Digital signage for museums is a great tool to tell a better story. But it’s really much more than that. With the screens, museums can increase engagement, create a “wow” factor, better promote their social media accounts, bring an interactivity element, and simply make the whole experience much more fun. And many establishments around the world are already doing that successfully. Let’s review some of the best cases of museum digital signage.
1. Notre-Dame de Paris: The Augmented Exhibition
Why: augmented reality is the technology du jour in 2023 and this interactive exhibition makes full use of it. Sure, the means here are more sophisticated than just a regular multimedia screen, but we’re giving this example to inspire.
It’s an AR-powered showcase of the history of arguably one of the most famous cathedrals in the world starting from its beginnings in the medieval times up until the infamous 2019 fire and the restoration process that followed.
The interactivity element is enabled by the gadget called HistoPad developed by Histovery. Visitors are invited to craft their own personalized journeys through the exhibition and there’s a separate “scavenger hunt” digital game for kids. Digital signage for museums can be exciting and highly engaging. This project proves it.
2. Ontario Regiment Museum AI assistant
Why: it’s one thing to have a classic tour, it’s a whole different vibe to be guided by the AI-powered virtual personality that only lives inside of the screen. That’s exactly what the Ontario Regiment Museum did with their robotic recruit Master Corporal Lana. She greets visitors at the check-in zone and is ready to answer questions and interact on a deeper, even personal level.
That’s quite a breakthrough for museum digital signage solutions and a fantastic example of how to get creative and make the visit truly memorable.
3. Rainforest videowall at Dallas World Aquarium
Why: being immersive is a hot new trend for museums and exhibition centers around the world and Dallas World Aquarium nails it with their 2022 collaboration with SNA Displays. The company installed a 25 feet high and 52 feet wide videowall that transports visitors straight to the rainforest and is a highlight of the aquarium’s Cloud Forest Trek.
According to SNA, the screen has a pixel pitch of 4 millimeters, the video display has a resolution of 1,890 by 3,960 pixels, and is comprised of just under 7.5 million total pixels. In other words, it’s a pretty impressive case of digital signage for museums, the one that enhances the overall experience and doesn’t feel intrusive at all.
Also, it’s a great example of using videowalls (the bigger display solutions) in the indoor environment. Here it serves only one purpose: to create a special atmosphere. However, the creative possibilities of the video walls within the museum space are limitless. While a rainforest setting may be perfect for an aquarium, big displays can be used, for example, in history museums to transport visitors to a certain period of time with audiovisual effects.
4. The Statue of Liberty - Digital Signage for Museums
Why: we love it when museums go fully high-tech to tell the story better. That’s the case of the uber-interactive Statue of Liberty Museum. Located alongside the iconic 1886 monument on Liberty Island in New York Harbor, it uses various kinds of screens to make a visit a fully immersive experience.
There are displays alongside the exhibits, touchscreens for interaction, a gigantic videowall at the entrance, and 3 spectacular curved floor-to-ceiling screens by Panasonic broadcasting videos about the past, present, and future of the Statue of Liberty.
All of it feels very organic and that’s exactly how digital signage for museums is executed.
5. Beeple Studios
Why: digital art is a new big thing and many top museum addresses have already embraced it with open arms. And you can’t really talk about American digital art without mentioning Beeple. It’s the moniker of Michael Joseph Winkelmann, a Charleston-based artist who famously sold an NFT art piece called “Everydays: the First 5000 Days” for $69,400,000 in 2021. He didn’t stop there selling another hybrid digital sculpture entitled HUMAN ONE for $28,958,000 also that year.
Beeple Studios was inaugurated on March 13, 2023, in Charleston, and it’s one of the most vivid examples of the digital signage for museums in the world. Physical has no primate here, the majority of the artwork exists within the screens or is enabled by the visual solutions.
It’s a fantastic case of the next-gen approach to exhibiting as a whole and a superb inspirational point of how one artist can promote his works using digital means.
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