Legacy of the Titanic Brought to Life Like Never Before

The Titanic – one of the most famous ships ever built, and it’s subsequent tragedy, was a lesson to mankind’s own hubris and changed the shipping industry forever. But it was also a story of tremendous ambition, hope and bravery. This incredible story is retold at The Titanic Experience’s new walking tour in Belfast, produced by Antenna for the XP-Iris 2 multimedia player.

The tour features beautiful archive photos of the Titanic and tells the story of Belfast: why Titanic was built there, the people who built her, life on board and also the changes and advances that have been made as a result of the tragedy. It gives you the chance to listen to interviews with Titanic Historian Stephen Cameron and the voices of the crew who work on site at Titanic Belfast. The visual design of the tour has been inspired by the museum building itself and the images used throughout work to show how impressive a feat Titanic really was, evoking a sense of that time.

The building that houses the exhibition is featured on the new British national passport, which will begin to circulate in December this year. The tour features a video of the architect of the building sketching his inspirations, as well as a clip of the equipment used to discover and explore the sunken wreck.

In addition to an Adult Tour in 8 languages, the challenge was to engage younger visitors, who often miss the wealth of information the site has to offer. So Antenna designed a family tour to encourage their understanding of the site and of the Titanic story, addressing questions such as why did she sink and why was she made in the first place? The family tour has a really vibrant and elegant design and features lots of animations starring Titanic Belfast’s own caricatures. Though these characters had been developed for onsite signage some time ago, this was the first time that they had actually been animated, brought to life by Antenna and a fun script.

Another key challenge was how to explain the sinking of the ship to the kids without scaring them. Antenna’s writer, David McFetridge, came up with a really beautiful stop on the tour, describing the event in 37 seconds – the exact amount between the lookout spotting the iceberg and Titanic hitting it. You’ll get goose bumps every time you hear it!

As you progress through the tour, elements change – for example, on the main menu scroll down and the background moves from being a blue sky to the shipyard. There is also a quiz, interviews with men who worked in the Harland & Wolff shipyard (where Titanic was built), a content hotspot game and small family challenges to keep children engaged.

In addition to an Adult and a Family Tour, Antenna have also produced a Visually Impaired and a British Sign Language Tour.