London Museum Signs Gives New Twist to Immersive Experiences

Digital signs are becoming more and more popular and widespread because they are very easy to use and cost very little compared to how much they used to cost a few years ago. Museums have been a long time catching up with commercial businesses, but we are finally seeing them appear in popular museums.

One of the reasons why London museums have been installing digital signs is because it bridges the gap between the online world we see on Smartphones and the real world we live in. The hope is to make the museum-going experience easier and to help appeal to a younger phone-obsessed crowd.

Using Digital Signs in Exhibits

This is becoming more and more popular in London museums. Take a walk around and you see signs acting as utility tools within exhibits (perhaps to explain what a display is all about) and sometimes as decorations themselves (like in the Sherlock Holmes exhibit).

Using digital signs within the Sherlock exhibit has been copied in other museums around the world. For example, in the Oklahoma City museum in the USA, digital signs are framed and placed beside framed photos so that it looks as if the photos are talking to you.

Science Museum of London

Take a wander around the various floors of the building, and you will see posters that are lit up. They are rather tall, around twice the height of your average human. They are very thin and are behind clear Perspex. Except for the fact that these are not lit-up posters, they are digital signs.

Explore a little more and you will see the same signs, but they have what appears to be a menu on them. These are scheduled events. You can see what is going on right now and what is scheduled to appear in the future.

The Blavatnik Hall, Victoria and Albert Museum

Take a walk around this hall to be presented with large digital signs that are interactive. They were financed by Donald Trump and several of his supporters, the largest being Len Blavatnik. Try the signs and you gain access to a wealth of information that is difficult to find in such detail on the Internet.

Also, you may buy tickets to the various exhibitions on display. You can pick a showing today and get a ticket, or you can book one for a future date. You can also donate to the museum, though nobody expects you to give as much as Len Blavatnik did.

Which Software Are They Using?

The software being used is rather layered. The display protocols come from Kitcast digital signage software, the payment processing comes with the added hardware (the card reader), and the touch screen protocols are baked into the signs using a stripped-down version of Android’s open-source operating systems.

The content and structured programming were conducted by different companies. For example, the fancy menu-looking signs in the science museum were created by the ICO Designs Website company. The utility signs in the VA museum were created by a Scottish consultancy.

Why Are Digital Signs More Popular in Science Museums?

Many traditional exhibits in the museums around London don't need a digital sign display. For example, if you see the bones of a dinosaur, all you need is a small plaque explaining what it is, when it was around, and where it used to live.

However, when explaining something in science museums, people often need introduced to principles and concepts that are not as easy to grasp when they are simply written down.

A digital sign allows museums to use audio and visual media to get their point across and help people understand what they are seeing so that they may better appreciate it.