Tank Men - The Story of the First Crews

The entire First World War area has been redisplayed. APi have been involved in enhancing 6 areas of the exhibition.

These are highlighted below:

Intro AV - Sequences of images thrown onto a large curved AV wall, requiring a powerful projector with clever barrel geometry correction used to correct the image shape naturally distorted by the curve

Enrolment Area - Here a sergeant interviews a volunteer, the sound is produced by out of sight pendant speakers, triggered by a sensor as the visitors enter.

Train Carriage - The Train Carriage has two silhouettes sitting in an imaginary train carriage. Two loudspeakers, one above each of the silhouettes give the impression of them in conversation. The train window is replaced by a 32” NEC Screen showing images and the dialogue.

Advance! The Advance trench simulation area has six flown speakers located above the trenches, and two hidden 15” active subwoofers located behind. A Panasonic projector displays silhouetted scenes of troops going over the top projected large onto the rear wall.

German Machine Gun audio and light effect. As a corner is turned you are confronted by a German machine gun nest and lights are triggered from the sound to give the effect of being under fire, providing an immersive visitor experience.

The World War I Credits area has a large 4m projection screen carrying information about the first crews with sound from directional column speakers.

All the areas are controlled by one on/off switch, to ensure ease of use by the museum staff. Some of the areas are controlled by motion sensor and all areas with audio have an induction loop hearing system. There is also an audio mute switch in each area, enabling museum staff to switch the sound off selectively during tours.

APi staff who worked on the project attended the official opening of the exhibition conducted by The Princess Royal.