The Conveyor software is being introduced to the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia through a generous grant from the American Express Foundation under its Cultural Heritage program theme. Along with the software, American Express also donated touch-screen computers to the National Museum during the inaugural launch last March 14.
The software was developed by the Regency Town House, a museum in Brighton, England, and adopted by other museums across the United Kingdom in 1999. It was designed to bring multimedia technology within the grasp of historic and cultural sites minus the high costs and complicated procedures of a multimedia presentation.
Museum workers can easily build presentations with step-by-step instructions from the Wizard interface leading them through the entire process. The Conveyor software uses Macromedia Director technology with built-in templates for graphics, text, audio and video clips. It can accommodate over two hundred records. The presentations allow museum visitors to have a bird’s eye view of the art collections, historical and cultural artifacts, and other specimens housed in a museum or gallery.
Elenita Alba, curator at the Museum Education Division (MED), says that one of the priorities is to distribute the Conveyor software to other museums in the country. It has already conducted a two-day workshop for representatives from the Ayala Museum, the Lopez Museum, the Philippine Foundation for Science and Technology, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, University of Santo Tomas Museum, the Armed Forces of the Philippines Museum and the Holy Cross of Davao Museum.
According to Larry Alba, head of the IT Unit, the National Museum acts as country-coordinator for the Philippines and facilitates the granting of licenses for the fully functional software. Since the software is intended for cultural and educational purposes only, a license is required if the products made through the software will be sold commercially.
The initial project for the Conveyor software is the Museum of the Filipino People Gallery Guide with the collaborative efforts of the Museum Education Division and the IT Unit. After the storyboard was developed, Nick Tyson, Conveyor director, assisted the team in choosing and putting together the digital assets or materials. The digitized images, text, audio and video clips were then inserted into the frames with the help of the Wizard interface. As of this writing, the Gallery Guide is being readied for public viewing through the information kiosks stationed at the Museum of the Filipino People. Eventually, the National Museum plans to distribute the Gallery Guide to schools and other educational institutions in CD-ROM format.
Visitors can point or click on the main navigation window of the Gallery Guide containing a row of movable images with icons representing the exhibit areas in the Museum. These areas include the San Diego I, II and III, Five Centuries of Maritime Trade, The Origin, Archeological Treasurers, Filipinos Today, and Clothing Tradition. It also has information on the museum’s souvenir shop, services and facilities, and other museums connected with the National Museum. Around 40 interactive areas can be defined on the initial level screen. Clicking on one of these icons, a sound file or voice-over and text display will greet visitors. Links in the text will take them to the second level screen with further information. Up to five separate screens of information can be created for a more enriching experience. The Gallery Guide also shows the exact location of each exhibit area and has a special section in store for kids.
A Filipino translation of the Museum of the Filipino People Gallery Guide is already in the works. The MED is also encouraging its other divisions to create their own presentations of the various disciplines housed under the National Museum, such as the Archeology, Zoology, Arts, and Botany Divisions.
For inquiries on how to avail of the software for a museum or gallery, write to Corazon Alvina, executive director, National Museum of the Philippines, P. Burgos St., Ermita, Manila and/or contact Elenita Alba at the Museum Education Division at (632) 527-02-78.
The Conveyor software runs on Pentium II PCs with Windows 95, 98, NT and Windows 2000 or Apple Macs with OS8.1 and higher. Log on to www.get conveyor.com. – NCCA Features