Media Powerhouse was involved with the Cars exhibition project since its inception. Working with the exhibition architects OMMX alongside the museum, the curators, lighting designers and sound designers, to help realise the AV heavy show.
The show features 23 projectors and over 60 speakers. This has been the second exhibition at the V&A museum where a highly integrated, network based audio distribution system has been used to process the over 100 channels of audio in the exhibition being generated by all of the media players.
This audio system has afforded the sound designers a never before seen level of flexibility to control every sound that visitors hear whilst in the exhibition. In addition, the system generated audio in real-time to produce a soundscape that is completely unique. A visitor will never hear the same soundtrack twice, no matter how many times they visit.
The factory area of the exhibition includes synchronised audio visual playback across the six projection surfaces and 16 speakers to create an immersive factory environment. The factory bursts into life with Run by Martha and the Vandellas, which was filmed within a car factory, then fades back into the drone of machines bashing metal and welding parts from Ford’s modern factory line, replicated on a wide 3 way blend, ultra-short throw projection.
Media Powerhouse worked closely with the museum to optimise budgets and reuse existing stock equipment where possible, this was supplemented where required with additional hired items from the Media Powerhouse rental fleet, giving the museum one point of contact for all of the AV throughout the exhibition, from design through to installation.
Bringing the Cars to life had been over a year in the making from initial design consultancy through to the detailed design stage, including 3D projection modelling and mock-ups within the set fabrication workshop at Media Powerhouse.
The Media Powerhouse team pride themselves in their ability to apply technology creatively to solve problems, whilst creating a truly immersive and dynamic experience for visitors.
“Another way to add “dynamism” and “changes in tempo” was by creating an audio-visual heavy show. At the beginning of the exhibition, a time-lapse video filmed from a driver’s seat is projected onto the highway structure, giving the exhibition an urgent start.”
