BACKGROUND
Sydney Living Museums is the State Cultural Institution, caring for a group of 12 of the most important historic houses, gardens and museums in Australia’s New South Wales. One of these museums, Hyde Park Barracks, is an extraordinary living record of early colonial Australia. It is a UNESCO World Heritage -listed site and nowadays also a cutting-edge museum.
CHALLENGE
The Hyde Park Barracks renewal project started in 2019 to transform the museum into a world-leading heritage destination. They wanted to break away from traditional museum experiences by combining history with the latest technologies to encourage engagement with the museum exhibits. The museum’s idea was to let visitors enjoy their personal adventures through history while walking through the space on their own.
SOLUTION
Early on, Sydney Living Museums chose Local Projects, which specialises in creative museum instalments, to design the new museum experience. They identified Quuppa as a trusted technology partner, as their positioning system offered the required level of accuracy for the case.
The system deployment was taken care of by another Quuppa Partner, Gradient Advanced Technologies. An infrastructure of Quuppa Locators was installed into the museum’s ceiling to track mobile devices carried by the visitors as they move through the space so that relevant audio and video content could be triggered as visitors approach the displays. This enhances visitor experiences as they can decide freely where to go, to pick which displays to see and in what order, while still having access to the relevant interactive content immediately.
RESULTS
The re-imagination of the Hyde Park Barracks museum has been remarkably successful, and many visitors have praised the improvements to the experience on-site. Whenever the visitors reach specific displays, they start hearing the related stories immediately through their headphones. The new technology provides a self-guided and immersive experience that feels like stepping back in time.
NEXT STEPS
Sydney Living Museums is very happy with Quuppa technology and how it has performed at the Hyde Park Barracks. Next, they will investigate how to expand the use of the technology both at the Hyde Park Barracks, e.g. to optimise visitor flows and to manage visitor volumes, and at their other museum sites in New South Wales.
Local Projects is an experience design studio that connects people to brands and cultural institutions through meaningful interactions. The company’s synthesis of creative technology and physical design is a potent combination, capable of offering signature design moments that engage visitors. One of their works is A Museum of Collective Memory in the National September 11 Memorial Museum. More info: localprojects.com
Gradient Advanced Technologies provides access to the most sophisticated and accurate asset tracking technology available. The company has experience in segments as diverse as Museums, Supermarkets, Manufacturing plants, Universities/ Schools and Automotive Dealerships and is supported by a team which is a major software and data integration services supplier to a number of international automotive OEMs. More info: gat.gradient.com.au
