A documentary about disappearing barns. A historic museum. One night to make it feel like a theater.

The Bennington Museum hosted “Vanish,” a documentary about Vermont’s disappearing historic barns. The film needed proper cinematic treatment in the museum’s education center — a space built for collections, not projection. Our job was to make it feel like a theater without changing the room’s character.

We installed a large-format cinema screen and a high-lumen laser projector calibrated to the room’s ambient light and seating. Every seat needed a clear sightline and a consistent image. Audio was set for the film’s score and narration: present enough to hold attention, controlled enough for a quiet museum space. Speaker placement kept the sound image clean and forward-facing.

Gear stayed out of the way — no road cases in view, cables tight to the walls, equipment positioned so the room framed the film rather than the production. When the lights came down, the audience was watching a documentary.

After the screening, director Jim Westphalen spoke. We had a microphone at the podium and a second at the front of the house for questions. Playback to live sound handed off cleanly. The Q&A ran forty minutes. A room full of Vermonters with opinions about old barns. The audio held through all of it.