Conflicts Post 1945 and Beyond,
As well as providing technical design, specification and supervision of the entire gallery redevelopment, Mental Media produced several major immersive multimedia exhibits for the Australian War Memorial.
A Letter from Long Tan is a specially filmed re-enactment of the first major engagement by Australian troops in the Vietnam War. Restaging the battle of Long Tan was done in detailed consultation with survivors of the battle, and the cooperation of the Australian Army.
The bridge of the HMAS Brisbane was mounted outside the main building of the Memorial with access from the galleries. A conservation object, Mental Media fitted thin LCD panels inside the windows of the bridge and filmed a special 9 screen dramatisation of two moments of the ship in service, one in the Vietnam war and the other in the Gulf.
The centrepiece of the gallery is an Iroquois helicopter that saw service in Vietnam, and for this we used a combination of large projection screens, a 20 channel audio system, lighting effects and giant fans to simulate a “hot insertion”, delivery of troops into a firing field. Mental Media also uncovered an original audio recording of an actual “dust off” or medical evacuation incident in the Memorials collection, and this now forms the basis of a second program interpreting the helicopter.