Six Funktion-One sound systems – supplied by distributor for Russia, Edelweiss Audio – have been installed at the cutting-edge Russian Railway Museum in St Petersburg.

Established at the building of the former locomotive depot of the Peterhof railway, next to the functioning Baltiysky Station, it is one of the largest museums of its kind in the world. The huge indoor and outdoor site houses around 35,000 historical artefacts – including 118 pieces of rare steam trains, locomotives, electric locomotives, railcars and other rolling stock. As a fundamental method for traversing its expansive landscape and boasting an intriguing past to boot, the country has a proud history of railroad innovations.

This pride was evident in the ambitious concepts for the re-invented museum, which opened its first phase in October 2017. AV technology and moving elements would feature throughout, bringing a dynamic edge to the exhibits.

In order to achieve this, Vladimir Belyakov was appointed as Project Manager by main contractor Pitch Bureau for the exhibition elements of the museum, bringing with him extensive technical experience through his work with Digisky, AV Stumpfl and Kramer.

A spokesperson for the museum explained: “Technologies give visitors a better perception of the museum exposition, more detailed information about a particular exhibit and the ability to choose how they interact – viewing text, listening or watching a video.”

Hands of Time

One of the standout attractions, Hands of Time, recently won Best Audiovisual Installation at the international awards, Museums in Short 2020. Located in the Central Hall of the old depot building, it features eight archways filled with large double-sided projection screens (creating a 180-degree panoramic), a central projection mapped table that rotates on locomotive wheels and a 5.1 Funktion-One sound system.

Belyakov explains: “If you rotate this table, the mapping rotates too as a single surface. When the table stops it chooses one of eight historic periods. Then you go to the video show on eight screens of panoramic projection.”

The custom rotating table sends command via an encoder to the server room, where the Unreal Engine-based app is installed. This app sends the encoded data to the Screenberry software to blend the projection into one coherent image.

An abundance of hard surfaces combined with the size of the space (around 15m across) means there is a long reverberation time. This was overcome with the deployment of Funktion-One loudspeakers, which are renowned for their directivity and clarity. Multichannel mastering specifically for such a complex installation was done by the production studio Mediatact, which made a lot of sound design for this museum.

In addition to their sonic capabilities, Funktion-One’s skeletal speakers – two Evo 6SH and three Resolution 2SH – with their minimal horn look, worked with the visual aesthetic of the railway station. The addition of a BR221 bass reflex speaker completes the 5.1 semi-surround configuration. Power for the system comes from Funktion-One E30Q, E45 and E24 amps, with control handled by an X04 audio management system.

Edelweiss Audio’s Andrei Kremenchugskiy comments: