Draper had three weeks to design, fabricate, manufacture,
and install the three structures NEC wanted. Failure would be
a disaster, yet success could mean an earlier and triumphant
entry into custom AV solutions.
The main engineering work fell to Terry Walkey, who had only
recently been hired as the Draper senior Custom AV Solutions
project engineer.
“It was a formula for failure,” Walkey said. “I felt like it would
take a miracle to get something designed from scratch and
manufactured by the deadline.”
Working closely with NEC, Walkey and the Draper production
engineers and metal fabrication department got to work. The
solutions all had to feature frames for the flat panels, with
adjustable mounting brackets for each display. And because
the displays were very high resolution, the seams between
displays had to line up perfectly to within less than a quarter
of a millimeter. Add to that the need for front serviceability,
built-in cable strain relief, and other design needs, and you
have an extremely complex project.
“The process involved a lot of all-nighters,” Walkey said. “We
were still tweaking things within a couple days of the event.”