ACMI (Australian Centre for the Moving Image) has launched a new centerpiece exhibition, The Story of the Moving Image. The exhibition officially opened on February 11, 2021.
Ideum was proud to play a small part in this major museum renewal. Our firm worked with design firms Second Story and Grumpy Sailor along with ACMI to help create custom touch tables complete with RFID readers to support The Lens feature for the new exhibition, in which visitors collect artworks and objects that they discover.
The custom touch tables appear in an area of the exhibition, called the Constellation. Custom software developed by Grumpy Sailor and ACMI allows visitors to see the connections between films, TV shows, video games, and art. Ideum took the initial concepts and developed industrial design drawings and manufactured the custom touch tables.
These custom, Constellation touch tables are unique in a few ways. First off, they have an extended and stylized tabletop. This design accommodates two RFID readers, one on each short side of the table. Ideum helped create the logo design for each of these Lens stations, ensuring that the RFID readers provided by ACMI fit and work seamlessly with the touch tables.
The displays in the Constellation tables are 4K QLED panels which have deep, dark black color, which was important to best display the custom software in the Constellation area of the exhibition. This was our first time using QLED panels, we are currently working on a new prototype 75” touch table that uses an 8K QLED panel. (More on that later this year.)
The custom Constellation touch tables with their unique tops utilize our Platform Classic base. This allows the tables to appear to float in the space, focusing visitor attention on the tops of the touch tables. Additionally, since these table bases have been well-proven and previously designed, it allowed our team to focus on the important design aspects of the Constellation, which is such an important part of the visitor experience.
With COVID-19 it might be a little while until we get to see the installation in person, but here’s hoping that we can get there before ‘21 is over.
