Temporary Exhibitions

Even though a temporary exhibition may only last a few months, with these long-running hours, after only a few months operation some consumer electronics may have racked up enough hours to have exceeded its intended design life and indeed exceed running hours or terms of use specified for its warranty.

Often, temporary exhibitions may be touring, so equipment will need to be redeployed at each location and may have to operate in very different environmental conditions at each stop, sometimes being set up without an AV specialist to hand. In other cases after its initial deployment, the equipment becomes the base stock for a particular department or gallery. In many of the museums and galleries we have visited, there are countless storerooms filled with equipment used once, but unsuitable for further applications.

It seems when the word “Temporary” is used in conjunction with “exhibition” there is often a temptation to think about equipment last minute or to make do with the cheapest, usually non-professional equipment that can be found on the nearest high street. Suitability for the purpose, sustainability of the visitor experience for the duration of the show, and real value for money are often overlooked in this short-sighted approach.

Working with many of Britain’s top museums and art galleries for their temporary exhibition requirements, Integrated Circles often specify professional equipment that will not only provide a solution to the current show needs, but that will be flexible enough to ensure redeployment in a number of other configurations later, ensuring real value for money and providing a positive user experience.

Integrated Circles are often asked to advise, install, maintain, redeploy and augment a galleries base equipment stocks turning around successful exhibition after exhibition. Maintenance is important between deployments as in the aftermath of a new build, and in areas of high traffic, air filtration in machinery such as projector will tend to fill quickly, which may cause overheating and shorten the life of the equipment.