Barco high-resolution LED display greets visitors of the interactive museum of news in Washington

Sacramento, CA — April 22, 2008 — When the Newseum – an interactive museum of news – celebrated the grand opening of its new location on 11 April, visitors were greeted by a 40-by-22-foot LED wall displaying crystal-clear video of breaking news, historic news presentations, and documentaries.

Dubbed the 'Electronic Window on the World,' this giant display is the central feature of the New York Times – Ochs-Sulzberger Family Great Hall of News, and by far the largest electronic display in a museum filled with high-tech gear. "The Newseum is a unique and creative venture," said Tim Allen, Barco's East Coast Marketing Manager. "We are very pleased to have been selected to play a part in fostering and supporting its important mission."

That mission is to promote a better understanding of the important role that news and a free press have played in American life. Its attractions range from an extensive collection of historic newspapers and magazines to a watchtower from the Berlin Wall and a 3,200-year-old Cuneiform brick from Sumeria, the oldest artifact in the museum.

For the Great Hall of News, the Newseum's designers wanted to present a continuous flow of up-to-the-minute and historical news, using up-to-the-second technology. Bud O’Connor, Director of Engineering for the Newseum, wanted an LED wall capable of delivering clear, vivid color images at the highest possible resolution. "I was looking for a very large LED screen that would accept and reproduce a native serial digital HD signal," he said.

Newseum's ILite 6 XP display consists of 405 individual tiles, with a total pixel resolution of 1944 x 1080 – over 2 million individual pixels delivering high-fidelity images to the Newseum's anticipated 2 million annual visitors. Visitors on each of the Newseum's indoor levels can view the news from various angles – above, below, and to either side of the screen – without image distortion.

"Barco's LED display is a pure digital device, where some others weren't. That gives me reliable and reproducible control over it," O'Connor said. “The path is pure data from my control rooms or DDRs all the way out to the screen. Having multiple levels of software control, we can make subtle and reproducible adjustments when they are needed."
This impressive screen is Barco's ILite 6 XP indoor LED installation. The ILite 6 XP is a high resolution (6 mm) display with 14-bit color processing and level 2 calibration delivering unrivaled light output, incomparable color depth and uniformity, and enhanced grayscales that are especially suited for lower-light indoor conditions. Moreover, the ILite 6 XP tile can accept a wide range of incoming signals – analog, S-Video, composite, RGB, YUV, SDI, HDSDI, or data DVI up to SXGA.

The display is powered by Barco's DX-700 – a versatile video processor compatible with all Barco LED products – and secured on a moveable hoist for serviceability. The lower edge can be as low as 2 feet or as high as 50 feet from the ground.
"We chose Barco displays because of their high quality and support. They do a great job of reproducing video for us," said O'Connor.

About the Newseum
The Newseum — a 250,000-square-foot museum of news — offers visitors an experience that blends five centuries of news history with up-to-the-second technology and hands-on exhibits.
The Newseum is located at the intersection of Pennsylvania Avenue and Sixth Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., on America's Main Street between the White House and the U.S. Capitol and adjacent to the Smithsonian museums on the National Mall. The exterior's unique architectural features include a 74-foot-high marble engraving of the First Amendment and an immense front wall of glass through which passers-by can watch the museum fulfil its mission of providing a forum where the media and the public can gain a better understanding of each other.
The Newseum features seven levels of galleries, theaters, retail spaces, and visitor services. Also included in the Newseum complex are a conference center, museum store, Wolfgang Puck's The Source restaurant and 146,000 square feet of residential apartments. The Newseum offers a unique environment that takes museumgoers behind the scenes to experience how and why news is made.
The Newseum's board of trustees includes executives from print and broadcast media, among them Chief Executive Officer Charles L. Overby, former vice president of news at Gannett Co.; President Peter S. Prichard, former editor of USA Today; and Robert MacNeil of MacNeil/Lehrer Productions.
For more information and a virtual tour of the Newseum, visit www.newseum.org.

About the Freedom Forum
The Freedom Forum, based in Washington, D.C., is a non-partisan foundation dedicated to free press, free speech and free spirit for all people. The foundation focuses on three priorities: the Newseum, the First Amendment and newsroom diversity.
The Freedom Forum is the main funder of the operations of the Newseum, an interactive museum of news in Washington, D.C.; the First Amendment Center; and the Diversity Institute. The First Amendment Center and the Diversity Institute are housed in the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. The First Amendment Center also has offices in Washington and the Diversity Institute has offices and programs at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion.
The Freedom Forum was established in 1991 under the direction of Founder Al Neuharth as successor to a foundation started in 1935 by newspaper publisher Frank E. Gannett. The Freedom Forum is not affiliated with Gannett Co. Its work is supported by income from an endowment of diversified assets.
Visit the Freedom Forum Web site at www.freedomforum.org.

About Barco
Barco, a global technology company, designs and develops visualization products for a variety of selected professional markets. Barco has its own facilities for Sales & Marketing, Customer Support, R&D and Manufacturing in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific. Barco (NYSE Euronext Brussels: BAR) is active in more than 90 countries with approximately 3600 employees worldwide. Barco posted sales of euro 747 million in 2007.
Visit www.barco.com for more information.

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For more information, please contact

Christine Morris
Marketing Communications Manager - US
Barco Media & Entertainment

Telephone +1 916 859 2500
christine.morris@barco.com