Innovation Award with VR Accessible Tour
The interactive tour is a ground-breaking use of virtual reality to create a positive experience for visitors to Geevor. So, it’s apt that we have been shortlisted for an Innovation Award. The award recognises the use of innovation to connect people with collections:
“Entrants must demonstrate how they use technology effectively to interpret objects and to enrich the experience of your customers. This award is not simply about technology but about how it impacts on the end user’s knowledge, engagement and enjoyment.”
As the film above shows, our tour uses VR to overcome access issues at Geevor. It was a low budget, high impact solution to physical barriers on the site. Visitors to the World Heritage site can now virtually visit parts of the mine that may previously been inaccessible because they were stepped, steep or narrow. Wearing a VR headset, they follow a tour guide through the mine. The experience is immersive, with all of the sights and sounds of the actual tour, and interactive. This means that visitors can move around the site and opt to learn more as they do so. Geevor has shared lots of positive visitor feedback with us. They want to extend the tour to parts of the mine that no-one can currently access, expanding the VR provision to everyone.
Museums and Heritage award
The Museums and Heritage Award is open to applications from organisations throughout the UK. Last year the Imperial War Museum and 14-18 NOW won the Innovation Award with their critically acclaimed ‘They Shall Not Grow Old’ project. This not only demonstrates the level of opposition we are up against but it is also testament to the project we have created along with Heritage Ability, in association with Geevor Tin Mine.
This year’s Museums and Heritage award ceremony will be virtual, with winners announced online. Of course, we will be there (black tie optional) with champagne on ice, eagerly awaiting the result.
Find out more about our 360 Virtual Reality work.