Increasingly, heritage sites are commissioning digital offers for families. At ATS, we've worked on a variety of successful projects aimed at this audience, including an updated interpretive offer for families at Eltham Palace (London) alongside Edinburgh-based designers Bright 3D.

There was an understanding that the family offer at Eltham was not as strong as it could be, and that multimedia guides could help. James Simpson, Senior 3D Designer at Bright, explains:

“All the components were there—medieval palace and Art Deco house—but we felt an additional layer, albeit a light touch one, would make a great impact, especially combined with a redressing of the property at the same time... By establishing the premise of a 1930s weekend house party.”

The Eltham Palace Case Study

Immersive experiences rooted in fact appeal to most audiences, particularly the families and ‘Experience Seekers’ that English Heritage were trying to attract. We worked with the design team and the property’s curators to recreate the atmosphere of the 1930s when the Courtauld family lived at Eltham.

English Heritage wanted every visitor to feel like a welcome guest coming to an event. Bright 3D identified a range of real-life, fascinating Courtauld guests, ranging from mountain climbers and Arctic explorers to film producers and socialites. We took these characters, created a party, and put them into the multimedia guide.

When visitors arrive at Eltham, they’re given an invitation telling them which guest they are. A film informs them about their hosts, the party they are to attend, and that the setting was March 1937. They then meet their guide (a different one for adults and families) who, via the multimedia tour, shows them the house and gardens before cocktails and dinner. It’s a tour full of people and activity—the build-up to a party.

Multimedia content should not be created in isolation. It’s all about creating joined-up visitor experiences. As visitors explore the Palace, they come across a series of discovery boxes planned by Bright 3D, linked to each character. These boxes include dressing-up activities and handling objects. For example, in Stephen Courtauld’s bedroom, his attaché case held his WWI medal, bow ties for dressing up, his collection of Roman coins, and photos and letters from the archives. Printed interpretation adds another layer and links each space to the multimedia tour.

The Eltham Palace re-presentation won an Association for Heritage Interpretation Discover Heritage Award in 2015, with judges commenting:

“The media tour was one of the best we had seen—broken into easy chapters and layered into interesting elements making use of a variety of media... appeals to a broader range of people. Diversifying the interpretation offer has also improved the offer to existing core audiences, and provided more opportunity for the family engagement.”

Our Top 5 Tips for Integrated Digital Interpretation

Here are our top 5 tips for creating multimedia experiences that are fully integrated and appeal to your chosen audience:

1. Enjoyable, not just educational: All our multimedia is based on fact and research, and is curatorially led, but we focus on engaging the audience both emotionally and intellectually with the heritage.
2. Memorable: We don’t make documentaries; we make content that is unique to the heritage we are commissioned to interpret—looking for ways to bring it alive that visitors can’t experience anywhere else.
3. Layers of Content are Essential: To meet visitor needs and maintain interest, we devise a scheme where high-tech works with low-tech to tell an integrated story.
4. Quiet is Storytelling: We’re not afraid of a blank screen or a pause when another form of interpretation can take over.
5. Timing is Key: If we’re brought in at the right stage of a project, as we were at Eltham, we can help to create a fully integrated interpretation scheme. Too often, multimedia is just a bolt-on.

Considering how a digital element could work with your interpretation? Give our friendly team a call on 02392 595000, or email us.