Fans of the NFL's New England Patriots are cheering the new Hall at Patriot Place, a unique sports and educational experience showcasing the history of the football franchise and housing its Hall of Fame. The venue, adjacent to Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, features a dazzling array of interactive and immersive multimedia exhibits and artifacts whose audio and control systems were engineered, installed and supplied by Electrosonic.

Visitors to the 36,000-square foot Hall at Patriot Place are entertained and educated by a host of interactive exhibits where they discover how plays in the
playbook are designed from Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick and make the call on an instant replay. In addition, fans are treated to a variety of big-screen
video content. All of these attractions make extensive use of interactive and display technology furnished by Electrosonic.

"It was fascinating to watch how our Electrosonic team customized the technical systems to meet the creative needs of Cortina Productions which produced and encoded all the interactive and projected-video content," notes project manager Gary Barnes. "The results were incredible. The Hall at Patriot Place is just a phenomenal place."

Electrosonic provided a 48-channel Richmond Sound Design SoundMan-Server Virtual Sound System for audio routing from the equipment room. A scalable audio routing, playback and processing solution, SoundMan emulates and replaces traditional commercial/professional sound systems of all types and sizes. Remotely- and locally-controllable and programmable, it's suitable to any installation requiring the interconnection and overall control of high-quality sound.

The Hall is packed with exhibits and attractions designed by Cambridge Seven Associates. They delight fans of all ages. In the Raytheon Theater, named for the Hall's presenting partner, Electrosonic supplied three Christie DS+650 1-chip DLP 6500 lumen projectors which display a 15-minute film on the Patriots' history on a 48-foot wide panoramic movie screen; edge blending is achieved via Christie Twist.

Celebrated Gameplay

The projector roster includes two Roadster S+16K 3-chip DLP 16000 lumen projectors; one DS+8K 3-chip DLP 8500 lumen projector; one DS+6K 3-chip DLP 6500 lumen projector; one DS+305 1-chip DLP 3300 lumen projector; three HD6K 3-chip DLP 6500 lumen projectors; and one HD405 4100 lumen 1080p projector.

An Electrosonic ESCAN control software is the venue's master show control system. It talks to three Crestron CP2E systems with Ethernet capabilities to
control the projectors, interactive kiosks and every exhibit. Three HP 24-port Ethernet switchers are deployed for the internal network.

A large complement of Christie projectors, lenses and mounts also feed projection screens in the third-floor Grand Hall, kiosk attractions on the
second and third floors, and the geodesic dome-shaped Snow Game exhibit where one projector displays footage from the team's celebrated gameplay during a heavy snowfall while two other projectors handle snow effects.

Six JBL 3-way cinema surround speakers plus five Renkus-Heinz 8-inch wide dispersion speakers and two subwoofers help the team history in the Raytheon Theater come alive. Four EAW programmable steered array speakers and four Renkus-Heinz subs provide audio to the Grand Hall. All interactive audio and video kiosks are equipped with local Innovox custom speakers.

A number of exhibits feature Acroname proximity-range sensors with serial control, which trigger audio effects. When visitors leave the elevator on the
third floor and enter a tunnel, reminiscent of the tunnel in Gillette Stadium, a sensor triggers an audio track of cheering fans as the Patriots prepare to take
the field. Other sensors trigger players. voices in mannequins as they call a play in a huddle, launch snow-removal sounds in Snow Game, and bid the fans farewell as they leave the We Are All Patriots exhibit. For the tunnel audio Electrosonic supplied four JBL 6.5-inch, 2-way ceiling-mounted speakers, two more wall-mounted units, and a pair of 8-inch ceiling-mounted subs.

The equipment room is also outfitted with 13 QSC amps; Shure wireless mics are used for presentations in the Raytheon Theater and Patriots. Media Lab
classroom.

Wide Range of Screens

Electrosonic furnished nine Panasonic 58-inch HD plasma displays for the venue's Fan's Room, Super Bowl and Club House exhibits, and Patriots' Media Lab. They run content which is sourced from three Electrosonic MS9200P HD SDI MPEG2 digital players; seven Electrosonic MS9500 HD MPEG2 players; and 10 Electrosonic MS9500GL HD MPEG2 players with genlock.

Electrosonic also supplied a wide range of touchscreens for various exhibits. Fourteen AIS Pro 32-inch and one 42-inch LCD touchscreens are deployed in the Fan's Room and Building Blocks and Raytheon exhibits as well as for changing displays and the Patriots Hall of Fame. The kiosks in the Hall of Fame trigger 30-foot high video Magink pylons whose digital displays highlight the careers of each Hall of Famer via video, still images and text information. Five
Richardson Electronics 24-inch LCD touchscreens and a pair of Digitpro 19-inch LCD touchscreens are also featured in the venue.

The major interactive content is powered via a Dell media server, 21 computer systems and three Dell power graphics systems. Four Panasonic Blu-ray disk players source content for the Fan.s Room, the Cradle of Football exhibit and in the Raytheon Theater and Media Lab for presentations.

"The Kraft Group, our client for the Hall at Patriots Place, is one of the finest groups I've ever had the pleasure to work with," reports Gary Barnes.
"They had great vision and high expectations. And they dealt with us as if we were members of their family."

Tony Petruzziello was Electrosonic's sales person for the project. The company's head of integration engineering, Jim Maddux, did all the ESCAN
programming; detail and lead engineer Carl Hartzler was supported by Crestron programmer Ryan Sims and projection engineer Nir Elnekave. Chris Cooper was the installation site supervisor with Phil Shaw, Brian Otis and David Boudreau the installers.

About Electrosonic
 
Electrosonic is a worldwide audio-visual company that operates in three ways: as a systems integrator, as a product manufacturer, and as a service provider for AV facilities. Founded in 1964, Electrosonic has always been among the first to apply new technology to create tailored, state-of-the-art solutions that meet the challenges of the professional AV market.
 
Electrosonic's system integration business has a strong reputation for working on complex projects, both large and small, and has through its 40 year history developed lasting partnerships with customers and suppliers.  Electrosonic brings a unique breadth of experience to each project, backed by solid
engineering skills, project management and quality production facilities.  Beyond complete integrated systems, Electrosonic can provide a wide range of
services including consultancy, technical design, maintenance, lamp leasing and operational support.

About Richmond Sound Design

Richmond Sound Design Ltd., founded in 1972 and headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, develops and manufactures sound and show control systems and software used in museums, theme parks, entertainment venues, attractions and theatrical applications around the world.

For more information and pictures please contact Charlie Richmond, phone +1-604-715-9441, email

See also:
Themed Entertainment : Getting Interactive at the London Transport Museum
Themed Entertainment: Live Interaction with Electrosonic’s Chris Conte