With the assistance of a grant from the Army Museums Ogilby Trust, the trustees have purchased a touch screen display for the new museum. We have been busy experimenting with this, and developing material to display on it.
We have produced powerpoint displays of each period of our history, from the 1790s to today, Each display is typically 4 or 5 slides long, and includes a relevant photo or diagram on each slide. On a number of the slides we have embedded short audio and video clips. We have also added some general background information about the history of the period, so that visitors can understand our regiments' activities within the broader historical context.
We have also produced similar powerpoints on some of the distinguished individuals who have served with us, featuring both their military and civilian careers. These include profiles of people like Sandy Cameron, Roy Cawston, John Cloudsley-Thompson, Pat Dyas, Derrick Mullens, Keith Rae and more. We have also included descriptions of big events such as the 19th century parades in front of royalty in Mote Park (Maidstone), and intriguing events such as the time when our Hon Col Finch Hatton challenged the Duke of Wellington to a duel in Battersea Park.
Additionally, we are creating slides of some of our vehicles, equipment, battle honours and medals. All of this gives us the opportunity to display so much more than can fit on the new museum walls, and will be a great asset for visitors of all ages. We also have the potential to copy some of the powerpoints on to DVDs for use on outreach visits to schools and local societies.
The audio visual equipment also gives us the facility to create interactive quizzes. We took the touch screen to the drill hall in Croydon in early April, and tried out the quiz in real time with members of the squadron. Most of the scores were quite impressive, we will have to build a menu of quizzes to include some really challenging ones!
We will instal the touch screen in the current museum in a few weeks time, when we have got a good range of material ready to display, and when we can prise it away from the Fund Raising team who are finding in a great asset in their presentations.
We expect to have three touch screens in the new museum when it opens in 2015, since we expect they will be very popular with visitors.