West Point Military Academy

Introduction

Few educational institutions evoke immediate and historical images in most American's minds as when they hear the title of that school perched above the Hudson River in New York: West Point.

Most of the nation's most revered Army leaders have come from the halls of this historically significant campus: Schwarzkopf, Eisenhower, Patton, MacArthur...

When West Point asked General Projection to design a multi media and sound system to place in the Academy's "Main Hall" it was a daunting task.

This huge hall was the place Douglas MacArthur made his famous "to the corps" speech at the twilight of his career.

Not only would their be technical challenges (such as suspending screens and projectors from vaulted ceilings) but there would be the historical preservation and aesthetic concerns that General Projection has had to deal with at other facilities such as the Secretary of the Interior's headquarters.

Design

To meet the need for brightness in this cavernous hall, General Projection selected Sony high-resolution LCD projectors and Da-Lite screens. These two items had to be hung from precarious positions 50 feet above the marble floors. Signal cabling and all mounting hardware had to be carefully designed to blend into the historically significant room.

Sound in a hall with such reverberation was a challenge as well. When a presentation is made from the "smart lectern" or from a video tape or other media, it had to be heard, intelligibly, from every corner of the hall.

To meet this need, special "flying rigs" of JBL speaker clusters powered by Crown amplifiers were devised.

Main Hall - West Point

Operation of the system had to be very simple.
AMX wall plates control the settings of the room and allow for rapid change from "giant meeting" of the cadets to "giant feeding" of the cadets!

Success

Since building the systems, the Army has trained thousands of future officers through the systems installed in this great hall. This is an example of how technology can unobtrusively serve the educational needs of any organization.

For more information on large venue system design and integration or other educational multimedia communications systems, please fill out our Information Request form or email us at Solutions@genproj.com