at The David L. Lawrence Convention Center

Fun Facts

  • The Regional Showcase is said to be the only permanent installation of its kind in the U.S. in terms of number of projectors, screen size and hours of operation.

  • There are three venues in the David L. Lawrence Convention Center which were unveiled September 15, 2003. Each venue has a variety of shows which are each 5-11 minutes long and run continuously when there is activity at the convention center.

The Regional Showcase is located outside of The Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom and showcases Southwestern Pennsylvania's assets and amenities under such subjects as education, technology, business, healthcare, arts, culture, and lifestyle.

The Regional Gallery is projected onto two parallel walls on the third floor, south of the skywalk. This area is a graceful, but immersive study of particular organizations, the arts, our natural surroundings, and other specific themes. Previous shows include: "Through Fresh Eyes," a collection of regional images from 40 Pittsburgh Filmmakers photographers, "An Overture to the Arts," a celebration of over 60 regional arts organizations using both motion and still images, and "Feathered Jewels," a special event show for The National Aviary.

The Region In Motion is projected onto a specially designed screens, one hanging in each lobby, and captures the momentum and movement of what life is like in Southwestern PA. The footage in this installation was shot entirely in High Definition Digital Video specifically for these screens.
  • Combined, the three venues include footage and images donated by or specially shot involving hundreds of companies, organizations, events, universities, artists, and people from all over the 10 county region.

  • Screen Dimensions:
    Regional Showcase: 40 ft. wide x 5 ft. high
    Region In Motion: 17 ft. wide x 5 ft. high each
    Regional Gallery: 28 ft. wide x 14 ft. high each

  • A custom, state-of-the-art sound system was designed for the Gallery venue, with the goal of providing viewers with an "immersive" sound experience. Six 6-foot long, full range, cylindrical speakers hang above each screen, and matching cylindrical subwoofers hang in the center of the space, creating a 4.1-channel surround soundscape. When the viewer is outside the viewing area, and therefore out of the dispersion pattern of the highly directional speakers, the sound is subtle and subdued. But when the viewer steps into the viewing area, he/she experiences a full, rich soundtrack to compliment the striking images, thus creating the desired sense of immersion.

  • A state-of-the-art sound system was also designed for the Showcase venue, with the goal of providing viewers with a more "theatrical" sound experience. Four custom-made speaker enclosures are suspended from the ceiling directly in front of the screen images. With the addition of ceiling supported rear speakers, the sound system aurally follows the video images, providing a cinematic experience to the viewer.

  • The full video system uses more than 6 miles of fiber optic cable.

  • A total of 18 projectors, emitting a total of 88,000 lumens.

  • 17 computers in a climate controlled, secure room with Pentium® 4 processors running at 2.6 gigahertz speed and twin 60 gigabyte hard drives with RAID controllers with ATI 9800 graphics cards for seamless backup of video players and expanded RAM and video memory.

  • Specially designed Dataton WatchoutTM software synchronizes the playback computers allowing seamless blending of multiple images across a continuous screen surface.

  • The computers and projectors are controlled by Medialon software that acts as an overall manager of the four separate venues. This is the same control system used at live events and in museums and amusement parks all over Europe and the U.S.

  • The Medialon software can be scheduled locally from the main security room using a color touch screen. The screen alerts the operator of system problems, allows the operator to turn the systems on and off, and set the shows to a schedule. The progress of the show can be monitored 24/7 with our 4 web cameras and our online interface allows us to control the show from anywhere with a standard Internet connection.