We were approached by the Tower of London to suggest how they could refresh an old interactive which showed visitors the geographical homes of 10 animals that used to form part of the Royal menagerie which was housed within the grounds of the Tower.

The original activity featured a classical map of the world with a tethered magnifier for visitors to examine a variety of locations. Over time the magnifier had caused significant damage to the graphic and the surrounding setworks making the whole display look very tired and in need of some love.

We discussed a few ideas with the Tower and since their priority was absolute bullet-proof durability, we opted to completely remake the activity from scratch mounting the new magnifier on horizontal and vertical sliding steel rails, this allowed visitors to have exactly the same experience but completely removed the tethered magnifier which had caused all the damage in the first place.

We modelled this up in 3D using SolidWorks, and issued the client some drawings and rendered visuals so they could see exactly what they were getting and make any changes required.

We removed the old exhibit from its high turret room and carried out a survey of the remaining setworks on site, this meant we could design the new activity to slot straight in with minimal fuss when we returned to install it.

While we manufactured the new mechanism, the client found us the original sound files for all of the exotic animals, we loaded these into a digital media player so the new interactive played the right animal sound for each location around the world.

As expected, installation was straightforward. Our technicians were able to install and commission the new interactive during a morning before visitors arrived, ensuring it was fully operational and ready for opening time.

The priority was to create a durable and reliable replacement that fitted within the existing gallery environment, could withstand the demands of a high-footfall visitor attraction and allowed for straightforward maintenance in the future.

The programme was manageable and the project was successfully delivered within the agreed timeframe.