Medialon MANAGER is helping disseminate information about an important event in World War I and Belgian history in its role as the main sound and video controller for a new AV installation at the Fort de Loncin outside Liege.
The company also controls the lighting and the start of the self-guided audio tour for visitors to the fort.
The Fort was part of a fortified belt around Liege, which was built starting in 1888. Triangular in shape and constructed so it was partially buried in the ground, the fort had special strategic value, blocking the route to and from Brussels.
In August 1914 it endured eight days of shelling before the Germans brought in the hitherto unknown Big Bertha gun. One of its shells penetrated the powder magazine triggering the explosion of the fort and the death of 350 men who are still entombed there.
Blue Squares Projects, museum installation designers and integrators, was recently tasked with creating a new tour experience for visitors to the Fort de Loncin.
Thierry Renard, Blue Squares Projects' Project Manager said: "The old fort is cold and humid. The walls are very thick and there was no pre-existing wiring. We even had to deal with the presence of the army’s mine clearance service which supervised the digging of cable runs in about 600m of dugouts."
Medialon’s control of the installation is done through an ethernet network and RS485 ADLink network. The central control room maintains control of an equipment complement which Renard calls 'decentralized to the maximum' due to the layout and wiring of the fort.
The equipment management is centralized in the control room of the fort. Via the Ethernet network, DMX and AdLink, Blue Square controls two 'under-central controls rooms' where some equipment such as audio and video players are stored, as well others machines such as video projectors and video players.
Infra-red transceivers for the audioguides are disseminated all along the 1km path.
The network functions of Medialon - Ethernet, RS485, RS232 via Ethernet/Moxa converters - are particularly critical to the implementation of the system and allow for decentralization and significantly decrease the amount of cable necessary.
Also, the number of possibilities Medialon offers for the creation of the user-interface allows Blue Square to design user friendly control screens adapted to each application.
Close Window