Rapenburg Plaza Helps National Military Museum Unfold the Story of the Forces

Rapenburg Plaza Helps National Military Museum Unfold The Story of the Forces 19 February 2015

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Expert systems designer, Rapenburg Plaza saw an intensive year of meticulous planning, design and integration come to fruition on 13 December 2014, when the National Military Museum, Europe's biggest military museum opened to the public.

Designed as a fully integrated entity, the new museum uses technology on an unprecedented scale across its expansive 20,000-metre exhibition area located in the former Soesterberg airbase in the Netherlands. His Majesty, King Willem Alexander opened the museum at a spectacular ceremony with the Royal Military Band, cannon shots and loud shouts of military commands.

Leading the project team was Heijmans, one of the largest construction companies in the Netherlands. The building architect was Felix Claus Dick van Wageningen. Main contractor for the museum interior, Bruns was responsible for process and project management, development, engineering, production and installation of all the exhibitions. The project includes lighting, hardware and software - animations, short movies, games and a mobile application. Bruns subcontracted RapenburgPlaza to work with exhibition architect Kossmann.dejong on the project.

Lighting design, control and networking

The client wanted the audiovisual system to have a minimum lifespan of 15 years. Rapenburg Plaza brought several design considerations to life including a sophisticated technical lighting bridges installed in the high ceilings for access to equipment for maintenance as well as long distance cable runs and multiple server rooms. The lighting design by Rapenburg Plaza's in-house Lighting Designer, Pelle Herfst consisted of more than 3,900 energy efficient LED lighting sources.

To control all exhibition components, Rapenburg Plaza designed, installed and programmed a network-based show control system. This system gives complete control over the lighting and AV equipment and allows the Rapenburg Plaza programmers to manage and monitor the entire installation remotely a valuable tool. This system comprises Medialon show control software, Pharos show controllers, KissBox data communication interfaces and industrial network hardware and software.

Rapenburg Plaza proved again the ability to achieve the requested high-quality standards for technology and show control. They used a well-thought-out system design and cable plan, added Mark de Jong, creative director at Kossmann.dejong.

Touring military history

Exhibition areas are split into two concepts. The Daylight Museum' on the ground floor gives a chronological overview of military technology over 1,000 years. Thesecond concept Black Box' comprises seven exciting theatrical environments.

This first exhibit comprises 25-metre wide panoramic projection positioned above a 7 x 10-metre giant projected giant map. Cantilevered above the floor, the map is integrated with projected video, surround audio and lighting providing a stunning presentation of the tactical and strategic posts in the Netherlands. Four custom designed telescopes at the foot of the giant map, zoom into the map positions providing information about weapons used and map locations.

Around the perimeter of the exhibit are eight electronic information points looking into war history and how the world has changed within the last few centuries, including 9/11 events.

By giving visitors the opportunity to use big gestures over the map, they are able to access the story of the Netherlands in a phenomenal way, added Maarten Taborsky, Project Director at Bruns.

Rapenburg Plaza designed a synchronized film across ten screens using projection. This uses the proprietary Raapu' custom designed high-performance media players, designed by Tony ter Neuzen, Network and Systems Engineer at Rapenburg Plaza. Footage and sound can be checked, updated and maintained at any time.

A large touchscreen comprising three 55-inch monitors is integrated with an infrared bezel that allows the audience to interactively access information about the categorization of awards and medals.

Integrated audio and lighting are a highlight in this room focusing cabinets and art collections in a boardroom environment.

Located throughout this exhibit are interactive seated cabins that tell personal stories of veterans and soldiers. Here, Rapenburg Plaza has integrated audio into each of the seated cabins along with exhibit-wide lighting and video. 42-inch monitors and Raapu' players are located around the edge of exhibits to tell the stories about survival!

For this curved screen projection, Rapenburg Plaza has integrated five Panasonic projectors and Dataton WATCHOUT multi-image display and presentation software.

One of the only specially designed 360-degree tilted immersive floor to ceiling dome projection systems in Europe, visitors are immersed in a narrated high-resolution film about warfare throughout the centuries. The steel dome measures 14-metres wide.

A 7thSense Delta Media Server is integrated with nine Digital Projection International projectors. An immersive audio system sits behind the perforated aluminium dome screen.

The immersive dome system is really unique and we understand that it is the only one of its type in Europe, said Maarten Taborsky, Project Director at Bruns. The technology and its architecture designed by Rapenburg Plaza allowed us to make it a system that met the client budget and is the best of its kind!

Around the outside of the dome are five missions showing command on the field and tactical games. These include four 55-inch foil touch screens showing information and digital photographs.

We wanted to provide the highest-quality projections and immerse the audience in storytelling, added Jansen.

Designed as a presentation space, this area uses Europe's f

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