On February 24, the experts of the NSTU NETI ACEF had a working meeting with the employees of the Novosibirsk Oblast Firefighting and Rescue Service Exhibition. The Exhibition staff invited university experts to cooperate on the technical reconstruction of the electromechanical model.
The head of the exhibition, Farida F. Greshnova, gave a tour for the guests. The most significant object of the exhibition is a large-scale model of a great historical value called "Diorama of the devastating fire in Novonikolaevsk in 1909". The audience first saw it in 1972 at the opening of the firefighting machinery exhibition. The diorama is recreated on the basis of archival documents and historical photographs, its scale is 1:100. The model is equipped with sound and light effects. For about 8 years (from 1964 to 1972), a group of artists worked on the creation of the diorama. The project was headed by Sergey F. Pirogov, a design artist, a member of the Union of Artists of the USSR and Russia, the chief artist of the Novosibirsk branch of the Art Fund of Russia, a participant in the Great Patriotic War.
It has been almost half a century since the opening of the firefighting machinery exhibition. The centrepiece of the museum exhibition needs its outdated electronic and mechanical equipment replaced with modern electronically controlled one. The employees of the firefighting machinery exhibition joked: "We would like "to set the whole city on fire", they said, obviously meaning the city on the diorama of Novonikolaevsk in 1909, not actual Novosibirsk. Faculty of Automation and Computer Engineering experts, headed by Konstantin V. Zakharov, will gradually carry out an engineering reconstruction of the museum exhibit, while the appearance of the diorama will be preserved.
The diorama train traffic is planned to be opened, particularly on the railway bridge over the Ob river. Signal lights will be lit on river vessels. Electric lamps that simulate lighting effects will be replaced with LEDs. The new equipment, projecting a smoke screen during a fire, will provide a long-term demonstration of the spectacular effect for 5 thousand hours of operation. The burning fire visual effects will be seen around the entire city in the diorama. The specialists will install a new engine control system and replace the diorama lighting system.