29 May 2015
British Museum provides after-hours tour using Periscope app
BY Tom Anstey
The British Museum has conducted an online tour of its ancient Greek exhibition using the live-streaming app Periscope.
Periscope, a Twitter-backed app which launched on iOS in March and made its Android debut in the last week, allows anyone to stream live video from a smartphone or tablet to the internet. Users watching the live feed can leave comments via their personal Twitter account, which appear on the broadcast for everyone, including the streamer, to see and respond to.
Conducted at 6:30pm GMT on 28 May, British historian and TV presenter Dan Snow narrated the tour of Defining beauty: the body in ancient Greek art, responding to viewers’ questions live as he explored the exhibition. At the end of the tour, Snow conducted a one-off interactive Q&A with exhibition curator Ian Jenkins.
To join in with the broadcast, users had to follow the British Museum @BritishMuseum on Twitter, adding the institution to a list of Periscope contacts. The 30-minute broadcast has been made available for a period of 24 hours after the live airing.
"As a museum of the world for the world, we are always looking to experiment with new ways to share our exhibitions with the world, both the huge audiences who do visit us, and the audiences that cannot,” said Chris Michaels, head of digital and publishing at the British Museum.
“Mobile technology and social media offer incredible ways to do that, and Periscope is a brilliant new innovation. The immediacy and intimacy of this way of broadcasting can help bring the wonder of Greek sculpture to a new audience."
Speaking to AM2, a representative of the museum said that more Periscope tours aren't currently in the works, but added further runs were a “definite possibility”.
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