Museums · 2025

Murmansk Regional Museum

Museums / Murmansk Regional Museum

About the project

Software for 56 multimedia installations at the renovated Murmansk Regional Museum: touch screens, projections, VR stations, a ship’s wheelhouse and Morse code in 13 of its 14 halls.

On 17 March 2025, after a reconstruction that began in 2019, the Murmansk Regional Museum reopened in its 1937 building on Lenin Avenue. The new exhibition, set out in 14 halls over three floors, runs from the archaeology, geology and nature of the Kola Peninsula through the Sami and the Pomors, the development of the North and the Arctic, the Great Patriotic War and the post-war years to the region’s economy today.

The exhibition itself — the sets, showcases and artistic design — was created by another company. We made the software for 56 multimedia installations in 13 halls: touch screens and touch tables, interactive projections, screens on rails along the showcases, VR stations and interactives with physical controls — buttons, a ship’s wheel, a telegraph key and cards.

Year

2025

Industry

Museums

Scope of work

56 multimedia installations in 13 halls

Venue

Murmansk Regional Museum, Murmansk

56
multimedia installations: 13 of 14
halls with our installations: 17.03.2025
museum reopens after reconstruction

“Kola Fortress”: on the wall behind the model, a plan of the ostrog, a British flag and sailing ships

The task

The technical specification breaks the exhibition down into display units, and almost every unit has its own hardware and software system: a screen, a projection or a sensor, and its own scenario. In some places the visitor reads a label on a screen, in others controls a projection, in others plays a game. For each system we had to build an application with materials on the unit’s topic, install it on site and make the museum’s revisions.

What we did

Archaeology

A projected map of archaeological sites and the history of their study, controlled from a touch table beside it. The wide touch screen “Kola Oleneostrovsky burial ground”. The showcase “The Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age” with a projection onto matte film: the visitor touches the outline of an object, and a story about the era begins.

Interface of the showcase “The Mesolithic, Neolithic and Bronze Age”

Archaeology hall: a showcase with finds in the foreground; at the back, on the wall, a projection of the map of archaeological sites and a touch table — Archaeology hall: at the back, the projected map of archaeological sites of the Murmansk Region, with a touch table in front of it

A wide touch screen in the wall: the heading “Kola Oleneostrovsky burial ground”, text and a landscape of the island — Archaeology: the wide touch screen “Kola Oleneostrovsky burial ground”

A touch table in a stone plinth: on the screen, a map of the Kola Peninsula and a portrait of a researcher; on the wall behind the table, a projection — Archaeology: the touch table that controls the projected map of archaeological sites

Geology

A projection onto a relief map of the Kola Peninsula set in a “rock”: on a touch screen the visitor chooses one of five maps — physical, climatic, inland waters, relief or natural zones. “The Earth’s inner structure” is a round projection onto fabric in a “porthole”: a Kinect Azure sensor responds to how deeply the fabric is pressed, and the projection shows the layers of the Earth with their depths and temperatures.

Projection onto the map of the peninsula in the “rock” and the map choice screen

Map choice interface: physical, climatic, inland waters, relief, natural zones

Round projection in the “porthole” of an artificial rock: a cross-section of the Earth, the labels “Lower mantle” and “3700 °C” — Geology: “The Earth’s inner structure” — a round projection in the “porthole”, the “Lower mantle” layer

Taiga

Touch tables by the dioramas — “Seasons”, “Elk” (“Sparse taiga”) and “River valley”. Three VR stations, “See through the eyes of…”, show the world through the eyes of an eagle, a wolf and a fish.

Interface of the “Seasons” touch table: spring

A touch table with the “River valley” start screen in front of a diorama — Taiga: the “River valley” touch table by the diorama

The “Sparse taiga” touch table in front of a diorama with elk — Taiga: the “Sparse taiga” touch table by the diorama with elk

A touch table in a wooden frame by a diorama; on the screen, the “Seasons” start screen with landscapes of the four seasons — Taiga: the “Seasons” touch table by the diorama

Tundra

Three touch-screen “scanners” travel along a rail beside a long tundra showcase. “The Red Book” is a projection of a book whose pages are turned with gestures. “Bird colony” and “Seals” are touch tables by the dioramas.

A touch screen with the “Tundra” start screen on a rail along the showcase; at the back, a touch table by the bird colony diorama — Tundra: a touch-screen “scanner” on a rail along the showcase, with the “Bird colonies” table at the back

“The Red Book”: a projected double-page spread, the pages are turned with gestures

Interface of the “Bird colonies” touch table

A touch table with the “Bird colonies” start screen in front of a diorama of cliffs with seabirds — “Bird colonies”: a touch table by the diorama

Seas

“Map of the seas” is a projection from the ceiling onto a round table, controlled from touch panels at the table. “Whale corner” is a projection on the wall with a console of 14 buttons, one per species, from the bowhead whale to the sperm whale. “Look into the depths of the seas” is three VR stations in diving helmets. “Wildlife of the Barents Sea” is four touch screens on rails along a diorama of the seabed: each screen repeats in graphics what is behind the glass, and a touch opens a story about the creature.

Interface of the “Map of the seas”: the Barents Sea and the control panel

Interface of “Whale corner”: the bowhead whale

Interface of the “Living nature of the Barents Sea” screens by the seabed diorama

Three touch screens on rails in front of a diorama of the seabed with fish and seaweed — Seas hall: screens on rails along the seabed diorama, showing “Living nature of the Barents Sea”

The Sami

A projected map of Sami settlements — winter and summer pogosts, Russian villages — with a touch console; the touch screens “Fishing”, “Reindeer herding” and “Religion, transport, hunting and gathering” set in “stones” by the showcases.

Interface of the map of Sami settlements

Sami hall: a touch screen in a “stone” by a showcase with a reindeer; on the right, a screen in the plinth of a showcase with a model — The Sami: touch screens in a “stone” and in a showcase plinth

A projected map of the Kola Peninsula with coloured areas on the wall behind a tree, with a touch console below it; on the left, a showcase with Sami costumes — The Sami: the projected map of Sami settlements and the touch console

The Pomors

“Kola Fortress”: two projectors display graphics and animation on a model of the fortress and on the wall behind it; the show is started with a button.

Development of the North, 1920s–1930s

An interactive timeline projection of the 1920s–1930s. A full-size “Wheelhouse” of the fishing trawler RT-29 “Kirov”: four screens in place of the wheelhouse windows, a ship’s wheel and buttons; the screens show the sea, the ship’s crew and the commercial fish of the Barents Sea. “Mining industry” is a projection with an interactive video about pouring nickel matte, together with the touch screen “Non-ferrous metallurgy” by a showcase. The touch screens “Murmansk District within the Leningrad Region”, “The beginning of the development of the North”, “The fishing industry and the railway” and “Rebuilding the armed forces”.

The wheelhouse of the trawler RT-29 “Kirov”: screens in place of windows, a visitor at the console with the ship’s wheel

A tilted touch screen with the heading “Non-ferrous metallurgy” and four round sections — Development of the North: the “Non-ferrous metallurgy” touch screen by a showcase

Development of the Arctic

“Morse code” is a game with a telegraph key: the visitor chooses a character and taps out their message. A 55″ vertical touch screen “Polar aviation”, the touch table “Shipping and the Soviet–Finnish War”, and the “Urban development” screen in an advertising column — Murmansk year by year, from 1930 to 1941.

“Morse code”: the game screen and the telegraph key

“Urban development”: the screen in the advertising column, 1930

A touch table beneath a ship’s wheel; on the screen, “Murmansk Region in 1939–1940” with text and a photograph — Development of the Arctic: the touch table “Shipping and the Soviet–Finnish War”, the section “Murmansk Region in 1939–1940”

The Great Patriotic War

“Plan Barbarossa” is a vertical touch screen set into a wall with a map: six sections, from “The blitzkrieg plan in the North” and “The forces of the two sides” through operations Renntier, Platinfuchs and Polarfuchs to “The failure of the blitzkrieg in the North”; each section is a short animation on the map. The projection “Historical footage”. Two “Defence of the Arctic” screens: the second holds the recollections of those who fought, each opened by touching a folded triangular wartime letter. The touch screens “Positional warfare” (the fleet and the Northern Defence Area, aviation, partisans, reindeer transport units), “The home front for the front line”, “Lend-Lease” and “Medical squads” with the game “Pack the medic’s bag”. A projection outside the window of a wartime flat.

“Recollections of combatants”: triangular letters on the screen

Interface of the touch screen “The home front for the front line”

The “Defence of the Arctic” touch screen: a carousel of sections, with “Results of the 1941 defensive operation in the Arctic” in the centre — The Great Patriotic War: the “Defence of the Arctic” touch screen

War hall: an anti-aircraft gun and the figure of a pilot, with a touch screen on a lectern beside them; in the foreground, a touch table with the sections “Partisans” and “Reindeer transport” — “Positional warfare”: touch screens by the figure of the pilot, the nearest one showing the sections “Partisans” and “Reindeer transport”

A room in a wartime flat: a shelf unit, a table and chairs; outside the window, a black-and-white projection of a snow-covered courtyard — The wartime flat: a projection of a snow-covered courtyard outside the window

Victory in the Arctic

“Search teams” is a 43″ touch pylon across which cards of the teams and their members “fly”. In “Faces of Victory”, photographs of heroes fly out onto the wall; a hero is chosen on a touch screen, and their card opens up on the wall. The touch screen “Norwegian patriots and the liberation of Norway” and two projections, “The Petsamo–Kirkenes Operation”, started with a button.

The post-war years

The touch screens “Reconstruction and construction”, “Industry and development” — a map of the region’s enterprises — and “Everyday life” in the interior of a Soviet flat.

A touch table with a map of the Murmansk Region and a list of enterprises, with the “Post-war reconstruction” showcase behind it — The post-war years: the touch table “Industry of the Murmansk Region in the post-war period” with a map of enterprises

A room in a Soviet flat: a fridge and a piano, with a touch table in a wooden case between them showing family photographs on the screen — The post-war years: the “Everyday life” touch table in the interior of a Soviet flat

Economy

A projection wall with a card index: the visitor places a card against a marker, and a video starts on the wall — education, culture, science, sport, the Sami, the future of the region. “Photomechanics of a profession” is a vertical touch screen with a camera: the visitor chooses a profession, the camera takes their picture, and their face appears in the guise of a person in that profession; the picture can be downloaded to a phone via a QR code.

Interface of “Photomechanics of a profession”: “Professions of the Murmansk Region”

How it is built

Under the technical specification: touch screens from 24 to 55″, Optoma laser projectors (ZU720TST, ZU606TSTx, ZU500USTe, ZU606Te), nettops and computers with GeForce RTX 3060 graphics cards, VR headsets, a Kinect Azure sensor, a Logitech Brio camera, RFID tags for the cards.

Screens on rails in the tundra and seas halls: sensors determine the position of each screen on its guide rail, and the application shows the part of the showcase that the screen is facing.

Physical controls: buttons at the whale, the fortress and “Petsamo”, the ship’s wheel and buttons in the wheelhouse, the telegraph key, RFID-tagged cards in the card index.

Every workstation has remote access.

Result

The installations were completed between December 2024 and April 2025. The museum opened on 17 March 2025; from March to November 2025 it welcomed more than 100,000 visitors.

Our installations along the exhibition route: the whale, the seas hall, archaeology, taiga and tundra, geology, the Sami, the Pomors, the war, the economy

Seas hall: a round table with a projected map and a touch panel, showcases on “stones”, and along the wall a seabed diorama with screens — General view of the seas hall: “Map of the seas” on the round table, screens on rails along the diorama

Taiga hall: a path between dioramas with elk and birds, touch tables by the dioramas — General view of the taiga hall: touch tables by the dioramas

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