Museum Barberini

Potsdam's New Museum Barberini Features Ultra-High Definition 4K LED Video Wall

The Museum Barberini in Potsdam, Germany is a new art museum located at the city's Old Market Square that officially opened to the public in January 2017, following nearly three and a half years of construction. Funded by SAP founder and patron of the arts Hasso Plattner, the museum is a reconstruction of the Barberini Palace, which was mostly destroyed by bombing in 1945, and shows an ever-changing selection of German and international art. Hilmer & Sattler and Albrecht were the architects responsible for the design and execution planning as well as the artistic construction management.

The museum includes 17 exhibition halls spread out over three floors and a total exhibition area of 2,200 square meters. Featuring high ceilings with vaults and oak parquet as well as state-of-the-art technical equipment, the exhibition halls blend baroque architecture with modern technology. This combination is especially prominent in a multifunctional auditorium located on the museum's second floor where a large Planar TWA Series fine pitch LED video wall (4.8m x 2.7m) with a 1.2mm pixel pitch (TWA1.2) is centrally placed, much like an exhibition object. Amptown System Company (ASC), a well-known Germany-based system integrator, also experienced in museum media technology, installed the Planar video wall.

The Planar TWA Series video wall delivers stunning Ultra HD resolution (3840 x 2160) and crisp, high contrast image quality using the highest quality black LEDs, black solder mask and Planar MicroGrad Shader™, for the deepest level of black.

These features enable the museum to display ultra high resolution scans of artwork and provide visitors information on the various exhibits. The museum also utilizes the Planar video wall to support lectures requiring no more than PA equipment to chamber music or screenings that are held in the auditorium room.

ASC specified the Planar TWA Series LED video wall based on the need for a seamless, high resolution LED solution to present the precious artwork. The LED video wall was also an ideal solution for a large format display, offering maximum reliability, durability and viewing from both near and further distances. Additionally, by using 35 percent less power on average compared to conventional LED video walls, the Planar TWA Series fit the recurring theme of incorporating energy-efficiency through all phases of the museum's construction.

Planar offered ASC a qualitative state-of-the-art reproduction solution that meets the high requirements of the client, the Museum Barberini gGmbH, as a great deal of effort has been devoted to opening the Barberini Museum in the aesthetic of architecture, material, technical background and artwork," said Christian Schroeder, project manager and key account manager of ASC Berlin.

Schroeder said the modular design of the Planar TWA Series displays with plug-in connector boards is a crucial benefit for this particular application. "As opposed to elaborate cable harnesses, this design feature allows service and maintenance work in the short time windows of the museum operations."