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This document sets out a supplier-facing set of guidelines, grouped by technology area. At ACMI we are using these standards as a procurement tool and sign-off checklist, and we thought it would be useful to publish them here so that our colleagues can benefit. We would love to see forks, remixes, extensions and contributions to this work - particularly to incorporate COVID-safe guidelines!
This work is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0, particularly the bit where no warranties are given.
A further note: these are not engineering standards or to be relied upon for building infrastructure, safety or compliance. For power, networking, cooling, lighting and audio, we got the experts in, and you should too!
The standards are intended to be practical and usable without becoming bogged down in minutiae, but also comprehensive and thought-provoking. We use MoSCoW wording to define importance: MUST (the installation is likely to fail without this feature), SHOULD (the installation will be problematic without this feature) and COULD (the installation may be suboptimal without this feature.
We generally will consider exceptions to these standards from vendors if they are presented with a sound rationale for an improved or more efficient outcome and demonstrably meet broader project and organisational needs.
In their proposals, suppliers should indicate:
- which, if any, MUST items the solution does not comply with. For items that don't comply, please justify and describe any mitigation.
- which SHOULD items the solution does not comply with. At proposal time, no justification is needed.
In short, design and deliver technology for groups of smart, raucous schoolchildren. They will be curious, engaged, inspired, experimental and will admire the beauty of things. But they will also hit, lean, yank, climb, run into, shake, hide gum, unplug cables, plug in phones, attempt to break, hack, etc.
Consider that many of our visitors have accessibility needs. Our exhibitions are required to be DDA compliant, but we want to exceed that. Choose and design technology that allows access by people with the widest range of needs.
Also consider that our exhibitions generally contain a great deal of technology, all of which generates heat which needs ventilating away in order to protect the technology, and to keep visitors comfortable on hot days.
While we deploy staff to be generally available in galleries, in general we do not want to deploy staff or volunteers to invigilate specific installations or to train visitors to use specific pieces of technology. Therefore, each technology installation needs to, as much as possible, instruct visitors in its own proper use.
We want to be able to remotely monitor the status of our technology, for troubleshooting and analytics purposes.
When we close (at varying hours), we want this technology to turn off so as to prolong life and reduce electricity and cooling costs.
As if that wasn't enough, ACMI is situated next to a major train station, which generates large amounts of EMF as trains pass. For that reason, we need to avoid signals that are susceptible to that level of electromagnetic interference.
Unless otherwise specified in requirements documentation, suppliers of exhibition technology systems are expected to:
- Provide a plan and programme of works
- Carry out design of the system, including production of prototypes and user testing
- Supply, deliver, install, configure and demonstrate all hardware, software and cabling necessary to operate, maintain and modify the fully working system
- Integrate the system into specified furniture/joinery
- Integrate the system into ACMI's lighting, audio, AV control (Nodel) and network infrastructure
- Train staff in the use of the system
- Support and warrant the system
- Project management and stakeholder liaison for the above
Suppliers can assume:
- Sufficient electrical power for low-wattage devices
- 1Gbps Cat 6a shielded ethernet, or 10Gbps Cat 6a shielded ethernet by agreement
- 802.11ac Wave 2/Wifi 6 wifi, shared with other devices - however, installations should not depend on wifi continuity
- ACMI has a 10Gbps internet uplink, supplied by AARnet. However AARnet charges ACMI for excess data usage, except for On-Net data which includes:
- Most of Australian Google, Microsoft, AWS
- All Australian Academic networks
- Most major cultural institution networks
- See AARNet's checking tool
- ACMI uses Terraform/Kubernetes/Docker for cloud services, currently provisioned on Azure
- ACMI uses VMWare to provision onsite virtual servers
- Exhibition spaces are surrounded by comms rooms that have a fibre uplink to the main comms room (CRC1)
- Most, but not all, exhibition space has tech floor for bringing services to the installations
The exact requirements that are needed for each installation typically depend on user interface, technical complexity and networking needs. The following sections should be read after assessing the installation in question, as not all measures will be needed for some installations.
All technology suppliers should read the sections on Delivery, Documentation and Support, Hardware, Software and content, Naming Conventions and Backups and Disaster Recovery.
The following questions will help to determine which other parts of this document to read in depth. If your answer is "No" to these questions, then ignore the related sections.
- Will computer/s or device/s need to be housed near the work on the gallery floor? If "Yes" then read the Case and cabinet design section.
- Does the work require network access including for power and show control? If "Yes" then read the Networking section.
- Does the user interface require the user to access keyboard or mouse? If "Yes" then read the User interface such as keyboards, mice, controllers, touch screens, cameras section.