September 11 museum in New York

The National September 11 Memorial & Museum has opened in the footprints of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan. Electrosonic provided the audiovisual systems for the museum, which is primarily located about 70 feet (21 meters) below ground and offers a unique and moving visitor experience. Dataton’s WATCHOUT system is used for multiple exhibits throughout the museum.

The main exhibition space, reached by a gently sloping ramp, includes remnants of the Vesey Street stairs, the Twin Towers’ structural columns, a portion of the original foundations plus a permanent collection of artifacts. The memorial exhibition features the Wall of Faces, which displays photo portraits of the nearly 3,000 victims of the attacks, and interactive tables to learn more about them. Dataton WATCHOUT multi-display production software is used in four alcove theaters in the historical exhibition to create edge-blended imagery.

"This was a very large museum project located several stories underground, which made it a bit of a logistical challenge," says Electrosonic project manager Jackson Benedict. "The site is spread out over nearly eight acres, so just getting from one side to the other took a long time."

As the project also spanned several years, Electrosonic had to stay on top of evolving technology and equipment advances as equipment was specified and installed. Several exhibits required especially complex media systems. The first exhibition visitors see as they enter the galleries is We Remember, which features recollections of people around the world as September 11, 2001, dawned. Six large, vertical screens are staggered down a 60-foot ramp with a portion of a world map projected on each to create the appearance of a cohesive map from the top of the ramp. Dataton WATCHOUT provides the multi-display delivery teamed with Digital Projection projectors and audio from ceiling-mounted Atlas speakers.

The final section of the museum is Rebirth, based on timelapse documentary footage captured by filmmaker Jim Whitaker over the last 13 years on the site, from the clean-up of the pit to today’s rebuild. A WATCHOUT system running on seven Sharp projectors displays the approximately 11-minute video on three walls that surround visitors.

The 9/11 Memorial and Museum are located on eight of the 16 acres of the World Trade Center site and are open daily.