Visitors to the Maritime Experiential Museum & Aquarium (MEMA) at Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore can get an up-close look at a shipwreck in the Typhoon Theater where Electrosonic provided audio-visual design, engineering, integration and installation of the audio, video and control equipment to help simulate an amazing historical journey. The company was hired by Sunray Woodcraft Construction and worked under the general guidance of museum designers Ralph Appelbaum Associates. Super 78 created the content for the attraction.
The museum was built to house the Jewel of Muscat, a reproduction Arab dhow which sailed on the Belitung route from Oman to Indonesia 1100 years ago, and some 60,000 artifacts salvaged from the Belitung shipwreck found near Java. The centerpiece of the museum is the multimedia Typhoon Theater where visitors ‘board’ the Arabia-bound sailing ship, experience the storm it encountered, and sink in the sea as the theater floor descends. When the lights come back on, visitors find themselves in the depths with the shipwreck surrounded by marine life.
“The whole platform on which the audience is seated moves downwards as the virtual ship sinks. Only at that point did I understand why the screen height was a breath taking 5m high.” said Anne Chiang of Goo Central who supplied the Screen Goo coatings for this project. “You get wet, and the whole platform vibrates during the virtual storm at sea. According to plan, the appointed contractor, Sunray Woodcraft Construction P/L, built the massive curved screen and applied our Max Contrast Screen Goo coating, spec-ed in by Electrosonic. The result: brilliant colours and stunning contrast in a darkened environment.”
The experience begins with a pre-show set on the pier in China’s Guangzhou harbor. The shutters of the harbormaster’s hut part to reveal a screen displaying the ship’s crew at work: an emissary carrying a priceless chalice wedding present which will be part of the cargo, and an astrologer making dire forecasts about the ship’s fate. Electrosonic provided a DLP rear-screen projector with mirror bounce to achieve the short throw required for the compact space, plus a pair of line arrays and subwoofers………..
