The Universal Embed |

Say hello to our favorite new media feature, the universal embed.

What is the universal embed?

The CultureConnect platform now allows museum teams to add third-party interactive media to applications including in-gallery kiosks, web experiences, and mobile guides. Third-party interactive media is content that is hosted on another site or platform and is shareable through a link or embedded code. Embedded media includes:

GIS maps
Spotify playlists
Podcasts
Live Webcam Feeds
360 and 3D Videos
…and more!

Why You’ll Love It:

Fulfills the “Create Once, Publish Anywhere” philosophy that’s essential for today’s content production demands.
No need to create all content from scratch for a given application – instead, leverage your existing GIS maps, podcasts, videos and more.
Create a single content experience and deploy it across multiple applications. For example, create a Spotify playlist once and embed it on any page or any application where visitors can listen.
Easy-to-use, non-technical process for embedding third-party media means you can easily share, grow, and evolve this content.

Embedded dynamic content allows museums to take advantage of a broad range of media types and content. Museum interpretation is now able to go beyond traditional content production costs and processes to incorporate:

Any web-based, publicly available content
Non-traditional media
Crowd-sourced content

Enhancing Audio Experiences

Embedding playlists and podcasts has helped CultureConnect platform users to share albums, tracks, artists, interviews, and more. These dynamic content experiences help visitors connect museum interpretation with known entertainment channels. Adding audio to interpretive content gives context, makes complex stories relatable and the learning experience more immersive. It’s also a great opportunity to showcase museum content that’s being shared on other platforms and available for public consumption even when visitors are not onsite.

Deep Dive: Spotify Playlists & Podcasts

In the examples above, a museum exhibition focuses on the profound impact music has had on painters in the 19th and 20th centuries. Historically, visitors would have had to pick up wands in the exhibition space to hear music or interviews as they viewed the artwork. With this innovative approach, visitors are able to listen to the composers and musicians on their phone in front of the artwork, listen to more in-depth playlists or podcast presentations, and share those playlists should they want to return and listen later.

Way-finding Partnered with Exploration

We love maps at CultureConnect and we’re always looking for opportunities to expand location-based learning. Many of our parks and gardens, historic sites, and tourism organizations harness the power of GIS mapping to tell location-based stories. Now teams can bring GIS maps into their applications to offer visitors different modes of exploration.

What is a GIS Map?

A Geographic Information Systems (GIS) map captures and displays data related to a location. GIS maps are an interactive and engaging way to translate complex information to audiences. They make data easily digestible and visually arresting. However, GIS maps can often lack flexibility around depth of story and modes of learning so if the entire story is not location-based, it’s not always easy to present your audience with the full story.

Deep Dive: GIS Maps

In the example above, a public park helps visitors explore the grounds based on interest. Visitors are welcome to explore via the GIS map or begin their journey by selecting a few well-known landmarks. Additionally, they can choose to become a member of the park or support the park through volunteer opportunities, donations, and more. The application is fully responsive so visitors can access the app on their laptops at home while planning their trip or on their phone inside the park.

Virtual 360 & 3D Tours

Virtual 360 & 3D tours are incredibly powerful for connecting audiences with physical spaces. The most common reasons for CultureConnect platform users to deploy 360 & 3D tours include:

Off-season exploration of parks and gardens
Reaching out-of-state or out-of-country audiences
Accessibility for historic homes and sites

There are many reasons visitors may not be able to explore your site in-person ranging from geographic location, mobility obstacles, structural safety, and more. Including a 360 or 3D virtual tour in a mobile guide, online exhibition, or distance learning application means your team can join onsite exploration with multimodal interpretation to truly bring your organization’s story to life.

Deep Dive: Virtual Tour Embeds

In the digital interactive example above, an historic home explores the family history, architectural plans, and a 360 Virtual Tour. When users tap on the 360 Virtual Tour, they can explore an interactive 3D experience room-by-room while leveraging all the features that the third-party virtual tour platform offers. For example, Matterport has many advanced features and interactive capabilities that are available with the embed in the CultureConnect app.

How to set it up in the CMS

Already a CultureConnect platform user? We have great news, setting up a third-party embed is as simple as uploading an image to the Media Gallery. Navigate to the Media Gallery, look for the “Third Party Embed” tab. Here you can paste your embedded code or link into the “IFrame Tag” field. Click the “Add Embed” button and your new interactive media is ready!

Third Party Embeds can be added to the body content of a content page in any application type using the Inline Media tool. Like other inline media, you can embed as many pieces of content as needed and intersperse text. Third Party Embeds can be deleted, copied, or moved to other applications in your account.

We’d love to see your app upgrades using the Universal Embed! Reach out to your support team to show us how you’re upgrading your apps.

Not a platform user?

Connect with the CultureConnect team to learn more about the platform here or by emailing hello@cultureconnectme.com