Systems Integration Asia — February-March 2018

75

What would one call an AV install project that has four distinct
galleries – all unique in their own right in terms of theme and
design methodology, and application?

One gallery has huge 10-feet, and 10-sided inverted glass pyramid
projecting images onto circularly seated audience?

One gallery done with 270-degree projection screen surface
covering all the three directions?

One gallery featuring a huge number of LCD panels in an X
shaped overhead lay out radiating content to four directional
partitions? And,

One gallery featuring an impressive holographic projection on an
almost wall-size screen? More,

All that video content is accompanied by a very lucidly
spoken/recited audio so that the content is soothing both for the
aural and visual senses? All this, made an integral part of a tour

A Very Unique AV Fare

through a place of worship before reaching the heart of the

venue!

That is what in a very modest sense, the Golden Temple Plaza- the

basement audio-visual fare before one seeks entry to the central

abode of the Sikh faith, Harmandir Sahib, or the Golden Temple,

Amritsar.

The Backgrounder:

Amritsar, and Golden Temple! These terms do not need any intro

for anyone who is familiar with (famous) Indian spiritual places.

For those uninitiated enthusiasts, the city is spiritual capital of

Sikhism, and the venue is the abode of the God (Harmandir

Sahib).

The epochal temple is a huge complex of equally huge repository

of Sikh heritage (see box-1)- a ner aspect of which is manifested

in the visits of over 100,000 pilgrims and tourists daily, from

across and outside the country.

With a view to creating a self-explanatory, as well as inculcating

platform for people to understand and appreciate the history and

ethos of Sikhism as also to promoting Amritsar as heritage city,

the Punjab State government (Directorate of Cultural Affairs,

Archaeology and Museums) commissioned the construction of a

basement complex, contemplating creation of multimedia

galleries equipped with state-of-the-art audio-visual technology.

Bettingly for them, they had a very highly acclaimed precedent of

similar exploit – the Virast-e-Khalsa – one of the country's most

magnicent audio-visual projects of scale, in the nearby Punjabi

city of Anandpur Sahib. While the government initiated the mega

project through the proper procedural mechanism of tenders and

awarding the project to the lowest bidder, it all materialised to the

same team by the sheer brilliance of their previous work as also

the lowest bidding competency.

It was therefore the team of Designhabit, headed by noted AV

design consultant Amardeep Behl, and Pan Intellecom, one of the

major systems integrators in Northern India on one side – weaving

up the design theme and integration methodology – and system

solutions providers Christie, Sennheiser, Electro-Voice, Biamp and

Kramer on the other side getting in their audio and visual systems

to enliven the ideated message.

“Our task was to ideate and create a very

dynamic interpretation ensemble of Sikh history,

ethos, spiritual relevance to the current

generations,” says Amardeep Behl, Director-

Design Habit, the Design Consultant for the

project. “The job was both as prestigious as it

was challenging,” he recalls. “It entailed us to

design, specify suitable equipment, supervise and ensure smooth

commissioning of the project.”

According to him, the project was much similar to the Virasat-e-

Khalsa and the credential of coming out with the Khalsa project

had a huge value-add at the evaluation for doing

Golden Plaza install.

Harbir Singh, Managing Director of the project

integration rm Pan Intellecom observes: “Owing

to the exalted nature of the holy shrine, it was felt

imperative that the pilgrims understood the

Ÿ Project Name: Golden Temple Plaza

Ÿ Project Location: Golden Temple

(Harmandir Sahib), Amritsar, Punjab

Ÿ Project Segment: Place of

Worship/Museum

Ÿ Project Owner: Directorate of Cultural

Affairs, Archaeology and Museums, Govt. of

Punjab

Ÿ Project Type: Dynamic Narrative-based

Multimedia Interpretation Centre

Ÿ Project Consultant (AV Design): Design

Habit, New Delhi

Ÿ Project Integrator (AV Systems): Pan

Intellecom, New Delhi

Ÿ Project Management Consultant: Design

Habit

Ÿ Project Architecture: Jay Kaktikar - Design

Associates

Ÿ Project Total Cost: INR 130 crore approx.

(>30 million USD approx.).

Ÿ Project's AV cost: >INR 30 crore (>3.5

million USD).

Ÿ Project Commencement: 20 July, 2015

Ÿ Project Commissiong: 31 December, 2016

Ÿ Project highlights: First of its kind

multimedia interpretation centre based on

religious/cultural heritage of Sikhism; four

distinctly carved out AV enclaves, one of the

largest install sites for Christie.

FACT FILE

INDIA INSTALLATION