Multimedia museum display: how it is designed and how it is financed

What a multimedia museum display is

A multimedia museum display is an exhibition route in which projection, interactive surfaces, sound and digital content complement the objects on show to make them easier to interpret. It does not replace the collection: designed with care, it makes content and context more accessible to visitors who do not have specialist knowledge.

An example helps explain the difference. In front of a case holding three ceramic fragments, a panel lists dating and provenance. In the same space, a projection can reconstruct the complete vessel, show how it was used and restore the gesture of the person who handled it, while a voice describes the context. The aim is for visitors to understand the use of the object and its historical context, rather than stopping at catalogue data.

What distinguishes a good project

The quality of a multimedia display does not depend on the number of screens installed. The most important preliminary choices concern what to communicate, which audiences to address and in how much time. The outcome then depends on the curatorial project, conservation constraints, accessibility, usability and the management plan.

In our approach the curatorial project and the analysis of audiences come before the choice of technology. A room visited mainly by school groups calls for different pacing, heights and language from a room visited by scholars. A route that the public covers in forty minutes cannot hold four hours of content, and selecting what stays out is often the hardest part of the work.

The languages available, and when to use them

Projection and video mapping

Projection onto an object or onto architecture makes visible what no longer is: lost polychromy, construction phases, stratigraphy. It suits situations where the artefact must remain central and the information should flow alongside it without adding furniture.

Interactive and touchless surfaces

Tables and walls that respond to gesture allow visitors to go deeper on request, keeping the route readable for those who prefer not to stop. Touchless systems remove direct contact with the control surface. Their potential hygiene and maintenance benefits should however be assessed together with sensor reliability, calibration and the lighting conditions of the room.

Immersive rooms without headsets

A room where projection and sound build an enveloping space lets a whole group share the same experience, with no individual devices to hand out, sanitise and recharge. For museums with flows of school groups this is a significant organisational difference, as we describe when writing about immersive experiences.

Sound and voices

Directional audio helps limit the spread of sound towards neighbouring areas, a frequent requirement in historic buildings where the walls cannot be touched. Its effectiveness depends on the acoustics of the room, on positioning and on emission levels.

Accessibility and languages

Subtitles, selectable audio, content in several languages and alternative routes for visitors with sensory disabilities are not accessories to be added at the end. Considering them in the earliest stages reduces the need for later adaptations and makes the route more coherent. In public calls for funding, depending on the case, accessibility is an obligation, an eligible cost or a scoring criterion.

How a project of this kind is financed

Financing is where many museum projects stall, and it is worth knowing the difference between the available instruments, because they are not interchangeable. Raising the resources should be kept distinct from the subsequent selection of designers and suppliers. For public administrations and the other entities required to apply it, that selection is governed by the Italian public contracts code.

Public calls are one of the channels through which civic museums and local authorities raise resources for digitisation, enhancement and redisplay. The Ministry of Culture, the Regions and other public bodies issue funding notices periodically; banking foundations also run their own calls, which are however private in nature. Each notice sets its own requirements, thresholds and deadlines, which may vary from one edition to the next, so verification must be done on the text in force and not on second-hand information.

Art Bonus belongs to a different category, that of cultural patronage. It is a tax credit equal to 65% of monetary donations, documented by a bank or postal transfer receipt or by the card statement, directed at the interventions and beneficiaries identified by article 1 of decree-law 83 of 2014. The credit is divided into three equal annual instalments. The limit is 15% of taxable income for individuals and non-commercial entities, and 5 per thousand of annual revenue for holders of business income. The measure was converted by law 106 of 2014 and made permanent by the 2016 stability law.

The eligible purposes include maintenance, protection and restoration of public cultural heritage, as well as support for publicly owned cultural institutions and sites and for the performing arts bodies indicated by the rule. The construction of new facilities, as well as the restoration or upgrading of existing ones, is provided for public bodies or institutions that, on a non-profit basis, operate exclusively in the performing arts. Since the list may change over time, the reference remains the text in force.

One clarification avoids misunderstandings here. Art Bonus is not a discount on the purchase of a display, and the tax credit goes to the donor, not to the museum. Because the benefit concerns monetary donations, the direct supply of equipment or services does not in itself give rise to the credit. Donated sums may however contribute to financing a redisplay or multimedia components, when beneficiary and project fall within the eligible purposes. That is the case, for example, with support for a publicly owned cultural institution or site. Eligibility must be verified in advance against the text in force and with the beneficiary; in cases of doubt it is advisable to obtain clarification from the competent offices, while a tax adviser checks compliance and correct use of the credit.

Other resources complete the picture and depend on the accounting rules of the beneficiary: budget allocations, cash or in-kind sponsorship, agreements with local businesses, donations, collaborations with universities. A collaboration is not automatically a source of funding. Different sources can be combined where their respective rules allow it, avoiding double funding of the same costs.

What the assessors look for

There are no funding criteria valid for every call. A project must first meet the subjective, objective, documentary, temporal and financial requirements set by the notice; it is then assessed against the published criteria and scores, and can be funded within the limits of the available resources.

That said, some elements recur in cultural sector notices. Where a call requires a management plan or assesses sustainability after opening, the absence of these elements can lead to the application being ruled ineligible or scoring lower. Some notices require or reward a maintenance and update plan, and the weight of these aspects should be read in the published criteria. Accessibility measures should also be checked in the text of each call, because depending on the case they constitute an obligation, an eligible cost or a scoring criterion.

This is why in our projects we define from the outset who will update the content, with what procedure and on what schedule. The absence of maintenance, updates and operational responsibility increases the risk of faults, obsolescence and unavailability of the display.

How we work with museums

We have worked with the museum sector since 2009 through a dedicated division. Our work starts from the curatorial project and the available material, then defines audiences and route. The languages are chosen last, according to what has to be told and the constraints of the building.

In protected spaces this part is decisive, because solutions must be reversible and minimally invasive, respect the illuminance limits set for the most delicate works and coexist with existing systems and routes. We produce content on the museum's specific heritage rather than adapting generic material, and we hand over the display together with the tools to update it. The full picture is in the section on museums and culture, while the particular case of corporate heritage is covered in the article on the corporate museum.

How to start

A first assessment requires only a few pieces of information: which spaces are involved and with what constraints, what heritage is to be told, which audiences visit the museum and which funding channel is being considered. With these elements we can indicate which languages are suitable, which technical checks are needed and how to set up the project so that it remains sustainable after opening.