DJW, an International award-winning AV specialist systems integrator, has completed the AV installation at Hengistbury Head Visitor Centre.
The £1 million eco-friendly Hengistbury Head Visitor Centre is located at the site of a Scheduled Ancient Monument in Bournemouth, UK. The area incorporates prehistoric earth works and evidence of human occupation dating back to 10, 500BC and is also a Local Nature Reserve as well as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, being home to critically endangered plants, birds and insects.
The visitor centre features displays, study zones, videos, podcasts, trails, talks, walks and booklets. In addition hidden wildlife webcams stream live footage and audio from various points across the nature reserve onto monitors installed by DJW. A playback function also allows recorded video to be shown when the animals are less active.
Outside a 3D model of the headland is displayed and an outdoor LCD screen displays updateable information to visitors.
DJW installed equipment including touch screen monitors, telephone handsets, interactive PCs, and directional speakers.
For DJW project lead Mike Hope the biggest challenge was fitting all the AV hardware into the relatively small space of the converted barn: “The size of the building did make various elements of the AV installation a challenge, for example it was difficult to stop sound from speakers spilling out into other areas of the barn. To tackle this problem we installed directional speakers in the ceiling to project the audio over a very specific area only.
“Close liaison and clever planning with the project designers, Querceus, also ensured we fitted in the 14 monitors without problem.”
Mark Holloway, Countryside Operations Manager for Bournemouth Parks, who oversaw the project, said, “DJW did an excellent job and overcame any many challenges in their path. The service support after installation and willingness to make changes has exceeded our expectations.”
