Kent State University in Kent, OH, marked the 43rd commemoration of the tragic events of May 4, 1970, with the dedication of the May 4 Visitors Center.
This center includes multimedia exhibits that inform guests about what led to the confrontation between students and the National Guard during the Vietnam War. This historical event left four students dead and nine wounded. The university selected Alcorn McBride’s A/V Binloop to playback the audio and video in the exhibit.
- The dedication ceremony featured film director/producer Oliver Stone and PBS news anchor Gwen Ifill; Ifill moderated a panel discussion on the “Historical Significance of May 4 and the Visitors Center” and Stone shared his thoughts on “History and Memory in Film”.
- Bryan Molnar, electronics technician supervisor with Kent State who oversaw the integration of the technology for the May 4 Visitors Center, chose the A/V Binloop for Gallery 1: The Context. This space delivers background information on the Vietnam War: A Nation Divided, the Generation Gap between students and their elders, and the Struggle for Social Justice.
- “There are three CRT TVs,” Molnar explained, “each one playing a nine-minute video loop about the war, generation gap and social justice. Visitors can see all three TVs at once. But the audio changes to a different TV every three minutes, so the programs loop with two three-minute videos with audio and one three-minute video without audio.”
- The A/V Binloop’s four video cards accommodate these requirements with the first three slots in the Binloop playing back the video feeds to the TVs and the fourth slot the audio. “Thinking about getting all that synched was crazy,” Molnar recalled. “That’s why the A/V Binloop was perfect—it’s designed to do exactly that. Most players don’t have this type of synchronization, but the Binloop could handle all the displays at once. And it can be adjusted any way I need.”
- “Alcorn McBride was great working with us,” said Molnar, to ensure the equipment delivered the functionality that Gallery 1 demanded. “The system is working beautifully. The A/V Binloop comes on every morning and goes to sleep every night. I’ve never had a problem with it.”
