STELJES CASE STUDY TRANSPORT

CHALLENGE Equipping a newly-refurbished London Transport Museum education and meeting facility An Education and Business Solution with a collaboration system capable of meeting the needs London Transport Museum is one of as well as meeting the needs of corporate of both education and London’s most popular visitor attractions, users, the Museum was keen to augment corporate users. located in London’s Covent Garden and its learning and meeting facilities with welcoming over 250,000 visitors a year. the right collaboration technologies. In SOLUTION As a charity, the museum’s purpose is doing so, the required solution had to be A SMART Board® 885ix interactive to conserve and explain the history of quick and intuitive for visitors to use. It whiteboard with both Notebook™ London’s transport and engage in the had to be versatile enough to work within software for education and debate about its future. The museum the constraints of space in the Museum, Meeting Pro™ software welcomes thousands of education visits located in the former Victorian Flower for business. every year, with children of all ages Market in Covent Garden, a Grade II benefitting from curriculum-led activities. It listed building. Finally, it had to be flexible BENEFITS is also a popular venue for corporate users, enough to support the needs of both A versatile and popular solution, in whether for daytime business meetings or school groups of all ages and corporate constant use for school visits, evening hospitality. users, as well as for Museum management corporate hire and internal meetings. meetings. Following a two-year, £22 million refurbishment programme, the museum SMART Technologies: “SMART solutions are re-opened in 2007 with new galleries, The right solution a tremendous asset in more display space and a 100-seat For London Transport Museum, the ensuring the success of education room. The latest addition to solution to this challenging brief was our education programmes its education and corporate facilities is a a SMART Board 885ix interactive SMART Board® interactive whiteboard. whiteboard, complete with SMART and a great help in Notebook collaborative learning software engaging with students A need to improved education facilities for educational users and Meeting Pro and young people, using and have a more attractive offer for software for business users. In August our interactive, cirriculum- the corporate hire market. 2011, the SMART Board was installed The refurbishment programme has in the museum’s schools centre, which focused sessions.” delivered major improvements to the is located directly off the main galleries. Terry Eccles Head of Projects, facilities at the museum’s Covent Garden Terry Eccles of London Transport Contracts & Compliance home, including bigger and better galleries Museum explains why they chose SMART and display spaces, improved education Technologies: “There were a number of facilities and a more attractive offer for the reasons why a SMART Board was the right corporate hire market. solution for us. Firstly, it is a great choice for our education centre. It is a multi-use However, in order to provide the best space, but heavily used as part of the possible experience for educational visitors, museum’s schools programme which takes

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precedence on bookings. SMART Boards educational and corporate visitors alike. whiteboard gives the museum an are a more appropriate choice for working Our education centre, complete with advantage, as well as helping to ensure a with children than LCD or plasma screen SMART Board, is now part of the direct return on investment. “The space displays. The multi-touch capability on this hireable space here at the museum. What is used by corporate visitors who can hire model also allows two children to work is more, the Museum’s Board and senior the room. It wasn’t initially considered as together on the board at the same time.” management team have also made full hireable corporate space, so equipping it use of the SMART Board’s interactive with the SMART Board has helped us to “We welcome children of all ages to touchscreen capabilities for internal rent this room out for business users. It is the Museum, including primary school, meetings and presentations.” ideal for business users, whether it is for secondary school and Special Education presentations, meetings or brainstorming Needs students. The SMART Board is Rather than relying on conventional sessions. Importantly, corporate visitors used by the museum’s own educators or projectors and flipcharts, corporate can get to grips with the technology teachers accompanying school groups, visitors and Museum staff can now quickly and intuitively, without having to who can bring their own programme use touchscreen commands on the sit through a training session first.” content with them on a memory stick for interactive display, write in digital ink use in Notebook on the SMART Board. Of over any application, make notes that The SMART Board has also been very well course, it also has web-access, so online are recorded as they go, annotate received for internal meetings, as Terry material can be accessed.” However, images and amend wording in real time, explains: “We have a stakeholder group, the SMART Board is also used by generate and integrate data and instantly made up of corporate sponsors of the corporate visitors to the Museum, capture the flow of ideas. At the end of a museum, that make very good use of as well as by the museum itself for meeting, the results can then be instantly the room and its facilities, including the management meetings, thanks to its distributed to all participants. Terry also SMART Board. It has also been brilliant ability to run Meeting Pro, SMART’s notes the practical benefits of the SMART for internal board and management software application specifically designed Board’s ultra-short-throw projector: “The meetings and discussions. Everyone took for business. “Running Notebook and SMART Board’s ultra-short-throw projector to the technology very quickly and we Meeting Pro means that we have a is a great benefit, due to the constraints are making really good use of it as a flexible solution capable of being used by of the space available. Because the collaboration tool.” For education visits, distance between the projector and screen the SMART Board provides a seamless is so small, is it a very flexible product extension to the SMART Boards that where space is limited. For us, it was the many pupils and teachers know well from ideal solution.” their own classrooms, as Terry explains: “The education space is constantly Steljes Limited A valuable asset for all groups using booked out, with both overall visitor Bagshot Manor, the museum’s facilities. and school visit numbers on the up. The Green Lane, Bagshot, Since being installed in August 2011, benefits of the SMART Board for school Surrey, GU19 5NL London Transport Museum’s SMART visits are exactly the same as the benefits Board is proving to be a valuable asset in the classroom, particularly the ability for all groups using the museum’s for children to work together on the facilities. The income stream from SMART Board and using our resources corporate hire is very important to in a fully interactive environment. It is a Tel: 08450 724810 the financial health of the museum. tremendous asset in ensuring the success Email: [email protected] In London’s competitive market for of our education programmes and a Web: www.steljes.com corporate facilities, the ability to offer great help in engaging with students a cutting-edge collaboration solution in and young people, using our interactive, the form of a SMART Board interactive curriculum-focused sessions.”

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