Case Study: Monterey Bay Aquarium achieves immersive visitor education and engagement with NEC Display Solutions

Monterey Bay Aquarium dives further into digital signage with NEC

Monterey Bay Aquarium, a long-standing public education institution in Monterey, California that welcomes 1.8 million visitors a year, needed a reliable way to educate and engage guests across crowded exhibits while avoiding the glare, burn‑in and short lifespans they experienced with earlier plasma screens. To solve this, the aquarium partnered with NEC Display Solutions, deploying NEC LCD displays (P‑ and MultiSync‑series and EA221WM touchscreens) to provide all‑day, high‑clarity signage for ticketing, exhibits and interactive kiosks.

NEC Display Solutions standardized the facility on NEC hardware and, as of July 2010, installed more than 200 displays (22"–70"), including a portrait 65" MultiSync LCD6520P that magnifies a ½‑inch seahorse to five feet, plankton displayed at 300× magnification, a 1×5 array of five 46" X461UNs for animated pledge walls, and 11 P401s in the Sea Otter exhibit. The NEC solution increased visitor engagement and learning, enabled interactive pledge capture and playback of recorded presentations, and delivered reliable, all‑day operation—measurable impacts include 200+ displays deployed, 5‑foot seahorse magnification and 300× plankton viewing.

Monterey Bay Aquarium

Paul Cain

Technical coordinator