Panacea Museum, Bedford

The Panacea Society is a religious group founded in 1912 following the teachings of ‘Devonshire prophetess’ Joanna Southcott (1750-1814), although no longer functioning as a religious organisation in modern times, the Panacea Society still exists as a registered charity educating others in aspects of the Christian faith.

With the goal of furthering their charity work and teaching others the history of their Society, the Panacea Society decided to open a Museum in 2012. blackbox-av were delighted to be approached and asked to provide all of the audio visual equipment for this new endeavour, as well as carry out the installation.

We listened to the brief and provided a multitude of av interpretation solutions;

Multi-Touch Screen Kiosks + Lightbox 2

With a host of archived media at their disposal, the Panacea Society wanted an elegant solution for allowing visitors to browse this media at various ‘stations’ around the museum. The answer was the bespoke design of a free standing multi-touch screen kiosk (now a standard product on our online store), running our very own Lightbox 2 software. These kiosks were built into free standing enclosures and finished in 2 colours, white and ‘natural’ (oak), in order to blend in with the museum aesthetics. They proved such a hit that we decided to add them to our ‘standard’ shop range.

One of the kiosks was used alongside the ‘Jezreel’s Tower’ exhibit, helping to bring alive the history of the Tower and compliment the incredibly detailed model which is the focus of the exhibit.

Lightbox 2 was ideal for use within these kiosks, it has been specifically designed by us to take advantage of multi-touch screen technology and provide a clean, customisable interface with which Museums can display all forms of media, including pictures, video and audio.

Video Players and Screens

Dotted around the building are a number of large screens with button operated video players attached. Visitors are invited to push a selection of buttons in order to activate a number of informative videos.

Button Activated Maps

2 specially designed button activated maps were created for the museum. One informs visitors how the Society spread around the world, while the other highlights which countries applied for healing from the Panacea Society through the 1900’s. These maps work combining button operated video players, custom media content and large LCD screens.

PIR Activated Vintage Radio

Upon entering one of the rooms in the museum visitors are confronted with a beautiful vintage radio, this radio is activated by a PIR (passive infra-red) sensor which works by sensing movement and then activating the pre-recorded message, in this instance the Society used a 1940’s song titled ‘calling all workers’.

Before installation we edited and uploaded content onto each product, ensuring everything sounded and looked great.