Rhondda Heritage Park

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The team at Blackbox were very helpful when it came to installing the equipment and uploading and creating the content. They always took the time to carefully explain the processes and provide their advice on what would work best for our exhibition and engaging visitors.

– Rhian Hall, Heritage Collections Manager at Rhondda Heritage Park

Video Wall at Rhondda Heritage Park

Rhondda Heritage Park is ‘A Welsh Coal Mining Experience’ on the site of the former Lewis Merthyr Colliery that offers visitors a journey into the history of mining in Rhondda and the whole of Wales. From underground tours of authentic coal mines led with ex-miners, to impressive exhibition spaces, Rhondda Heritage Park helps introduce visitors to one of the most integral parts of Welsh history.

A recent update of the interpretive offer at Rhondda Heritage Park has seen Blackbox-av collaborate closely with the in-house heritage team to provide and install a wide range of AV solutions throughout the site.

In the main exhibition space we helped bring layers of interactivity via 22″ touchscreens mirrored to 65″ displays. Using our flexible Lightbox 3 software package these units allow for a wealth of interactive content to shared with visitors.

The layered approach caters for visitors who want to gain a quick understanding of the subject matter while those who wish to dig deeper are invited do so. Various digitised objects, timelines and multi-media collections introduce visitors to the history of mining industry in Rhondda and it’s impact locally and worldwide.

A 4 x 55″ video wall with a 22″ control screen presents a number of videos to visitors. All content is displayed in Welsh and English with plans to add additional languages in the future.

A large multi-touch table was also supplied with the full Lightbox 3 ‘Ultimate Licence’ which allows the team on site to use the full suite of applications to build any number of interactive presentations in-house.

As Rhian Hall, Heritage Collections Manager at Rhondda Heritage Park and content lead for the project explains;

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Lightbox 3 included apps such as quizzes, puzzles, and games which we used to strengthen our audiences understanding of the exhibition story and narrative. The software design is of high quality and the content installed can be adapted to suit various ages and audiences. We created a quiz based on the exhibition interpretation that had multiple difficulty levels so that children and adults could be involved.

Near the site entrance is a wonderful replica shopping village, boasting historical shopfronts – here you’ll find archival footage beamed into a shop window via a projector and our solid state video player, the VideoClip-HD.

This was a huge but incredibly fun project that we were delighted to be a part of. The final result is a truly flexible but interactive space that via the use of our software gives the on-site heritage team the ability to modify and build upon the available digital content – better catering for the diverse array of visitors that attend Rhondda Heritage Park every year.

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The team at Blackbox were very helpful when it came to installing the equipment and uploading and creating the content. They always took the time to carefully explain the processes and provide their advice on what would work best for our exhibition and engaging visitors.

– Rhian Hall, Heritage Collections Manager at Rhondda Heritage Park