Recruiting Now
Recruiting Now

16th October 2014

Hot Topics from Museums Association 2014

Hot topics on digital interpretation & visitor experiences

What an exciting few days we had in Cardiff celebrating 125 years of the Museums Association. Energetic visitors to our stand shared project ideas and explored innovative ways to improve visitor engagement. So we thought we’d share some ‘hot topics’ from the show:

 

MA 2014 Instagram competition: the winning shot by Spencer!

 

Multimedia guides

The new iTouch 5 multimedia guides have been a huge success unlocking stories at sites across the UK. ATS have been pioneers in providing visitors with superb audio, film and interactive content and features that measurably increases visitor enjoyment and engagement across museums, heritage, arts and sports venues.  Enhanced audio to full multimedia content offers an approach to meet a variety of budgets. 

 

Augmented Reality & Image Recognition

It’s been around for a few years however what we believe is that, to be really successful it needs to enhance the story and offer greater engagement or participation. The technology is great, but be careful not to use it as a gimmick – we help clients think clearly how this technology will improve their interpretation, and is not just a “that’s neat” feature. 

 

Apps

Digital interpretation and visitor experiences are increasingly being delivered, in some form, on tablets and smartphones. We have apps for guided tours, apps for spotting things, apps to share pictures, apps to review museums, apps to play games. The driver for your app should be from a digital strategy which identifies your audiences and starts to scope out what your objectives are when creating an app. We’re asking our clients to consider what they want their app to do: increase return visits, greater interpretation, longer/shorter dwell times, greater offsite engagement, capture data, support social media campaigns are all good starting points.

Films

Perhaps something which we are not so well known for (yet!) is our professional film work for the likes of Bolsover Castle, Bletchley Park, Salisbury Racecourse, Scarlets Rugby Club plus many more.  Our experienced team consists of creative script writing skills, audio and film production (including aerial filming) to deliver a range of styles including mini-documentaries, re-enactments, animations, promotional and introductory films for onsite projections, web, apps and multimedia guides.

iBeacons

The buzz word of 2014/15! This is still a relatively new technology, particularly in the Museum sector, and there is still a lot to learn about how they are used and what their capabilities (and limitations) are. At ATS we are busy testing and exploring how we can create memorable visits and add value to the venue.  Beyond simply triggering content, we believe iBeacons offer exciting opportunities for improving loyalty and membership schemes and a whole bunch of gaming and marketing possibilities. 

 

Heli-drone filming

Our drone certainly caught people’s attention and ignited their imaginations for capturing a unique perspective of their own sites. Our highly skilled aerial photography team capture stunning footage with state-of-the-art equipment. See our show reel here.

HLF

ATS are proud to work with a variety of HLF funded projects of all sizes. Some advice we would part with – engage with us early to explore ideas and help set realistic expectations of what can be achieved.  We’ll support you through your funding application, and if successful we have plenty of experience working with multiple stakeholders and contractors to deliver multi-faceted creative projects. 

Wearable Tech

Great to see @MarDixon at the stand, you probably spotted her roaming the event modelling her Google Glass. Wearable technology brings some clever opportunities to creating tailored personal experiences by merging the real and digital worlds to help unlock stories and promote engagement. We’ll be exploring these devices and opportunities and will keep you up to date with our progress.

So, as you can see we explored a whole range of ways to engage audiences in different styles and with different technologies. It always comes back to the main principal that ‘Content is King’, but how you implement that content is just as important – so pick your partner wisely.

Have a project coming up you want to talk over? Give Spencer or Jonny a call on 02392 595000 or email email@ats-heritage.co.uk.

Best wishes,

Spencer

02392 595000

@ATS_Spencer

 

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