Bringing Multilingual Content to Life in World-Renowned Museums and Galleries
How DataSource develops multimedia guides for Museums of the Future
DataSource is honored to have been selected as the professional multilingual content partner on content development projects describing the great achievements of mankind for museums, art galleries and historic monuments throughout Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
We work closely with our partners worldwide on content localization: crafting and editing audio scripts, managing and executing multimedia materials for everything from archeological artifacts such as a 36,000-year-old cave in France to contemporary paintings like “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt.
For us, this has been a labor of love as it’s been our company’s aim since 2002 to facilitate understanding across cultures by providing a wide range of language solutions. What better way to do that than by helping globally-renowned museums and galleries develop their multilingual cultural content?
Seeking to engage and capture the minds of millions globally, DataSource has helped these marvelous institutions localize multimedia content designed to inspire an increasingly diverse international audience. Museums and other exhibitions increasingly rely on technology to provide a more interactive experience for guests that include touch systems and tables, apps for virtual field trips, augmented reality installations and more.
This is a particularly significant move in the art world because museums, artifacts and art can now be appreciated in a variety of ways, simultaneously. For instance, when a religious artifact is presented, a multimedia presentation enables the guest to not only visually appreciate the piece but to see, hear and learn about its origins, the process in which it was excavated and its relevance to human history and culture. Similarly, a guest can not only see a stunning piece of art, but can learn about the artist, the muse and the time in history in which the piece was commissioned and why in an integrated and interesting way.
Studies have shown that multimedia presentations that enable guests to control their own navigation and explore different points of interest in an exhibit are more likely to result in longer levels of engagement, repeat visits and ultimately, a higher number of visitors based on a combination of interest and word of mouth. Even better? Multimedia projects are relatively easy to maintain and cost-effective to develop and update as new pieces are added.
Multilingual offerings are also particularly important as international travel has increased significantly in recent years. The United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) estimates that internationally there were just 25 million tourist arrivals in 1950. Just sixty-six years later, this number increased to 1.2 billion international arrivals per year— a 49-fold increase. Obviously, with travelers now quickly expanding beyond first-time interests like shopping and major tourist attractions, museums stand to benefit. The Louvre museum hit record visitors in 2018 with 10.2 million visitors, thus officially becoming the most visited museum in the world! Chinese visitors make up a major proportion of its attendees (they are the second most common foreign nationality to visit, Americans remaining the most numerous visitors). Naturally, with its office located in Hong Kong, DataSource is uniquely positioned to offer the full linguistic and multimedia support those museums need to best appeal to these specific visitors.
Museums of the future are replacing old audio and outdated tours with modern, dynamic and responsive multimedia content that fosters dialogue and sparks the imagination. This agile approach enables exhibitors to not only deliver content but to make meaningful connections between the piece’s history and origins to the viewers’ appreciation of its significance and relevance in modern times.
DataSource has supported these evolving experiences through:
- Translation: Our multilingual staff has helped translate and localize biographies, exhibits, descriptions and locations into 80 languages internationally
- Audio Recordings: With an on-site professional recording studio in Hong Kong, we’ve co-created audio guides that enable guests to listen to audio recordings in over 30 languages across multimedia platforms
To date, DataSource is honored to have worked closely with the following museums, sites and galleries globally:
- Gouffre de Padirac, Lot – France
- Caverne du Pont d’Arc, Ardèche – France
- Belvedere Museum, Vienna – Austria
- Pergamum Museum, Berlin – Germany
- Landesmuseum, Zurich – Switzerland
- DolmaBahce Palace, Istanbul – Turkey
- Great Mosque, Abu Dhabi – United Arab Emirates
- The Peak, Hong Kong – Hong Kong SAR
And we’ve only just begun! DataSource will be visiting the European Museum Fairs in Paris and The Netherlands in January and February 2019!
Stay tuned for more interesting projects to be announced!
Interested in learning more?