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AV Specialists weave their magic at the Silk Museum

London-based audio visual specialists Integrated Circles have recently added a new dimension to the fascinating works on display at Macclesfield Silk Museum, Cheshire.

The company have used their skill and expertise to allow the museum to display footage, that was originally shot almost 50 years ago via reliable contemporary technology.

The Compact VideoStore is a completely solid-state video replay system specially designed for constant daily operation. Having no moving parts the Compact VideoStore is already a feature in may visitor centres and galleries across the UK and was designed with reliability and ease of use very much in mind, it is also offered with a five-year warranty.

“This is a user friendly, maintenance free product,” explained Project Manager Paul Nolan. “The absence of moving parts reduces the risk of things going wrong and an in-built audio amplifier means users are guaranteed high quality audio together with sharp, clean images…from a single unit that is very simple to operate. Unlike other video systems with a moving media, the image quality will not degrade with use.”

The footage played from the VideoStore was produced by silk manufacturers “Brocklehurst’s” as a promotional film and highlights the processes undertaken by man and machine to produce silk of the very highest quality.

The 35mm film was originally passed on to staff at Macclesfield Silk Museum 10 years ago and they in turn passed it on to the North West Film Archive service who made a video for the museum’s use.

When the museum re-organised all its displays and re-vamped many of its galleries the North West Film Archive Service and staff from Macclesfield Silk Museum contacted Integrated Circles to see if they could introduce a more up to date format.

“Our problem was,” explained Louanne Collins, Director of Macclesfield Silk Museum “that we had a large display of historic machinery, none of it actually working but we wanted people to see how the silk was produced.

“Unfortunately we didn’t have a lot of money but Integrated Circles listened to what we were trying to achieve - to give the public the opportunity to see and listen to the film at the touch of a button and came up with a solution.

“Everyone has been very impressed by what we’ve achieved and for some of our older visitors it has rekindled memories of the silk industry as it used to be and we are pleased that we have achieved our objectives,” she added.

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