The Natural History Museum in London, UK, recently opened the doors to its £78m (US$128.1m, 89.3m euro) Darwin Centre, its most significant expansion since it moved to South Kensington in 1881.

Included in this expansion is an eight-storey concrete Cocoon, suspended within a glass outer box. A pioneering research facility, it is to be used by the world's leading scientists and also help to bring visitors closer to the burning issues affecting the planet.

On this part of the expansion, Sysco was the audio consultant, coordinating four different software producers. The centrepiece of the attraction is a 32-screen interactive wall, which illustrates what's happening to the planet in terms of the melting of the polar ice caps and deforestation.

Sensors in the wall calculate how many people are standing in front of the screen and the wall responds accordingly, mimicking what's happening in the world, so the more people, the quicker the deterioration of the planet.

The museum's project director, Paul Bowers, said interactivity and the use of the latest media, was of utmost importance when planning the Darwin Centre. "We knew from the beginning of the project that we wanted to have a rich variety of media in the space and a variety of ways for visitors to interact, to allow people to personalise their experience and link back to us via the website afterwards," Bowers said.

"Many of the science stories we're telling are complicated and we wanted them to be interesting and accurate, with real scientists speaking with the public, so there's lots of video and audio, whether that be linear film, or interactives including film. We know from our evaluation that people historically perceive science as being dusty and dry, so we wanted to highlight what's modern and interesting and reach the audience with the media they're used to."

(For more information, please see AM4/2009 Multimedia and AV feature)