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Electric Playhouse partnered with Exhibits Development Group (EDG) to develop a traveling exhibition of Electric Playhouse’s existing library of games and visuals for museums and science centers around the country. With a footprint ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 sq ft we could accommodate a range of different institutions and floor plans. To help sell the overall exhibition to future venues our first prototype installation was at the Boston Museum of Science (BMoS), with an opening launch during the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) conference in Boston in May of 2022
The Prompt
Working to secure locations for the full exhibition, we did a full circuit of different Museums and Venues, pitching the overall experience, and how it could benefit their goals. One major sales opportunity for this is the annual AAM Conference, this year in Boston, where thousands of Museum Professionals, Designers and Developers attend. Knowing this would be a huge opportunity, we thought about how could we create a memorable experience that would showcase the product.
With the conference date quickly approaching, EDG approached BMoS to see if they would be interested in us exhibiting in their Museum for the annual AAM Party, which would be hosted at their Museum. They were interested, and we were able to create a mutually beneficial deal which had us exhibiting in their venue our Prototype at the conference party, and throughout the 2022 summer season. Knowing that there would be thousands of people in attendance for the AAM Party, and even thousands more of local families attending throughout the summer, we aimed to make this as polished of an experience as we could.
The Process
Our exhibition consists of two sizes of interactive spaces, the first being a larger, interactive space for up to 20 people roughly 40′ long by 24′ wide which we call an “Arena” . The second is a smaller space, around 12′ square, called a Pod, which is perfect for 1-2 people in a more personal setting.
Our master exhibition plan featured 2 Arenas, and 4 Pods for a space up to 10,000 sq feet. BMoS had an available gallery that was around 2000-3000 sq ft. which fit we were able to fit one Arena, and one Pod, and add interactivity to a third space as an interactive “Feature wall”. Working to minimize our overhead budget, we planned to utilize as much hardware we had on hand and reduce purchasing costs. This required a full inventory scope of our spaces, and cross referencing that with these two spaces we had designed. Electric Playhouse has a robust and diverse set of interactive experiences to play, so how did we choose which ones would best suit this traveling exhibition? Out of Electric Playhouse’s broader content library, we selected the games and visuals which we felt were some of our best, but which could also serve as jumping off points for educational experiences. There were 5 games which would play in the arena, 3 games which would play in the pod, as well as 8 interactive visuals which would play between each game in both the pods and the arena.
One of the key concerns of the museum was staffing needs. At the time, in Electric Playhouse’s venue, our staff would communicate and facilitate content switching for guests. With our space being only a small subsection of the overall museum, they could not afford to have one person permanently staffed there to switch content. As such, we re-imagined the way our system behaved, and added system automation, which dynamically switched the content whenever a game round would end, or after a period of time had passed on the visual. This kept the experience fresh and constantly changing for guests, and increased visitation times. After seeing the vast improvement this made to the traveling exhibit, we worked to bring this back to our own venue, again increasing visitor time and satisfaction. We also improved our overall sensor technology by integrating the updated Kinect Azure sensors, and Ouster OS-0 Sensors. These new sensors reduced components, which improved system reliability, support issues, and cost; As well as improved system responsiveness, performance, and latency. These were also a major advantage for our flagship location and our future plans for future locations.
The Product
With an estimated 4500 – 6000 people attending the party. It was a major success, with many museum professionals running around and playing, despite being dressed in professional business attire. We got wonderful feedback, and plenty of people were excited to talk to us and the potential for this technology as not only a venue for play, but also a venue for education.
This run of the prototype exhibition also went on to show in a second location at Michigan Science Center in Detroit Michigan, and a third at Wichita Exploration Place.