Loncin Fort, Liège

Part of a walled enclosure round Liège was built in 1888. Triangular in shape and partially buried in the ground, the fort was of strategic value particularly because it blocked the road to Brussels. In August 1914, it came under 8 days of intensive bombardment before the Germans used a canon, unknown until then, but one that would go down in history under the name of “Big Bertha.” One of the enormous shells hit the powder magazine, causing a huge explosion, killing 350 soldiers who are still buried there.

Inytium was commissioned to install a new scenography for visitors of the fort. ‘We had to deploy sophisticated audiovisual technologies in a particularly difficult environment, while remaining within budget and within the requirements of a listed heritage building,” explains Thierry Renard, the project leader. ‘This old fort is cold and humid. The walls are very thick and, of course, there is no wiring infrastructure. We even had to deal with the army’s mine clearing corps who supervised the digging of a cabling trench 600 m long.”

The equipment is centrally controlled from a control station. The supervisor relies on Ethernet, DMX and the ADLink industrial network to control two sub-stations, where equipment such as audio and video players are installed, as are all the video projectors. Infrared transmitters that trigger the audio guides are arranged along the entire kilometre of the visit.

Medialon Manager plays a central supervising role for the audiovisual installations but also controls the light and the entire visitor flow management.

For more details : http://www.fortdeloncin.be