After the successful launch last year of Military Intelligence Museum’s interactive telling the story of the Intelligence Corps in and around the First World War, the exhibit is about to enter its second year.

This particular installation has been designed to have a dynamic lifecycle of eight years, covering the entire First World War and the following period when military intelligence played an important role.

Each year, the physical objects displayed will change to explore a different theme and new content will be added to the digital exhibit to correspond.

The Gesture Wall that we developed for Heritage Quay has been exciting visitors to the University of Huddersfield Archives since its launch in October 2014.

This recent video shows Sarah Wickham, University Archivist & Records Manager, talking about how visitors use the Gesture Wall and multi-touch tables to explore the Archives and search more deeply into the areas that most grab their personal interest. Sarah says, “It really opens up our audience and our reach in ways that we couldn’t possibly do before.”

The Gesture Wall even has its own hashtag #bigcurvyscreen – if you like it, why not give it a quick mention on Twitter?

The restoration of the wall paintings by mid-20th century artist Evelyn Gibbs  at St Martin’s Church, Bilborough in Nottinghamshire is progressing. We set up two time-lapse cameras to capture the work as it is carried out – here’s a sneak preview…

As part of the Hidden Treasures project at St Martin’s Church, Bilborough, we are developing a “tablet tour” to help visitor explore the history of the church and its role in the community.

As a church that is actively used for worship and for community activities, space for interpretative displays and activities is, by the nature of the building and its use, limited – which makes the use of tablet technology the ideal choice for presenting a lot of information in a handy, compact way.

An app that can be accessed on one of the project’s tablets can be navigated via a map of the church or a list of points of interest around the building. These points within the church will be tagged with small plaques – simply tap the tablet on the plaque and the app will present information about that feature, its purpose, history and relevance to the community.

The app will access a variety of material – text, graphics, video and audio – which can be kept up-to-date and added to by the client.

We were delighted to be asked by Cadw to help them with four touchscreens at Caerleon that been installed by another developer several years ago and were now not working properly.

Following the site survey a plan of action was agreed and the systems replaced with the latest technology. We were able to recover the software from the original touch screens and re-commission it on the new platforms which also means we have a safely archived set of the software.

Cadw now has a regular maintenance contract in place to reduce the risks of wear and tear eventually causing similar problems in future. We are now providing:

• Regular site visits to check the equipment.
• Telephone support.
• A complete spares package.
• Software backup and archiving.
• Emergency call outs and ongoing advice.

Caerleon can now be assured that their touchscreens will continue to work reliably and any unexpected problems that arise will be dealt with quickly and efficiently.

Our new photo system at The London Bridge Experience was installed in time for Halloween, unsurprisingly an important milestone in the year for a scare attraction.

We’re pleased to report that the system ran without a hitch throughout this busy period and just as happy that sales exceeded expectations by a factor of 25%.

Friday 21^st November saw us out and about with the local business community. We took some of our favourite interactive exhibits out to the University of Derby’s Enterprise Centre for their Open for Business trade show.

Rob shows how the RFID objects at Westonbirt Arboretum 

A jam-packed programme of talks complemented an interesting exhibition from local businesses and we were pleased that the delegates enjoyed getting hands on with our kit.

Pauline Latham MP enjoys the Gesture Wall experience from Heritage Quay

Our new photosystem at popular scare attraction, The London Bridge Experience, is now up and running, bringing an extra thrill to visitors in search of spine-tingling entertainment.

The technology works on the same principles as the photosystem at The World of Beatrix Potter, including the means to measure key performance indicators such as the number of pictures taken and the number of items sold, and yet the visitor’s experience of using it is a very different one.

Rather than being one element of a broader retail offering to choose, The London Bridge Experience uses the system as an integral part of the visitor experience. In fact, having your photograph taken by actors in character builds the tension before you enter the tombs, setting the scene for the rest of your visit. The more terrified your pose, the more impressive the finished photo will be.

After an experience full of sounds, smells, and spooky settings, with shocks and surprises courtesy of a grisly cast of characters from the more gruesome corners London Bridge’s history, why not take away a personalised photo souvenir?

On leaving the tour, the ticket that was provided at your photo shoot is scanned and your picture displayed, ready for purchase as a memento of a frighteningly fun visit.

It was great to be invited to the launch event at Heritage Quay on the 20^th October – a fabulous resource that makes the University of Huddersfield’s heritage collections more accessible to everyone, free of charge, thanks to a grant of £1,585,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The guests had a good time exploring the exhibits and playing with the multi-touch tables and, of course, the interactive Gesture Wall that provides a gateway to the archives.

Vice Chancellor Professor Bob Cryan CBE introduced Gary Verity, Chair of the Heritage Lottery Fund Yorkshire and Humberside who performed the opening honours with the theme of inspiration. We were delighted to hear him describe the Gesture Wall, “You will not get much more inspirational than a giant toy like that.”

It’s been fantastic to work with the team at Heritage Quay – congratulations on a brilliant launch event.

And many thanks for the kind words, Sarah.

“Thanks for coming, and for all the last minute tweaking & working!  We had a good time and got lots of really positive feedback – as you’ll have seen/heard, everyone LOVED the multi-touch and the BCS…”

Sarah Wickham, University Archivist & Records Manager at University of Huddersfield

Supported by the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Research carried out by Manchester Business School was integral to the development of the interactive wildfire risk tool that was part of a suit of interactive exhibits for Fire Aware, part of the Peak District’s Moors for the Future project. This educational tool is the first of its kind in the UK combining weather and geographical data to give a real-time picture of the relative fire risk across the moors.

The project has recently featured in the Manchester Business School’s newsletter. Click on the link to read the full article…

Fire Aware featured by Manchester Business School