The AV team at Glasgow’s celebrated Burrell Collection museum has partnered with DJ Willrich to create a creating a striking digital presence with Clarity Matrix displays from Leyard Europe.
Originally opened by the late Queen in 1983, Glasgow’s celebrated Burrell Collection museum was recently reopened by King Charles in one of his first engagements as monarch, following a six-year long, £68m refurbishment.
With a bold focus on digital presence and interpretation, LCD screens from Leyard Europe were paramount in the recent refit of the Burrell Collection museum in Glasgow.
Curated by wealthy Glasgow shipping magnate and art collector, Sir William Burrell and his wife Constance, the collection was gifted by the couple to the city in 1944, alongside funds for the construction of a museum to house it. After years of searching for the appropriate site, the resulting building is a Scandinavian-inspired, award-winning design established in the city’s Pollok Country Park.
Many of the Collection’s significant and unique objects have been in storage for decades or never been on permanent display, but they are now on show thanks to a 35% increase in the museum’s gallery space.
Partnering with integrator D J Willrich, the venue’s AV team introduced digital technology to the traditional space, comprising video walls and interactive and hybrid systems in a majority of the 24 galleries and public spaces.
“At the forefront of the Burrell’s AV design is a series of bespoke LCD screens,” explained Nicola Jagger from D J Willrich. “We specified Leyard’s Clarity Matrix G3 LX46X 4k LCD video wall system with ERO-LCD protective glass for the video walls throughout the museum to ensure extremely high-resolution image quality and robust build to withstand visitor interaction.”
Central to the museum’s digital innovation is a 4 x 6m video wall situated in the Access Core, which has steps rising from the basement to the main entrance at ground level. This display plays imagery of objects from the collection in a giant format brought to life against the backdrop of the surrounding Pollock Park. The video wall can also be used for presentations by staff members, and the area can also be utilised as an event space.
The architecture of the building is open plan, with balconies between levels at the ends of corridors with views down to the floor below. Two long galleries on the main level draw visitors deep into the museum with pairs of 5m x 2m screens set into recessed niches, two pairs in the long gallery and one pair in the shorter gallery.
Object cases sit in front of the screens, which display high-resolution video of the objects in large scale so visitors can explore the detail, designed to pull visitors through to the further reaches of the museum.
The museum houses a ‘Pater Familias gallery dedicated to the Burrell family, examining their history. Here a further screen displays life-size images of actors playing family members.
A similar screen, displaying images from around Glasgow with animated people in the foreground, again some of them life-sized, links the Burrell Family and Glasgow galleries, while a Storytelling gallery contains three video walls with light-hearted content, telling different stories about the objects displayed there, and a fourth video wall is loaded with interactive content.
Glasgow-based digital media specialists, ISO Design, created the media and content for the refitted venue, while interior fit-out specialists, Beck Interiors, managed the set works for the corridor video walls and people-sized video walls, and design consultancy, Elmwood, managed screen fittings in the central Access Core and Storytelling gallery.
The larger video walls required specialist servers, but the smaller devices are run using standard media players, but still providing good-quality imagery.
“The galleries containing local content and references have been a big draw for local visitors, who have been delighted to see the artefacts contextualised in local surroundings,” said Jagger. “Some of the curator team were concerned about the quantity of AV being introduced, but everyone is completely thrilled by it. The Burrell’s digital evolution has been a huge success.”
“We are proud to be associated with the prestigious Burrell Collection and delighted to see our steadfast Planar Clarity Matrix displays adding value to the exhibition here,” said Leyard Europe sales manager Luke Marler-Hausen. “Our partner D J Willrich was, as ever, a stalwart in delivering this spectacular installation during some very tough Covid years.”
Reference : AVinteractive
