We the People

My eighth grade civics class was never as exciting as this: a theater surrounded with high-definition imagery, stage lighting, gobo projection, and 8-channel audio. This impressive display of A/V prowess belongs to the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and was installed by Electrosonic (Lawrenceville, N.J.). The Center's twofold mission is to present the history of the framing of the United States Constitution and to demonstrate the Constitution's continuing relevance.

The 350-seat Kimmel Theater is where the center's visitors view the live show “Freedom Rising,” created by Donna Lawrence Productions (Louisville, Ky.). The theater is a circular space with steep, raked seating. A 250ft.-long, 360-degree image that reaches down to the top row of seating and requires 10 Sanyo projectors is the main attraction. The projectors are fed from a multichannel video server that provides 10 synchronized channels of Y/C analog video. The surround screen is accompanied by an 18ft. image projected on the floor by a 5000-lumen projector, sourced from a MediaSonic HD player. Toward the end of the show, five 18'×9' scrim screens drop to display the same portrait format image, fed by another high-def video player.

Audio comes from an 8-channel hard disc player from 360 Systems, the output is processed by Mackie DSP equalization and routing equipment before being fed to the Crown amps and Tannoy loudspeakers, installed in two main groups of 10 and supported by two Bag End sub-bass loudspeakers.

The actors for the show use Countryman headset wireless mics on Shure wireless transmitters. The DSP systems provide separate equalization and volume level presets for each actor. Show controls and system monitoring happen via Electrosonic's Escan system. This controls all video source, audio source, audio equalization, auxiliary effects, and show scheduling and provides SMPTE timecode and initializing commands to the lighting and rigging control subsystems. A Pioneer DVD player is used for running a CC-1000 Museum Tech Source captioning LED display for the hard of hearing.