This rendering shows the U.S. Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs, which is set to open in summer 2019. (Image courtesy of Diller Scofidio + Renfro)
The upcoming U.S. Olympic Museum in Colorado Springs announced Monday that Panasonic would supply the technology and sustainability solutions to the $75-million project with 60,000 square feet expected to open in summer 2019.
Tom Gebhardt, the chairman and CEO of Panasonic Corporation of North America, touted the collaboration while speaking at the annual Consumer Electronics Show conference in Las Vegas, promising a “state-of-the-art technology design.”
“We’ll be creating a transformational visitor experience in this site,” Gebhardt added.
Panasonic already supplies technology to both the international Olympic museum in Lausanne, Switzerland, and to the flagship U.S. Olympic Training Center that is also in Colorado Springs, which is known as “Olympic City USA.” The Swiss exhibits include 27 LCD monitors and 52 digital projectors; the Colorado Springs center houses a five-projector rotunda for a 180-degree display measuring 100 feet long by 20 feet high as well as up to nine live video feeds of Americans competing internationally.
In his remarks at CES, Gebhardt also emphasized that Panasonic — a worldwide Olympic sponsor since the 1984 Games in Los Angeles — was supporting immersive entertainment and sports products from augmented reality to analytics.
“Our solutions here take our expertise from the consumer electronics area and AV technology and scale them up in venues where fans go to cheer their favorite sports teams,” he said.
Panasonic will also be supporting the museum’s data management and security needs and aiding Colorado Springs more broadly as a “Smart City” partner, with such items as LED streetlights that can detect snow levels.
