We were approached by Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery, who were working with their teenage visitors to create a series of podcasts about the museum. These podcasts would be used as audio guides; the aim being to engage future young visitors by enhancing the existing exhibits.

Traditionally, podcasts are subscribed to and downloaded at home, but not all of the visitors would be aware of these podcasts until they arrive at the museum, so an on-site download station would need to be set up too.

Due to the limited budget, pre-programmed tour-wands were out of the question. But this got us thinking – with the technology available in virtually every one of the museum’s savvy young visitors’ pockets, they already have a tour-wand & more…

We began experimenting with Bluetooth, a short range wireless communication technology available on virtually all mobile phones on the market, and something we’ve been wanting to get our teeth into for a while. With this technology, files can be sent between devices quickly, safely and above all, wirelessly.

The final product:

Online, a podcast microsite enabling online visitors to browse, download and subscribe to the Maidstone Museum & Bentlif Art Gallery series of podcasts, complete with an easy to use CMS (content management system) for the administrators to easily upload and manage the collection.

On-site, a Bluetooth enabled touchscreen podcast station that encourages visitors to browse and explore the collection of audio-guide podcasts and send them quickly and easily to their Bluetooth-enabled handheld devices.