how beacons can add interactivity to museums
TRANSCRIPT
How Beacons can add
Interactivity to Museums
Ravi Pratap
Co-founder & CTO
MobStac
Beaconstac Webinar
Al Juarez
VP – Sales & Marketing
GeLo
Today’s webinar
1. What is iBeacon technology?
2. How beacons can enhance the museum experience
1. Museum use cases
1. Things to consider before deploying beacons
1. Learning from successful museum deployments
What are beacons?
• Low-cost, low-power transmitters equipped with Bluetooth Low Energy or BLE
(also called Bluetooth 4.0 or Bluetooth Smart)
• Helps mobile devices detect proximity and determine micro-location
How beacons work
Beacons don’t transmit content; they transmit a series of numbers
• The transmitted signal allows another device to identify it and determine the
device’s proximity to the beacon
How beacons can enhance museum experiences
Deliver
contextual
information
Social
media
outreach
Enhance
Interactivity
beyond audio
Gather
behavioral
data
Gather visitor
data
Putting beacons to use in museums
Ticketless
entry
Information
about facilities
available
Recommend
exhibits
Upsell mementos,
gifts from the
souvenir shop
1. Beacon installation
o Purchase beacons - consider color, design, power options
o Configure - ‘major’ and ‘minor’ numbers
o Placement - must be unobtrusive
1. Visitor position not really precise
o Factor in beacon signal interference
o Use proximity, instead of a precise set of coordinates
Things to keep in mind
3. Management and monitoring
o Track data coming from multiple beacons
o Monitor beacons for battery life and last ping time
o Consider using a beacon platform
4. Security
o Change major/minor numbers frequently and encrypt them
o Detect unauthorized authentication attempts
o Set up a mechanism that sends timely firmware updates and
security notifications
Things to keep in mind (contd.)
How we helped a museum pilot beacons - 1
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York
Adding beacons using the
Beaconstac CMS
• UX – What experience are you trying to create?
• Density and spacing of beacons
• Trigger spot vs. Beacon location
• Start small
Considerations in real world deployment
About GeLo
GeLo has helped museums become more interactive through the use of GeLo
Bluetooth Smart beacons. GeLo has worked with the Grand Rapids Public
Museum, ArtPrize 2013 and ArtPrize 2014 using beacon technology to share
additional content with museum visitors and art lovers in the digital age.
Beaconstac Eddystone Platform
• UNLIMITED user interactions
• Integrated with Google Analytics
• Rules-based rotating URLs
• Custom Domain
• Customer Support