NSL Case Study: Auckland War Memorial Museum

About Auckland War Memorial Museum

Auckland War Memorial Museum Tamaki Paenga Hira, or simply Auckland Museum, is one of New Zealand’s most important museums and war memorials. Its collections concentrate on New Zealand history and military history.

The present museum building was constructed in the 1920s in the neo-classicist style and sits on a grassed plinth (the remains of a dormant volcano) in the Auckland Domain, a large public park close to the Auckland CBD.

Auckland Museum is regarded as one of the finest Museums in the Southern Hemisphere and is renowned for its unique collection of Maori and Pacific treasures.

The Project

Auckland War Memorial Museum required exhibitions and interactive displays to provide a seamless experience for all visitors.

The Auckland Museum team engaged with DM Acoustic for base design and hardware recommendations. The overlaying gallery requirements and fit-out were then handled in-house and procured with the help of AAE.

Q-SYS

Auckland War Memorial Museum is now controlled by Q-SYS. It runs audio while managing projectors, media players, video playback, and AV systems via dedicated user interfaces.

Q-SYS is the ideal platform and solution for Auckland War Memorial Museum as it can provide all the aspects of an AVC system. Auckland War Memorial Museum has now standardised Q-SYS as the central AVC platform. Best of all, the Museum’s AV team are able to design and reconfigure to suit their needs.

Why Q-SYS?

The initial scope called for a control platform to trigger the BrightSign media players and act as a paging system. This is where Q-SYS was introduced to the museum, as it allowed seamless AVC integration and provided a solution that could expand to encompass the museum’s growing requirements for the future.

Q-SYS Control

Q-SYS control ties together most of the museum’s paging system, exhibitions and interactive displays. Q-SYS is programmed to be intuitive and provide an easy solution for the in-house AV team to maintain and make custom changes to the ever-evolving exhibitions.

Loudspeakers

Variety of speakers were used throughout Auckland War Memorial Museum including Q-SYS ceiling speakers. These speakers provided premium audio while being discrete, allowing a full immersive experience for visitors. Powered by Q-SYS, these speakers can be easily controlled via a touch panel or app on the phone.

QSC Surface Mounted Loudspeakers were placed throughout the museum, as they are ideally suited for a wide variety of foreground and background sound reinforcement applications.

Amplifiers and Wireless Systems

Q-SYS CX-Q amplifiers were the obvious choice for the museum. These amps sit within the Q-SYS ecosystem and provide enough power and flexibility between 100V and low impedance to drive the numerous speakers within the museum.

Shure Axient Digital was selected as the wireless mic system for special live events and presentations. Axient Digital was selected based on its exceptional audio quality paired with IT network- based transport allowing it to integrate into Q-SYS seamlessly.

“Q-SYS was the solution that best fits the museum AV team’s mind-set of maintaining and developing a system in-house. This gives us full control and the highest level of understanding for problem solving. We now have a system that takes inputs from multiple, existing platforms and handles them all seamlessly,” says Liam Brown – AV Manager, Auckland Museum.

Equipment List

AC-C4T 4.5-inch full-range, ceiling mount loudspeaker

AC-C6T 6.5-inch 2-way ceiling loudspeaker

AC-S6T 6.5-inch 2-way surface mount loudspeaker

AD-C6T 6.5-inch 2-way ceiling loudspeaker

AD-C81TW 8-inch ceiling mount subwoofer

AD-P6T 6.5-inch 2-way pendant mount loudspeaker

AD-S112SW 12-inch subwoofer

AD-S4T 4.5-inch 2-way surface mount loudspeaker

AD-S6T 6.5-inch 2-way surface mount loudspeaker

Core 510i Q-SYS Core Processor. Software-based audio, video & control processor Network I/O: 256 x 256. Eight audio I/O card slots

CXD4.2Q Drive total amp power across 1 to 4 channel. Flexible Amplifier Summing Technology (FAST). 70V & 100V with bridged pairs. Peak output: 2500W

CXD4.3Q Drive total amp power across 1 to 4 channel. Flexible Amplifier Summing Technology. 70V & 100V with bridged pairs. Peak output: 5000W

CXD8.4Q Drive total amp power across 1 to 8 channel. Flexible Amplifier Summing Technology (FAST) 70V & 100V with bridged pairs. Peak output: 4000W

CX-Q 4K4 Drive total amp power across 1 to 4 channel. Flexible Amplifier Summing Technology. 70V & 100V with bridged pairs. Peak output: 4000W

CX-Q 4K8 Drive total amp power across 1 to 8 channel. Flexible Amplifier Summing Technology.70V & 100V with bridged pairs. Peak output: 4000W

I/0-8 Flex Networked I/O expander peripheral 8 software-definable Flex channels. Audio-to-USB Bridging for audio integration with soft codec applications

TSC-55-G2 Viewable Screen Dimensions (diagonal) – 5.5 Inch Capacitive LCD touch surface. In-plane switching (IPS) technology. Power over Ethernet High resolution displays

TSC-80-G2 Viewable Screen Dimensions (diagonal) – 8 Inch Capacitive LCD touch surface: In-plane switching (IPS) technology. Power over Ethernet High resolution displays

Contacts

Client | Auckland Museum 09 309 0443

www.aucklandmuseum.com

Distributor | NSL Group Limited ali@nsl.co.nz

09 913 6212

www.nsl.co.nz

DM Acoustic sales@dmacoustic.com 0800 362 268

www.dmacoustic.com

AAE

info@aae.co.nz 09 486 6324

www.aae.co.nz