Design and Build of the IT infrastructure behind the new Media-museum of the Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision
At the beginning of 2023, the Dutch Institute for Sound & Vision proudly opened the doors of the most interactive Media Museum in the world, centred around the media life of the visitor. Because the museum adapts to the choices and actions the visitor makes, everyone gets a personalised museum journey. The Media Museum contains more than fifty interactives, hundreds of hours of audio-visual material and many special objects from the rich media history.
Three-PM has been involved in this project from the start in the IT directing role. During the various design phases, Three-PM set up a suitable IT architecture which enables Sound and Vision to fulfill important principles of the Master Plan. This includes, among other things, the desire to be able to continuously update all of the museum's content now and in the future without the intervention of suppliers, and to be able to expand the museum further in the future when technological advances offer new possibilities. To this end, the basis of the museum is set up in a fully modular way with systems for content management, personalisation and facial recognition. Three-PM prepared the corresponding programs of requirements for this 'technical foundation' and supervised the procurement of suitable software and hardware solutions. The project had a complex realisation phase in which several parties worked together. It was Three-PM's task to ensure good coordination on the IT level, so that everything remained well connected and the result remained in line with the basic principles and requirements.
Storage requirements, moving collections, design of museum depots and collection centres.
Three-PM was asked to specify and design the ICT facilities for Collection Centre Netherlands (CC NL). CC NL is the collection centre for the Rijksmuseum, the Netherlands Open Air Museum, Paleis Het Loo and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands. The Location Management System (‘Standplaats Beheer Systeem’ or SBS) was designed to keep track of the locations of all objects in CCNL and automatically update the collection registration systems of the partners (who use Adlib and TMS) in case of changes within CC NL. For the Dutch Open Air Museum, Three-PM made the project plan and managed the project for the preparation of the move of their collections to CC NL from 2015 to 2017. Over 5 years all objects were checked, cleaned, photographed and prepared for their relocation. During the peak 24 professionals were working on this project. In the period 2018 – 2019 Three-PM provided the project manager ‘furnishing and organisation’ for CC NL, responsible for all interior facilities and complete furnishing in terms of security, ICT, workspaces and offices to the storage facilities for the depots. Based on the experience gained, Three-PM was asked to provide a second opinion for the plans for a new collection centre in Leiden. We are currently an advisor to the municipality of Rotterdam regarding the specifications for a new collection centre for 6 museums, as a successor for the current depot Metaalhof.
Technology for personalisation and renewal of three websites
From mid 2015 until beginning of 2018 Three-PM was responsible for the Canon Online programme for the Dutch Open Air Museum. The programme involved a diversity of projects, many of which were related to the ‘Canon van Nederland’, the impressive exhibition that opened its doors in late 2017. The portfolio of projects included: RFID infrastructure for the exhibition to identify the visitor, a database containing the experiences of the visitors during their tour and a personal page to view digital souvenirs and stored information. Three websites (openluchtmuseum.nl, entoen.nu and immaterieelerfgoed.nl) were rebuilt within the programme and the extensive collection of the museum was made digitally accessible on their website.