QUICKSILVER® · THE AV++® FOUNDATION
QuickSilver® brings audiovisual playback, control and interactive software onto standard computer hardware. It gives venues a practical foundation for reliable operation, replacement equipment and new capabilities.
ENGINEERED FOR THE LIFE OF THE VENUE
A museum, attraction or visitor center needs to work today and remain supportable when equipment ages, a gallery changes or audiences expect something new. QuickSilver uses non-proprietary computer hardware so that essential AV functions can evolve in software and replacement parts can be selected from current, qualified equipment.
The architecture supports playback, routing, interaction, system control and media delivery across a venue. Its configuration follows the project’s infrastructure, acoustic requirements, network conditions and operating model.
That foundation supports the wider AV++® family, from multilingual interpretation and accessible media to recognition, digital surfaces and show control. It also provides a path for Mad Intelligence™ and Mad Hatter™ when their capabilities are included and qualified for the installation.
QuickSilver is designed for long operational life through serviceable components, documentation and ongoing support. Individual hardware and software still need maintenance, replacement and compatibility checks over that life.
STANDARD COMPUTING. CONTINUING POSSIBILITY.
A sophisticated AV system should be dependable, straightforward to maintain and ready to grow. QuickSilver follows standard computer architecture, so its development can benefit from the much larger world of computing: faster processors, better storage, improved networking, new software and more capable local intelligence.
The foundation separates the life of the experience from the life of a particular box. Serviceable components can be replaced, computing can be expanded and software can gain new capabilities while the venue keeps the parts of its installation that still do their job.
That creates a practical route for ideas that do not exist yet. A future sensing technology, rendering method, interaction tool or AI model can become another resource to integrate into the experience. The architecture gives those developments a place to connect.
Future compatibility is an engineering task: interfaces, processing capacity, network requirements and the intended physical result are checked before a new capability becomes part of the working venue. The aim is to make progress useful throughout the system's life, with a clear path from today's dependable AV to tomorrow's possibilities.
Explore renewal and retrofit| Configuration | Where the work happens | When it is useful |
|---|---|---|
| Fully distributed | Compute and audio are distributed, with nodes at or near exhibits and endpoints. | Local processing and short signal paths suit the room layout and reduce reliance on a large central rack. |
| Fully centralized | Compute and management operate from central infrastructure, distributing signals to the endpoints. | The venue has suitable central facilities and a strong existing signal distribution system. |
| Standard hybrid | Central compute and orchestration serve distributed endpoints. | Central management and local delivery meet the project’s operational and infrastructure requirements. |
| Reverse hybrid | Compute is distributed by exhibit or zone while audio returns to a centralized audio system. | Interactive and visual computing belong near exhibits, while audio design and processing remain centralized. |
Wired and wireless pathways are available across these configurations where the engineered design supports them. Wireless suitability depends on the site survey, RF environment, bandwidth and reliability requirements.
MAD INTELLIGENCE™
At commissioning, an installation is tested against what it should do. Mad Intelligence carries that relationship forward: retain the intended outcome, determine which capabilities can meet it, realize the experience, verify the result and respond when evidence shows a shortfall.
QuickSilver supplies the computing and integration foundation. Mad Intelligence adds the architecture for continuing engineering. Together, they support a venue that can recognize a changed condition, make an authorized adjustment, check the result, and make unresolved work visible to the people responsible.
This includes change over years: an equipment substitution, a different room use, a new content package or updated operating requirements. Capability must be requalified against the intended outcome. The requirement stays visible when the answer needs maintenance or a physical upgrade.
A command being sent is only one part of the story. The important question is whether the real experience met the requirement.
Mad Intelligence™MAD HATTER™
Mad Hatter™ is Mad’s programmable audio DSP and acoustic experience engine. It connects a sound brief to the places where people listen and to the evidence needed to assess the result. A designer can specify a voice at a character, a soundscape across a gallery, intelligible narration in a listening area or a personal experience that follows a visitor.
Hatter brings authoring, sound realization, measurement, verification and permitted correction into a continuing loop. It considers changing audiences and room conditions, and identifies when software cannot achieve the requested result with the available physical system.
Within a QuickSilver project, Hatter can connect the compute foundation to room audio, personal delivery, show timing and operator controls. Its role in Mad Intelligence spans both realization and verification: producing the intended sound and checking the outcome.
Mad Presence™ brings immersive listening and head tracking into Hatter. Mad Nulling™ names our ongoing work to reduce the effect of one exhibit’s sound on adjacent exhibits.
The wider architecture also includes privacy-focused measurement, personal delivery and guidance integration. The Hatter pages explain the complete scope, from working software and demonstrations to continuing development and the physical evidence needed for each installation.
CONNECTED CAPABILITIES
Language, access, guidance, personal storytelling and the shared show can work together on the same computing foundation.
Alice® connects venue-controlled knowledge with media shaped by age, interests and the visitor’s chosen depth. Language and accessibility are part of the same personalized experience. Alice® OnBoard brings it to supported personal devices.
Explore Alice®Alice® Avatars can accompany visitors through connected touchpoints, guiding, educating and entertaining them. A familiar character can carry the story forward, remember what has already been covered and offer the next useful experience.
Meet the visitor companionsCheshireCat® provides privacy-led recognition and continuity. A visit can stay temporary, or an opted-in member can be recognized on a return visit with their permitted language, interests, accessibility choices and story progress.
Explore recognition and persistenceCaterPillar™ is a patent-pending nonvisual guidance system. Distinguishable acoustic cues help a visitor find and follow a route through the physical venue. It gives independent navigation a place in the experience design from the beginning.
Explore CaterPillar™Lory® connects personal audio, alternate languages, captions and supported sign-language content with the shared presentation. ListenAssist® adds assisted-listening delivery through the equipment and personal devices selected for the venue.
Explore inclusive mediaPixelsEverywhere™ makes digital interpretation part of the architecture. Displays and projection surfaces can change language and content together, as demonstrated by the complete English and Spanish experience at the Albert Robles Center.
Explore PixelsEverywhere™TeaParty® handles system and show control. the Deck™ gives people the controls they need. LifeSaver™, TruCheck™ and TruView™ contribute power management, checks of physical AV output and remote visual inspection.
Explore control and operationWonderLens™, currently under development, explores spatial visual overlays that connect digital interpretation with the physical environment. It is part of the direction that QuickSilver's adaptable computing foundation can support.
Explore WonderLens™LookingGlass® connects operational context with guest experience, including relevant flow, queue and zone information. AV++® Analytics helps operators understand use and performance within the venue's chosen privacy and data boundaries.
Explore guest and operational contextWhere included, WorldModel™ gives connected intelligence a governed operating context: what it may do, which visitor permissions apply, where information may travel and what evidence must be recorded. Mad Intelligence™ connects the intended outcome to continuing engineering. Each project defines which of these functions is implemented and which further capability is being developed or evaluated.
LOCAL INTELLIGENCE. VENUE-CONTROLLED INFORMATION.
Mad already demonstrates Alice® working with a local large language model. The intelligence can run on computing within the venue, using the venue's approved knowledge to shape the interaction. This is a practical step toward an experience in which sensitive visitor and venue information stays inside the venue, or an explicitly authorized group of venues.
The boundary must cover the whole interaction: recognition, visitor preferences, questions, speech processing, generated responses, records and support services. Moving the language model on site is one part of that design. The project establishes which connected services are local and which, if any, may exchange approved information externally.
Explore Alice's local intelligenceCheshireCat® brings the same principle to recognition: use the information needed for the experience, within the permissions given for it. An anonymous or temporary visit does not require a permanent member profile. Recognition and remembered preferences are selected deliberately when a visitor wants that continuity.
Hatter extends purposeful sensing into sound and immersive listening. MTCL™ and CTCS™ address acoustic measurement and head-pose information respectively, with sensor designs intended to exclude conversation streams, image output and person identification. Their roles and development status are explained on the Hatter page.
Explore CheshireCat® privacy and recognitionA VISIT, A MEMBERSHIP, A CONTINUING RELATIONSHIP
Carry language, interests, accessibility choices and story progress between the touchpoints included in the visit. Temporary context expires according to the declared session rules.
Offer an optional connection to a membership or visitor identity. With permission, the venue can recognize a return visit, restore preferences and continue an unfinished story. The visitor can review or change the choices they have asked it to remember.
Extend selected continuity across an authorized venue group when the visitor agrees. WorldModel™ supplies the framework for consent, permitted sharing and local authority, so each venue retains control of its own operating rules.
Persistence is configurable. The design defines what is retained, for what purpose, where it is stored, how long it remains useful and how a visitor changes or withdraws permission. Remembering a preferred language is a different decision from retaining a recognition reference or an interaction history.
An accompanying avatar can use that permitted context to make the visit feel continuous: welcome the visitor, guide them to an exhibit, explain what they are seeing, entertain them through the story and help them choose where to go next. The same companion can reappear on connected displays or personal devices as the experience moves through the venue.
FROM EXISTING GALLERIES TO NEW DESTINATIONS
QuickSilver Retrofit evaluates existing displays, projectors, speakers and infrastructure for reuse. The legacy playback and control foundation is replaced or reconfigured around QuickSilver first. The venue can then consider selected AV++ capabilities, subject to their software, content, interface and performance requirements.
Explore retrofit possibilitiesAt ARC, QuickSilver supports the first PixelsEverywhere visitor center and a fully authored bilingual interpretation program. The Truman Presidential Library and Crayola IDEAworks show how different venue requirements lead to different deployment choices.
QuickSilver® is a registered trademark. Relevant methods are covered by issued patents; newer capabilities have separate development and patent status. See the IP register. An installed QuickSilver system does not automatically include every AV++®, Mad Intelligence or Hatter capability.
| Parameter | Specification scope |
|---|---|
| Computing foundation | Standard computer hardware running the selected playback, control and interactive applications. Hardware and operating-system support follow the chosen applications. |
| Topologies | Fully distributed, fully centralized, standard hybrid and reverse hybrid. The choice follows the layout, signal paths and operational requirements. |
| Interfaces and capacity | Node roles, physical input and output, media formats, network capacity and control adapters are specified for the actual installation. There is no single fixed connector or channel count for the architecture. |
| Retrofit | Replace the relevant playback and control foundation with QuickSilver, retaining serviceable displays, projectors and other peripherals where compatible. Selected AV++ capabilities can then be added. |
| Acceptance | Establish start-up and shutdown, media performance, timing, fault behavior, access and replacement procedures for the installed configuration. |
LET’S BUILD WHAT COMES NEXT
We can assess a new venue or an existing installation and identify the configuration, infrastructure and upgrade path that best serve the experience.
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