4.jpg)
What's been happening? 2007
Lots of people have been asking what has been going on with Chris and Hartwell AVD over the last few months. We haven’t posted anything on the web site recently and that might tend to imply that not much has been going on.Of course, that’s about as far from the truth as possible!We’ve been extremely busy with some very exciting projects...some of which we can even tell you about!
Actually starting late last year but extending into 2007, RAW Media and I got together and worked on a new exhibit at the Singapore Science Centre called I-Space. This involved a few weeks of design as well as three trips to Singapore over as many months to install and program the show.
This project was designed here in the States by Falcon’s Tree House with lots of interaction with the science centre staff.
The photo on the left shows Phil and Rich at the entrance of the Science Centre.
This project went fairly well but had the typical 20 hour days, never-ending media downloads and interesting environmental factors (read that as different food) that make international travel so much fun.
Here in the photo (from left to right) are Rich, Grace, Li Chien and Chris.
On one of the last days of the trip, Rich and I decided to visit the famous Singapore Zoo’s Night Safari. We didn’t quite know what to expect and our hosts for the evening had never been! (That’s like a kid growing up in Orlando and never visiting the Magic Kingdom! It’s been known to happen!)
So after work one evening we left the site and drove to the zoo. The girls and I had an excellent dinner of stingray and kabobs. It was all REALLY GOOD and we had a great time acting like tourists. Rich joined us a little later and took the safari tour.
After the Singapore project I worked with Electrosonic an outdoor speaker installation at the re-designed Visitor’s Complex at Kennedy Space Center. This was nice for me because I installed the original BGM system six or seven years before and the work corresponded with the grand opening of the new Space Shuttle Experience—a very cool attraction at the VC. (We didn’t work on it, but we knew a lot of people who did!)
The Indian Museum also changed out their rotating exhibit in February so I flew up to DC to help them update the media for this new gallery. The new show is called “Dresses” and deals with the identity and personality put into each dress design and use. There is a lot of personality in this exhibit, not just from the dresses but also from the exhibit designers. I have to say, this space is now my favorite at the museum and is a grand achievement for Eric Christiansen, the NMAI staff designer.
I had my family with me on this trip and we took a Sunday to head up to the National Zoo. The kids, wife and I had a blast here...but it was freezing cold. For a bunch of people who have lived in Orlando for as long as we have, we did very well; but that’s not to say that there wasn’t a bunch of complaining!
Here’s the kids with one of the painted bears on the road leading to the zoo. (It’s the only shot that’s good of all of them...sorry. I would have liked to have one with actual animals...other than the kids that is.)
During the rest of the first quarter I worked on a bunch of design things that I still can’t discuss. A few of them have already been shelved (one which would have been extremely cool and might still come to pass) and one that’s still in installation and I’m under an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) so I can’t talk about.
Then, working again for Electrosonic, we started working on two jobs that were very interesting. One was for the California office and involved a fountain show in Jakarta, Indonesia. The fountains dance, lights change and videos play on screens above the water. There was a small media control system that I programmed (Netlinx) to drive the audio, video and lights.
This job is still in progress as of this writing (late October) and a third trip back to Jakarta is very possible in the next few months.
By the way, regardless of what you hear from the State Department or others, the people in Jakarta are very nice and the food is good. The construction and infrastructure is somewhat lacking and they don’t have the freedoms that we take for granted, but that should made us appreciate those freedoms all the more.
The other cool job for Electrosonic was a planetarium system for Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, VA. This place is not your typical Community College...it’s way beyond that! One of the professors even admitted to me that he never expected to get a planetarium with this new building. He put the money in the budget and then was shocked when it actually got approved. A few years (like five) later and WHAM, here’s your planetarium. (Obviously it’s not that easy so they are very excited to see it come to fruition.)
This job is also still in progress. Randy Smith has completed the installation and I’ve taken a commissioning trip up to start it all but we still have a training and final startup trip that will happen in late October.
Here’s an interesting photo of the workers finishing the dome ceiling. You can see the ribs that support the ceiling pieces which are perforated (to let the sound thru) and are also the projection surface for the laser projection system.
Electrosonic installed the speakers behind this dome, a processing and amplification rack and a show development system located in another part of the building.
While Randy was working in Virginia on the Tidewater job, I went back to DC and NMAI to make the second change for the year. The museum changed out two of the communities in the “Our Peoples” gallery and lots of media components had to be moved and programmed. This took about a week and I had the pleasure of working with one of the technicians from the Burbank office who was in DC working on the Newseum project, Win Roach. Win and I had a blast together, if only for a few days. I’d work with him again anytime—great guy!
While I was there, Jeanne Itjen had a going-away party. She had taken a job elsewhere and the museum threw her a nice shindig with cake, ice cream and endless compliments for her past work. Jeanne was one of the first people that I met when I started working at the museum and I’ll miss her.
Last but not least on my list this year was a re-visit to the State Fair of Texas! Big Tex was back as was the famous Dallas native Jolie Holliday, her band and that wild and wacky video engineer, Dave Jolley.
This year they really did up the space around Big Tex with expanded landscaping and a set of model trains. They had mountains, woods, little houses and trestle bridges that the trains went thru. This was a great example of someone throwing their love into something for people to enjoy. Unfortunately thousands of people just walked right by and never even looked at it. I see this all too often in my work but it doesn’t keep those who treasure the details from doing it. More power to you! I sure enjoyed it.
Here’s a photo of one of the bridges for the train. Look at all the work put into the wood, side railings and structure. I was very impressed!
Watch out for some of the new photos that I’ll be putting up in the near future! I got my late birthday present recently...a Nikon D80. This is a significant upgrade from my Fuji 3800 which was a nice camera but was really just a better than average point and shoot model. The D80 is really going to help me make the next step in quality and artistic shooting.
Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for the next update. It should be soon after Thanksgiving and will have lots of photos from a family reunion in a beautiful cabin in the mountains of North Carolina.
God Bless,
Chris Hartwell
Hartwell AVD Inc.
Actually starting late last year but extending into 2007, RAW Media and I got together and worked on a new exhibit at the Singapore Science Centre called I-Space. This involved a few weeks of design as well as three trips to Singapore over as many months to install and program the show.This project was designed here in the States by Falcon’s Tree House with lots of interaction with the science centre staff.
The photo on the left shows Phil and Rich at the entrance of the Science Centre.
This project went fairly well but had the typical 20 hour days, never-ending media downloads and interesting environmental factors (read that as different food) that make international travel so much fun.
Here in the photo (from left to right) are Rich, Grace, Li Chien and Chris.On one of the last days of the trip, Rich and I decided to visit the famous Singapore Zoo’s Night Safari. We didn’t quite know what to expect and our hosts for the evening had never been! (That’s like a kid growing up in Orlando and never visiting the Magic Kingdom! It’s been known to happen!)
So after work one evening we left the site and drove to the zoo. The girls and I had an excellent dinner of stingray and kabobs. It was all REALLY GOOD and we had a great time acting like tourists. Rich joined us a little later and took the safari tour.
After the Singapore project I worked with Electrosonic an outdoor speaker installation at the re-designed Visitor’s Complex at Kennedy Space Center. This was nice for me because I installed the original BGM system six or seven years before and the work corresponded with the grand opening of the new Space Shuttle Experience—a very cool attraction at the VC. (We didn’t work on it, but we knew a lot of people who did!)
The Indian Museum also changed out their rotating exhibit in February so I flew up to DC to help them update the media for this new gallery. The new show is called “Dresses” and deals with the identity and personality put into each dress design and use. There is a lot of personality in this exhibit, not just from the dresses but also from the exhibit designers. I have to say, this space is now my favorite at the museum and is a grand achievement for Eric Christiansen, the NMAI staff designer.
I had my family with me on this trip and we took a Sunday to head up to the National Zoo. The kids, wife and I had a blast here...but it was freezing cold. For a bunch of people who have lived in Orlando for as long as we have, we did very well; but that’s not to say that there wasn’t a bunch of complaining!
Here’s the kids with one of the painted bears on the road leading to the zoo. (It’s the only shot that’s good of all of them...sorry. I would have liked to have one with actual animals...other than the kids that is.)
During the rest of the first quarter I worked on a bunch of design things that I still can’t discuss. A few of them have already been shelved (one which would have been extremely cool and might still come to pass) and one that’s still in installation and I’m under an NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement) so I can’t talk about.
Then, working again for Electrosonic, we started working on two jobs that were very interesting. One was for the California office and involved a fountain show in Jakarta, Indonesia. The fountains dance, lights change and videos play on screens above the water. There was a small media control system that I programmed (Netlinx) to drive the audio, video and lights.
This job is still in progress as of this writing (late October) and a third trip back to Jakarta is very possible in the next few months.By the way, regardless of what you hear from the State Department or others, the people in Jakarta are very nice and the food is good. The construction and infrastructure is somewhat lacking and they don’t have the freedoms that we take for granted, but that should made us appreciate those freedoms all the more.
The other cool job for Electrosonic was a planetarium system for Tidewater Community College in Virginia Beach, VA. This place is not your typical Community College...it’s way beyond that! One of the professors even admitted to me that he never expected to get a planetarium with this new building. He put the money in the budget and then was shocked when it actually got approved. A few years (like five) later and WHAM, here’s your planetarium. (Obviously it’s not that easy so they are very excited to see it come to fruition.)
This job is also still in progress. Randy Smith has completed the installation and I’ve taken a commissioning trip up to start it all but we still have a training and final startup trip that will happen in late October.
Here’s an interesting photo of the workers finishing the dome ceiling. You can see the ribs that support the ceiling pieces which are perforated (to let the sound thru) and are also the projection surface for the laser projection system.Electrosonic installed the speakers behind this dome, a processing and amplification rack and a show development system located in another part of the building.
While Randy was working in Virginia on the Tidewater job, I went back to DC and NMAI to make the second change for the year. The museum changed out two of the communities in the “Our Peoples” gallery and lots of media components had to be moved and programmed. This took about a week and I had the pleasure of working with one of the technicians from the Burbank office who was in DC working on the Newseum project, Win Roach. Win and I had a blast together, if only for a few days. I’d work with him again anytime—great guy!
While I was there, Jeanne Itjen had a going-away party. She had taken a job elsewhere and the museum threw her a nice shindig with cake, ice cream and endless compliments for her past work. Jeanne was one of the first people that I met when I started working at the museum and I’ll miss her.
Last but not least on my list this year was a re-visit to the State Fair of Texas! Big Tex was back as was the famous Dallas native Jolie Holliday, her band and that wild and wacky video engineer, Dave Jolley.
This year they really did up the space around Big Tex with expanded landscaping and a set of model trains. They had mountains, woods, little houses and trestle bridges that the trains went thru. This was a great example of someone throwing their love into something for people to enjoy. Unfortunately thousands of people just walked right by and never even looked at it. I see this all too often in my work but it doesn’t keep those who treasure the details from doing it. More power to you! I sure enjoyed it.
Here’s a photo of one of the bridges for the train. Look at all the work put into the wood, side railings and structure. I was very impressed!
Watch out for some of the new photos that I’ll be putting up in the near future! I got my late birthday present recently...a Nikon D80. This is a significant upgrade from my Fuji 3800 which was a nice camera but was really just a better than average point and shoot model. The D80 is really going to help me make the next step in quality and artistic shooting.
Thanks for reading and keep an eye out for the next update. It should be soon after Thanksgiving and will have lots of photos from a family reunion in a beautiful cabin in the mountains of North Carolina.
God Bless,
Chris Hartwell
Hartwell AVD Inc.