The seventh MuseumDigit conference once again gave opportunity for tech and creative industry companies working both in Hungary and abroad in the field of cultural and IT development, art protection solutions and scientific research to present themselves to the public. The conference was held at the Hungarian National Museum, in the splendid Great Hall and the adjacent Dome Hall, highlighting the role of the event and the reputation of the exhibiting companies.

Exhibitors in the Dome Hall		Digitisation platform by Tripont Ltd.

Among the 12 companies and 2 organizations, Hewlett Packard Enterprise was present as a major sponsor, giving a presentation with the Kiskőrös Museum of Road History on the simple but versatile use of the Aruba Meridian application. The quick and easy installation of the Aruba technology allowed conference participants to try the application on their own phone while visiting the conference venues.

Coffee break chat with exhibitors		HPE introducing its Aruba application

MuseumDigit’s long-time supporting partner is Tripont Ltd., which set up a digitalization studio with the latest photography and scanning tools. The management of the Hungarian company, as well as the regional representative of the world-renowned Phase One photography company, consider it important that the technology should be known not only as an exhibition item, but also what benefits it brings to museums. Eric Joakim, a London expert from the company, came to talk and give a workshop on Phase One iXG multispectral imaging system.

SZTAKI's AR glasses		AR field trip with ARWorks

Among the exhibiting companies, AR (Augmented Reality) solutions were numerous, reflecting its many uses in cultural institutions. The conference's key partner, Histovery presented Histopad, the tablet-based application developed specifically for exhibitions and venues helping visitors to learn about the hidden life beneath stones. Augmented reality works with special glasses, too. ARWorks exhibited special glasses which made it possible to crawl in a space created by an outdoor table, and at the SZTAKI exhibition you could roam the Iron Age sites of Hungary and neighbouring countries. AR needs no special devices, as evidenced by the ArtiVive application with which you can animate and bring finished artwork, primarily paintings and graphics to life with your own smartphone. 

AR solutions by DeeAR		Welcome to Locbee

Companies working on visitor experience enhancements, such as the Museum Atlas or DeeAR offer an application to help museums display their collections in the most up-to-date and spectacular way possible. Locbee, an expert in mobile IT development, was the first to set up his digital exhibit management system and exhibited his findings several times at MuseumDigit. XORXOR has already cooperated in numerous interactive exhibitions with museums and participated in creating custom-built installations. They showcased their playful operation and immersive visual world at their exhibition.

Museums also have an important role in managing, cataloguing and continuously digitizing their collections. QULTO provides IT support for institutions. Proper storage and transportation of collections is another important area. In many cases, storage conditions are affected by environmental influences. Testo can help you monitor and control these with technology tools. In the transportation field, PreservArt brought its international and in-house art protection offerings and related services.

MuseumDigit provides education opportunities, too. Tempus Foundation came to encourage museum professionals to apply for international grants and further education opportunities available to them.

The Múzeum Atlasz prize goes to Kalocsa		Present from HPE Aruba and OMMIK goes to the Museum of Natural Sciences

The conference event also saw a prize giveaway where the valuable awards were offered by the exhibiting companies. Among these, a 6-month subscription to Museum Atlas from Corneus Technology Ltd., Hewlett Packard Enterprise's Aruba Instant ON wireless access point, ArtiVive's AR application service, and an ever-useful USD stick from QULTO. We also gave away the MuseumDigit Special Prize, a free entry to next year's MuseumDigit conference.