Pan 3Sixty have recently created a custom-designed virtual tour, complete with user interface to showcase Hertford Museum’s newly refurbished displays.
The purpose of the virtual tour is to give a taster of what this independent museum has to offer to potential and existing visitors and enable them to see some of the amazing collections on display in an engaging and interactive way.
Hertford Museum is a local history museum located in the centre of the County town of Hertford and has been in existence since 1903. The museum was awarded a Heritage Lottery Fund grant of just under £1m in 2007 to improve its facilities and services that it provides to the local community and other visitors. The newly refurbished museum re-opened in February 2010 and is now fully accessible, with displays that tell the story of the town and its people, the early days of the museum as well as a dedicated temporary exhibition space.
The virtual tour contains ten 360° degree panoramas. Each panorama enables the user to see a different section of the museum, providing them with an excellent insight to the museum displays, second only to a visit in person. An interactive floor plan allows users to navigate around the ‘virtual museum’, from where the user can select which display they want to see next. Further levels of interactivity, such as series of detailed photographs of objects from the ‘Where in the World’ display and samples oral histories from the many listening posts on the first floor displays, provide the user with an an even more engaging experience.
Museum staff commented, “Visitors often don’t have the time to experience everything the museum displays have to offer. They can now use the virtual tour to ‘re-visit’ the displays and in particular, listen to the many oral histories about living and working in Hertford from the comfort of their own home, on their own computer. The virtual tour also opens up the museum to a world-wide audience.”
Richard de Peyer, Hertford Museum’s new Curator said, “Wow! The Virtual Tour provided by Pan 3Sixty on our website works a treat and adds a new way into the collections that is dynamic and interactive. Pan 3Sixty have tailor-made the virtual tour to the museum’s specification, and the opportunity to fly in and search for data or images wherever the fancy takes you is a real asset to users.”
Eleanor Payne, the museum’s Learning Officer, is also pleased with the virtual tour and says, “‘I think the virtual tour will be a really useful tool for teachers when they are planning a visit to the museum, as well as using it a post visit reminder, and reinforcement of the learning experience for their pupils.”
If you would like to find out more about how Pan 3Sixty can help you to widen access to your museum or heritage site through a tailor made virtual tour, please call us on 0845 644 3605.
