tech specialty, built, specified, up for HD, non-linear. Four are edit news’ gallery at Newseum.” purchased, installed, set up, commis- suites only; the fifth doubles as a — Rick Salutin, The Globe and sioned, and trained operators for the screening room with a Christie DW3k Mail (Canada) master control room, the production control rooms, the edit suites and the rack room. Raef Alkhayat was the company’s project manager. The master control room on Level 3 monitors all the streams of content running through Newseum. All in coming signals and outgoing signals are displayed on its screens in that room, which is divided into three workstations: broadcast, AV, and production/IT. Broadcast-related activities are supported by a Grass Valley Kalypso production switcher and a 1M/E control panel, via which projector and a 60" Stewart screen. “An endless network of corridors an operator can route and control The room of 115 racks, for all the and theatres contains a wealth of the look of the video for the giant noisy, but essential, backbone con- news materials that are, at least to Barco. In the AV area, an operator trol devices connected to control someone of my generation, a wonder- can call up the image on any of the panels throughout the building, is on ful and moving evocation of the past.” approximately 160 computers the third mezzanine. Here are the — Robert Campbell, Boston Globe running an interactive in the building, chassis of the Grass Valley switcher, “From every frenetic corner, and can get access to the ESCAN and the major facility video and Newseum fairly shouts, ‘News is program that controls the building audio router, respectively a Grass necessary to a functioning democracy. functions. The producer station/IT Valley Trinix and Apex. These con- News is fun, news is cool, news desk, which is continuously manned nect to control panels all through the matters.’” — Maria Puente, USA Today by one to three people, is available building. These racks hold not only “The new incarnation of Newseum to assist content providers from the broadcast equipment, but all the is dazzling, innovative, and absorbing, outside the facility as well as those centrally located interactive comput- a first-class addition to the capital’s within who need tech support; it ers, all the video players and DSP cultural institutions.” — Howard provides support for the various equipment for the exhibits, and the Kurtz,

July 2008 • Lighting&Sound America