Curved, Fine-Pitch LED Video Wall Focal Point For Newly-Opened First Americans Museum In OKC

January 20, 2022 by Dave Haynes

Hat Tip to Craig Keefner of Kiosk Industry, who pointed me to this nice video wall project.

The First Americans Museum of Oklahoma is described as the only space in the United States where visitors can have an immersive experience learning about American history through the lens of 39 Tribal Nations, and one of the visual keys to the venue – which opened last fall – is a unique LED video wall that functions as a theater and gathering point for live events.

Peerless-AV worked with a couple of local firms – Ford Audio-Video Systems and Waystone LLC – to design a video wall solution in the central area of the Oklahoma City museum that worked with its contours.

From a Peerless-AV case study:

Controversially challenging in both building and architectural aspects, the museum has been in the planning stages for over 20 years by the State of Oklahoma, the City of Oklahoma, and the tribal nations themselves. Initial discussions started in 2018 surrounding the construction of a giant, suspended, and curved dvLED video wall designed to wrap around the center of the museum. The objective was to create a gathering space for live music and performances that mimicked the center of a tribal village and allowed for “The Exchange of Ideas.”

IT design consultancy Waystone was tasked with bringing the concept to reality, designing a video wall solution that was not only technically feasible but also pushed boundaries in terms of creativity. As the central point of contact for the museum, Waystone hired Oklahoma City’s leading AV specialist, Ford Audio-Video Systems, LLC (Ford AV), to manage the AV portion of the project from start to finish.

The team worked with LED manufacturer Absen on a design for 192 2.5mm pitch display cabinets set in a six-degree concave design. That curve meant no off-the-shelf mount system could manage the radius and the aggregated weight of all that display hardware. “This most certainly was no straightforward rectangular video wall. The installation and engineering of the dvLED video wall was highly challenging, but the Peerless-AV team was optimistic and confident that they could do anything to make the mounting system work successfully,” says Waystone CEO Courtney Myers. “By far the biggest concern was the curvature of the wall and the Peerless-AV team was instrumental in calculating the radius. The structure and weight of the video wall was also a challenge; three layers of ply were needed to make the curve which cantilevers out 6 feet from the wall, giving the effect of floating in the air.”

The resulting, unique shape of the wall reflects the character of the museum and the playfulness of its designer, Courtney Myers, the case study continues. “The inner rectangle space is visualized to be used as a place to put text or have animated characters popping in and out, tailored to the live performances planned to take place in front of this giant ‘backdrop.'”

The content shared at the museum is fine-tuned to the video wall by internationally acclaimed New York media design company, Batwin + Robin Productions. Intelligent editing software provided by the company allows for content flexibility and creativity. Not only does this software allow the museum to quickly change content, but the museum can also utilize sections of the video wall to show different content, maximizing audience enthrallment.

FAM Director/CEO James Pepper Henry adds: “The giant dvLED video wall is more than we hoped for! Since our opening, the Xchange theatre, as it is now called, has become a popular venue for demonstrations, singing, storytelling, and fashion shows. The dvLED video wall adds a truly special element to shows and performances with original and inspiring motion backgrounds, and also provides a means to thank our patrons for their support in making FAM a reality.”

  1. craig Allen keefner says:

    I saw additional time lapse of install that is very cool off Vimeo Peerless-AV — https://vimeo.com/646917699

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