Alcorn McBride at Top of the Rock Experience at Rockefeller Center

Alcorn McBride equipment plays a starring role in Rockefeller Center's renovated Top of the Rock experience, a tour that ultimately leads to the skyscraper's incomparable observation deck towering 70 stories above Manhattan. AV integrator Technomedia Solutions, LCC, which is headquartered in Orlando but whose New York offices are in Rockefeller Plaza, selected Alcorn McBride Digital Binloop HD systems to deliver robust HD visuals during the Beam Walk, Triple HD Theatre presentation, and Summit Shuttle elevator ride.

Visitors start the Top of the Rock tour by ascending a winding staircase from the building's lobby to a mezzanine. There, they can sit on a metal beam and recreate their own version of the iconic 1932 photograph, "Lunch Atop a Skyscraper." The photo, reproduced giant-size in the lobby, depicts metalworkers digging into their lunchboxes on a beam suspended high above the city during Rockefeller Center's construction. Visitors look through a glass panel beneath the beam to see footage showing what would have been happening below workers perched on the beam on that summer's day when the photo was taken.

"We needed to update the projection system which we originally installed," says Technomedia owner John Miceli. "We had six projectors, edge-blended and mapped in a very tight space that played off six synchronized servers. We couldn't find projectors to replace them so we rethought the entire process."

Technomedia opted for the Alcorn McBride Digital Binloop HD multi-track video player with six synchronized channels. The Digital Binloop HD video player provides up to eight channels of HD video in a compact, economical, and highly-reliable package designed for continuous use with no maintenance.

"We thought we'd need to reshoot the Beam Walk video, but when we used the existing files in the Alcorn player the results were outstanding. The same material on the new player showed an amazing difference in quality -- it just goes to show the difference in the quality of the Alcorn product.

"Now, when people sitting on the beam look below them through the glass and onto the projection surface they see everything in scale and in great resolution. The Digital Binloop HD player works great and is very solid; the client is very happy with it and the attraction has bee nominated for a national award of technological excellence." Alcorn McBride's products also served as the playback system for the Triple HD Theatre, where a trio of HD projection screens displays four-minute movies about John D. Rockefeller and his vision for Rockefeller Center, the history of NBC Studio and what it's like to be one of the celebrated Rockettes.

Next, visitors take the Summit Shuttle elevator to the Top of the Rock and its observation deck. During the just-under-one-minute trip, blue lights illuminate each passing floor and historic images flash rapidly onto the elevator ceiling, an effect that gives the impression that the elevator is being hurtled through time.

Technomedia replaced old hard drive units with an Alcorn Digital Binloop HD system for the projection show in the elevator. "When the ceiling of the elevator goes clear we project onto the membrane famous moments, including scenes from Saturday Night Live," explains Miceli. "Four edge-blended projectors project down from above the elevator; when visitors arrive at the top the show ends and the door opens."

Joni McElwee Snyder is vice president/CFO of Technomedia Solutions, LLC. Tommy Bridges is sales manager for Alcorn McBride, Inc.