Hurrairah bin Sohail speaks with Harbir Singh from Pan Intellecom about how technology was delivered for the Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra museum in the face of Covid-19 disruption.
The Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra [RSK] museum is a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and the Swachh Bharat Mission
[SBM]. Established at the Gandhi
Smriti and Darshan Samiti at
Rajghat in New Delhi, the
museum aims to deliver a
dynamic experience to actively
engage with Indian citizens
to communicate information,
awareness, and education about
the efforts being taken to improve
the level of sanitation across rural
India.
Design Habit was engaged
as the consultant and Pan
Intellecom served as the AV
integrator to equip the museum
with the required technology
systems to help it achieve its aim.
The work for the museum was
completed in the second half of
this year and it was inaugurated
by Prime Minister Narendra Modi
on August 8, 2020. As can be
expected, the installation teams
faced and battled disruption.
Harbir Singh, managing director
for Pan Intellecom, details: “We
were awarded the project and
started work in February of this
year and we were given 75 days
to complete our work for the
inauguration in April 2020. This
wasn’t a realistic time frame for a
project of this scale to begin with
and matters were complicated
because the design brief for the
project changed. The customer,
DDW&S, wanted to increase the
number of interactive elements
in the museum which meant we
had to redesign and recalibrate
project work and deadlines.”
He continues: “And then
Covid-19 hit. India went into
lockdown and that completely
put a halt to any work that could
be done on site. We were of
course still having regular
meetings over Zoom and
videoconferencing to finalise the
design revisions but there was no
physical work possible on the site
itself. When the lockdown ended
in July, we went back to work and
had to completely redo all the
project timelines and came up
with a new completion date for
the project which was decided to
be in August 2020.”
Delving into the specifics of
the project and examining the
scope of the works AV technology
had to deliver starts to bring into
focus the challenges faced by the
AV professionals.
Two large outdoor LED
displays, strategically placed to
help visitors with wayfinding and
to make an initial impact, are the
first touchpoint for the Rashtriya
Swachhata Kendra museum.
The LED displays comprise
10mm pixel pitch LED tiles from
Delta as well as controllers and
processors from the manufacturer.
Moving into the museum
proper, there are a number
of exhibits which convey the
intended story and message. The
first exhibit visitors encounter is
360-degree projection achieved
with the help of Digital Projection
Evision Laser projectors and
shark tooth gauze mesh screen.
The floor is a ‘turntable’ and
moves according to the pacing of
the story and content, allowing
the visitors to experience the
projection fully and focus on the
relevant areas at the right time.
Once the projected content is
complete, the visitors are able
to experience the intricate set
of the first exhibit which can
be seen through the shark tooth
gauze mesh. According to Singh
the 360-degree revolving theatre
with projection is the first of its
kind in India.
Singh says: “We have been
working on another museum
project, which is still underway,
and we used the shark tooth
gauze mesh for that. It worked
really well, and we were
impressed by the results. So,
Design Habit and Pan
Intellecom came together and
we decided to implement it for
Rashtriya Swachhata Kendra
museum as well. We had already
tested and experienced working
with the mesh so there were
no real technical challenges.
And we both felt that the shark
tooth gauze mesh would really
amplify the story and the
message of the first exhibit.”
Moving into the second exhibit,
we see a complete change in the
display solution employed. Flat
panel videowalls of differing sizes
and configurations can be found
as the main feature.
Singh explains: “The museum
wanted more interactivity for
the second exhibit, and this
was one of the elements that we
spent some time redesigning
and perfecting. The aim was
to appeal to the younger
demographic of visitors and
they like to play games, have
quizzes and basically want the
content to be interactive, they
do not like to passively consume
content. This made us lean
towards having differently sized
videowalls with different content
that the visitors can explore and
interact with at their own pace.
An interactive robot was also
added that represented the SBM
mascot, Swaccha Singh.”
Samsung 55-in flat panel
displays with Magic Info
handling content and LG OLED
55-in displays with content
being streamed from HP servers
powered by Coolux are used to
create the videowalls.
Singh says: “We believe that
this is one of the first OLED
videowalls to be deployed in
India. It was a challenge to
present the OLED videowall
as an option to the client. Flat
panel videowalls will always
have a ‘black line’, or bezel, and
clients always want a seamless
display. And then there is the
fact that an OLED panel is many
times more expensive than a
regular TV. But the transparency
of the OLED panels made the
content ‘holographic’ and
merged well with the different
layers of the otherwise static
exhibits. This became a good
solution and when it comes
to performance, OLED is a
complete gamechanger. In the
end we were able to show the
customer that the display
solution would deliver value.”
The videowalls also presented
a technical challenge and Singh
details: “The combination of the
LG OLED panels and HP servers
worked well. But as I mentioned,
we decided to go with Samsung’s
Magic Info to manage the content
to the Samsung videowalls. We
found that there were some
limitations and stability issues
with this setup but with the help
of Samsung India and our own
team of experts we were able to
troubleshoot the problems.”
Another interesting exhibit is
a dome projection feature which
once again uses Digital Projection
projectors. Content is fed to the
projector with the help of Christie
Pandoras Box manager and
players. Barco Medialon show
control sits at the backend and
helps control all of the exhibits
at the museum. Audio at the
museum is provided by a range
of Electro-Voice and Holosnic
speakers.
Regarding the selection of
projectors, Singh says: “In my
opinion, when it comes to
performance, there is very little
difference between the options
from Christie, Barco and Digital
Projection.”
Singh concludes: “This was
definitely not a normal project.
We were faced with tight
deadlines and disruption due to
Covid-19. But even with all these
challenges we were able to deliver
and have the project completed
for the inauguration date.”