The British Museum manages its AV equipment with QSC Q-SYS

The nerve centre of sainsbury gallery, in the British Museum, is a processor QSC Q-SYS Core 110f; while Joseph Hotung's has been equipped with a Q-SYS Core system 8 Flex and Q-SYS TSC Series Gen Touchscreen Controller 2, with 8" screen.

Autograph Sound has been responsible for updating the system that controls the AV content of the British Museum and has done so based on the solutions of the line QSC Q-SYS.

More than two hundred and fifty years ago, the world's first national public museum opened its doors, the British Museum. Since then he has cared for more than eight million works of art., historical objects and archaeological finds. The exhibits are shown to their full potential and the experience is sought to be perfect for visitors. This goal is difficult to achieve with non-standardized equipment and systems..

To respond to this challenge, the British Museum team selected the producer and system integrator Autograph Sound to update the system that controls the audio and video content of the exhibitions. The proposal focused on QSC technology, specifically in Q-SYS. With this solution you have built a modular and standardized control architecture that facilitates easy and immediate access.

"Our engineer handled all the custom programming for the Museum and now the two spaces., the exhibition gallery Sainsbury and Joseph Hotung Great Court, have the audio, video and control with Q-SYS. Run audio while managing projectors, media players, video and PC playback via dedicated portable user interfaces. In addition, the audiovisual equipment of the museum has been left with a design that they can reconfigure to adapt it to their needs, in a language that is easy to understand", Explains Euan Mackenzie, Head of Business Development at Autograph Sound.

The nerve centre of the Sainsbury Gallery is a processor Q-SYS Core 110f, which is responsible for managing all I/O, routing and DSP of audio and video applications.

To suit a wider variety of audio formats, Autograph took advantage of Dante compatibility, based on Q-SYS Core 110f software, and added a PoE converter and a takeaway interface 16 analog inputs to the Dante Audio-over-IP network standard. This massive expansion allows the in-house AV team to better manage the wide variety of incoming display designs..

For its part, the Joseph Hotung gallery has been equipped with a Q-SYS Core processor 8 Flex and touchscreen controller Q-SYS TSC Series Gen 2 with eight-inch screen, that allows a simple and direct graphic control of all the operations carried out in this space.

Control access is not limited to the Q-SYS touchscreen driver. For museum staff who interact with the public and perform exhibits, access should be easy and immediate.

"The visitor service department is, largely, the end user of the system", Says Clark Henry-Brown, head of the AV team at the British Museum. "The open structure of Q-SYS has allowed us to design a separate iPad user interface for them., allowing them to troubleshoot any issues before escalating to the audio-visual equipment. If an event or filming is taking place in an exhibition space, can even mute specific media points, saving us a call again”.

Access from multiple computers was also a must, as Henry-Brown explains. "There is a multifaceted experience for users of our Q-SYS system for exhibitions., which is best explained between departments".

During the assembly phase of the exhibitions, Q-SYS is used as an audio playback system and performs all speaker processing. "Because we host our exhibition equipment in server rooms, there is a need to be able to mix remotely in the exhibition space, what Q-SYS allows. In addition, we can have full control of the display hardware and mix on the fly while reviewing everything with the design team. Our previous system did not allow this.", adds Henry-Brown.

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