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CASE STUDY
Wild Turkey Museum Uses Firefly MC in Helicopter Exhibit
Challenge
It's not every day that you're given an old helicopter, but that's exactly what happened to the National Wild Turkey Federation (NWTF). The US Forestry Service donated a retired Bell B3 helicopter to help educate the public about the importance of controlled burns in fire prevention and conservation programs. The NWTF wanted to create a bold interactive exhibit at its Wild Turkey Museum in Edgefield, S.C. that would give visitors a first-hand experience of a helicopter mission to monitor controlled burn sites.
Audio Visual Innovations (AVI), based in Tampa, Florida, was tasked with designing the audio and visual pieces to make this exhibit a reality. Dan Waltens, Installation Manager at Audio Visual Innovations Nashville branch office, recounted the experience, "One Tuesday evening our sales department received an email from Access Museum Services. Attached was a picture of an old raggedy helicopter and they asked if we could put video on the side and front of the vehicle to simulate a helicopter ride for those inside. And the catch was we had about 24 hours to get back to them with a rough design and cost figure."
Solution
The design that Audio Visual Innovations created lets visitors board the helicopter for a 7- minute simulated ride through a controlled burn. Upon boarding the helicopter, visitors put on headphones, push the start button, and the journey begins. The rotors start rumbling for takeoff. Screens along the side and front windows take the passengers across grassy plains and down valleys, while the pilot's narration walks them through the flight.
To create the visual aspect of the simulated experience, AVI chose Reversa screen material along the front and right side windows coupled with three 6" LCD monitors installed in the cab to provide a combination of front, side and ground view images. The ride is further enhanced through a high-quality sound system, complete with a subwoofer that simulates the blades' rumbling. For the most realistic interactive experience AVI selected FireFly MC Multi-Channel Digital Media Player from Focus Enhancements for media playback. The unit incorporates 4-channel MPEG-2 playback in a compact 1RU form factor. Four video and two audio clips are loaded onto the FireFly unit, which are then played and stopped from a Creston control system. The experience is triggered once a visitor presses the start button in the cockpit.
Already familiar with FireFly MC from other projects, Dan knew the unit had the right set of features for this project: quality, dependability, scalability, and ease of use. "For each project Audio Visual Innovations takes on, quality is paramount. We selected FireFly since there can't be any degradation of the media source," said Dan.
In addition, with FireFly MC's multi-channel capability, the museum has instant scalability for future expansion. Dan quickly realized that the museum anticipated offering visitors multiple "rides"—letting them choose to see a controlled burn in progress or fly over a wildfire. FireFly MC can support audio and video tracks for multiple different user experiences with minimal reprogramming of the system.
Not unlike other institutional deployments, ease of use is critical. Museum staff members primarily specialize in education, not technology. And while there are two IT staff members, they are responsible for the entire NWTF federation, and not just the museum. "My intent from the beginning of the design was to make it as simple as possible," explained Dan. "FireFly offers a user-friendly system; it's a simple, 5-minute procedure to change the video. Right before launch, I prepared a one-page document on how to use the ride. When I gave staff members the document, they were shocked at its simplicity. It took me awhile to convince them it really was that easy."
About the Wild Turkey Museum
The Wild Turkey Museum is dedicated to the restoration, management, and hunting wild turkeys. The amazing comeback story of the American wild turkey unfolds through the exciting displays at the NWTF Museum.
About Focus Enhancements, Inc.
Innovation, efficiency, and superior quality are the foundation on which Focus Enhancements builds its products. A world leader in advanced video production, digital asset management, and digital signage solutions, Focus delivers products that perform superbly day in and day out, and backs them with unparalleled service and support.
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Firefly MC
With scheduled content delivery on up to four channels, the Firefly MC Multi-Channel Digital Media Player is an extremely versatile player. The integrated Smart- Card reader provides enhanced security and makes it easy to add options such as Dolby Digital™ downmixed audio and genlocked external AV input. Content updating is available via automated FTP, HTTP, CD/DVD, or multicast.
"FireFly offers a user-friendly system; it's a simple, 5-minute procedure to change the video. Right before launch, I prepared a one-page document on how to use the ride. When I gave staff members the document, they were shocked at its simplicity. It took me awhile to convince them it really was that easy."
Dan Waltens, Installation Manager Audio Visual Innovations Installation: Wild Turkey Museum
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