Featured Project: A Monumental Undertaking

Kenilworth, New Jersey-based digital signage integrator Diversified and Los Gatos, California-based digital signage media player manufacturer BrightSign played a major role in the media portion of the new Statue of Liberty Museum, which opened on Liberty Island on May 16, 2019.

Billed as the most monumental addition to Liberty Island since Lady Liberty herself, which opened to the public in 1886, the museum was built by The Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation and was a three-year project.

Some 4 ½ million people from all over the world visit The Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island each year, and the foundation wanted the museum to immerse visitors in not only the story of the statue, but also to America and the concept of liberty itself. The audio/visual and digital signage components installed by Diversified, featuring BrightSign players, goes a long way in doing that.

Among the galleries are an Immersive Theater, Star Mural Donor Wall, the Engagement Gallery and the Becoming Liberty gallery, all built on a technology platform that is flexible and simple to operate while providing extensive redundancies for minimal downtime. Additionally, the companies say, the technology platform is based on digital, solid-state components wherever possible and all displays use laser-phosphor or LED light engines, eliminating the need ever to replace a lamp.

Diversified describes the audio-visual piece of the museum on its website: “In the Theater, a film telling the Statue’s origins is projected on a wide, curved surface, creating an enveloping and immersive environment. The image is created by overlapping and blending projections from eight laser-phosphor projectors, fed by three multi-output servers and an additional server for backup. The audio is equally immersive, playing through multiple speakers to wrap the sound around the audience. The Donor Wall includes five, 22” touchscreen displays that show information about museum donors.

“Upon leaving the Theater, patrons enter the Engagement Gallery-a self-exploration gallery presenting continuous video and audio loops on the design, construction and unveiling of the Statue of Liberty through projection, transparent and interactive displays as well as unobtrusive background audio designed by Diversified to enhance the experience and not draw attention to itself or distract from the information on displays. Finally, the Becoming Liberty gallery features a large LED video wall built around 20 interactive displays, each connected to a local mini PC. In this exhibit, patrons can create their own content by taking a photo from one of the built-in PTZ camera kiosks located to the left of each display. Once the patron has completed their content, they will be able to send it to the 40′ x 11′ video wall for all to see. The audio visual and digital signage technology immerses museum visitors in the tale of the American dream.”