CHALLENGE:
The goal was to bring the collections and exhibits into the 21st century, bring them up to museum standards, create more interest to visitors, engage the younger generation with technology, while being able to tell more of the Corvette story.
Derek Moore, Curator for the Corvette Museum knew he wanted touch screen interactive technology but did not want visitors to be focused on the touch screens. He wanted the artifacts, the high performance Corvette racing cars to be a focus. “The large almost perfectly round gallery room almost screamed for large projection all the way around, something that would really catch your eye,” said Moore.
SOLUTION:
The National Corvette Museum partnered with Group Delphi, a global museum exhibit company and the decision was to go with Optoma professional high-brightness projectors. In the Performance Gallery there are 11 classic Corvette cars, 11 Optoma ZU660 projectors and 11 touchscreens set up in kiosks. Visitors, using the touch screens, can control what they see on the projector in front of them, telling a story about that particular car, what the car did, about the driver and things like that. Then every fifteen minutes they have one “Big Experience” as all the screens blend together and all 11 projectors create one giant canvas where all the cars race around the whole gallery as stories are told about the history of the performance cars and the racing teams.
Why did Group Delphi choose Optoma projectors? “That’s easy, we kind of always go with Optoma because we like the product,” said Eric Quintana, Director of AV Technology for Group Delphi. “Optoma projection is amazing compared to some of the other projector brands and with their large assortment of available lenses, they always have the lenses that are perfect for what is needed for our customers.”
RESULTS:
With the new refreshed exhibits and the Performance Gallery being the centerpiece, the National Corvette Museum is on track to break attendance records this year. “I think it’s spectacular”, said Bob Bubnis, Associate Curator at the museum. “One of the things we like to do is watch our guests interact with whatever displays we have going on and it is just amazing how people are attracted to the Performance Gallery and how much they enjoy it.”
Viewing the Performance Gallery has elevated how people feel about the museum, it tells them the museum is moving in the right direction and people feel like they are getting a modern cutting edge experience. “It is just fabulous to watch people both young and old digging into this and that’s the big deal, the young kids go right to it,” said Bubnis.
