HME Services Upgrade the Australian Museum’s Hallstrom Room

When The Australian Museum decided to upgrade their Hallstrom Room, the turnaround for HME Services was only eight weeks. However, despite the problems currently plaguing our industry such as product delays, the project was completed within time and budget.

“We had to call in a lot of favours from our suppliers to meet our client’s expectations,” commented Nick Cook, HME’s Project Manager. “It meant adjusting the brief to meet deadlines but without compromise and the client was very happy with the result.”

The consultant for the project was Craig Gamble of Setting Line Theatre Consulting; the ideal choice due to his extensive background working with museums. Craig delivered the full specifications for all the performance and presentation systems.

The room is used for a variety of events including science presentations, school programs and community engagement. Commercial operations also use it as a prep space when they are holding functions in the foyer.

“They wanted a super-functional, super-flexible space that was super-easy to use,” remarked Nick. “Now, if someone wants to give a presentation they can simply plug their laptop in, it comes up on the screen, and with the provided microphone, they are set to go. On the other end of the scale, there is now the ability to plug in an audio console, a lighting console, video matrices and deliver a full production.”

HME was tasked with providing and installing the lighting, PA system, camera infrastructure and rack work. The lighting comprises three 2.4m HME JLX Lite bars plus two Elation FUZE SFX LED Spot FX fixtures and four Prolights VersaPar LED Zoom PARs.

Craig selected LED fixtures not only for their low power draw but also because the  fixtures do not emit UV light that degrades museum artifacts. Control is a Chamsys QuickQ10 LX console with an additional SnakeSys 10Scene Gateway and wall plate. “All of that was patched in with the Dynalite for controlling the houselights so they have full theatrical control out of the space,” added Nick. “For audio, a QSC PA capable of surround sound and full Dolby was added to the space.”

The PA comprises two QSC AD-S12 and four QSC AD-S8T loudspeakers, two AD-S112-SW subwoofers, and a Q-SYS Core 110f processor to provide a fully integrated audio, video and control solution for the room. A QSC CX-Q 8K8 Network Amplifier allows seamless Q-SYS integration with audio transport and control via standard gigabit Ethernet protocols and hardware.

An Allen & Heath QU-16C compact 22 in / 12 out digital mixer with remote wireless control is supplied for mixing. Three Sennheiser EW-D wireless mic sets are available for presentations, and HME also provided an award-winning Lectrum CTL Aero Lectern. Two QSC PTZ cameras enable live streaming internally and externally as well as conference calls on the LED screen.

“It’s all Q-SYS control with touchscreens and ease of use,” said Nick. “We also provided a Blackmagic ATEM Television Studio Pro4k vision mixer that enables the museum to fully scale and position multiple inputs onto the screen. This will be ideal for the presentations that happen within the space.”