Leicester Cathedral brings its story to life with first audio tour
Imagineear is proud to announce the launch of Leicester Cathedral’s first ever audio guide.
Located in the heart of the city, Leicester Cathedral is best known as the final resting place of King Richard III, whose remains were reinterred in the Cathedral’s nave in 2015. The audio guides are delivered on 50 Mirage™ devices, with a specialist audio descriptive tour for blind and partially sighted visitors on 5 Piccolo™ devices.
The guide was introduced as part of Leicester Cathedral’s reopening after a 22-month restoration and the construction of a new Heritage & Learning Centre. Following a competitive tender process, Imagineear was appointed to produce the Cathedral’s first audio guide. The Cathedral team viewed it as a key addition to the refreshed visitor offer, complementing the new facilities and interpretation on site. The tour highlights include the Tomb of King Richard III, the Redemption Windows and other stained glass inspired by the Arts and Craft movement as well as the story of the Cathedral and its architectural features.
Imagineear worked closely with the Cathedral to develop the content, blending a newly written script with expert interviews, historical insights, and original music composed and performed for Richard III’s reinterment service. A local voice narrates the tour, adding authenticity and a strong connection to the Cathedral’s story and its role as a centre of worship and community life.
The Very Revd Karen Rooms, Dean of Leicester, said “We are delighted to have worked with Imagineear on our new audio guide, giving visitors an engaging and personal experience as they visit and hear the stories of Leicester.”
As Leicester Cathedral begins its next chapter, Imagineear is delighted to help bring its heritage to life for current and future visitors.
Inside Grayson Perry’s powerful “Delusions of Grandeur” at the Wallace Collection
On the occasion of Grayson Perry’s 65th birthday, the Wallace Collection unveiled Delusions of Grandeur – its largest and most ambitious contemporary exhibition to date.
This temporary show is a rich and provocative testament to Perry’s imagination, blending satire, auto-biography, and a deep engagement with history and craft.
At the centre of the exhibition is Shirley Smith, a fictional, impoverished artist from London’s East End. A survivor of trauma and mental illness, Shirley serves as Perry’s invented counterpart and a vessel for exploring layered themes of identity, class, biography, and emotional resilience. The exhibition, Perry explains, is a kind of portal “where there are shifting layers of authenticity, of history, biography and mental health.” His invitation to visitors is simple but profound: “Give yourself up, and you will enjoy it all the more”.
The exhibition spans a wide range of media; including tapestries, ceramics, silverwork, furniture, prints, and even a duvet cover. The works are often direct responses to pieces in the Wallace Collection itself. Fragonard’s famous The Swing, for example, is reimagined as a bold neon tapestry entitled Fascist Swing, stripped of its male figures and brimming with political and cultural commentary.
To bring Grayson Perry’s immersive vision to life, the Wallace Collection collaborated once again with Imagineear, its trusted partner in audio tour experiences. Using Imagineear’s robust Mirage™ device, the audio tour offers visitors a compelling and deeply personal way to engage with Perry’s work.
Having previously created audio tours for some of his earlier exhibitions, Perry was keen to do the same for Delusions of Grandeur. From the outset, the process was highly collaborative. Imagineear offered guidance to Perry and the Wallace Collection team on structure, how long the tour should be, how many stops to include, what kind of imagery to use, and how to shape the visitor experience. Together, they developed a set of questions that would guide the narrative.
The resulting audio guide is unlike any other. Perry is unscripted, spontaneous, and unfiltered, his voice leading visitors through the exhibition with the same wit, vulnerability, and insight found in his artworks. “This is the most personal tour we’ve ever worked on,” says Will Penswick, Project Manager at Imagineear, “and, in many ways, the most ambitious in terms of audio storytelling’’.
So how was this intimate tone achieved? The audio began as a recorded conversation between Grayson Perry and Dr Xavier Bray, Director of The Wallace Collection. In post-production, the team at Imagineear carefully edited the dialogue, reshaping it into a seamless monologue. The effect is one of Perry speaking directly to each visitor – an experience that feels natural, fluid, and deeply human.
While Perry’s voice is the primary guide, the audio tour introduces another character at key moments: Shirley Smith herself. Perry, though her creator, felt it wouldn’t be authentic to voice Shirley. He envisioned how she would sound – grounded in her imagined history and background. Imagineear then sourced a voice actress who could embody her fully. A recording session was arranged, and Shirley was brought vividly to life.
The audio experience is not just an addition to the exhibition – it’s integral to it. It doesn’t aim to be technically exhaustive or universally translatable. Instead, it tells a story with emotional honesty and creative daring. As Will puts it, “When you have an exhibition like Sir Grayson’s there is no need to embellish the work. You just help make space for their voice to be heard.’’
The Titanic arrives in Seattle…and Brisbane!
As the hugely successful Titanic. The Exhibition continues its journey around the world, Imagineear is proud to continue providing audioguide devices to its visitors.
Curated by Claes-Göran Wetterholm, the exhibition features carefully selected artefacts and personal stories that best convey the philosophy behind the display: fostering empathy and a sense of connection with all those aboard the ill-fated ship.
Imagineear has partnered with Musealia throughout the exhibition’s travels across Europe and America, and will continue to provide its audioguide devices as the exhibition arrives in Seattle.
One visitor, Leonardo T. said, ‘Great setting, full of original items from the passengers and crew. Audio is precise and full of information as well as curiosities. Definitely worth seeing.’
In addition, Titanic. The Human Story, recently opened in Brisbane, Australia, the first city to host the exhibition in Australia, which has already sold over 60,000 tickets in just a few weeks. ‘By focusing on the human aspect of the Titanic’s legacy, this exhibition introduces a fresh narrative that sheds light on previously untold stories of the Titanic’s passengers and crew’ said Luis Ferreiro, Director of Musealia.
This revamped version of Titanic. The Exhibition, has been in development for the past three years. Imagineear is supplying 600 handheld Mirage™ devices, 3 Audio Visual Sync stops, and an Imagineear Web App, enabling visitors to access the audio content on their own smartphones.
Imagineear’s partnership with the Rijksmuseum continues
Imagineear is proud to count the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, as a client and this long-standing partnership has grown substantially with the delivery of 900 of Imagineear’s Maestro™ multimedia guide devices, bringing the total to 1,200 devices on-site.
The Maestro™ is Imagineear’s most sophisticated handheld multimedia device delivering high-impact, immersive visitor experiences. Beautifully designed, packed with innovative features and robustly engineered for high-volume, all-day operations, the Maestro™ also features an HD quality 5.5” touchscreen for speedily delivering crystal clear content.
The Rijksmuseum tour, delivered on the Maestro™, includes a rich variety of thematic audio and multimedia tours, as well as a highlights tour in 11 different languages, showcasing many of its 8,000 artworks, including masterpieces by Rembrandt, Vermeer and van Gogh.
“The Rijksmuseum is one of Imagineear’s most prestigious clients”, says Eleonore Heijboer, Imagineear’s MD Europe. “We are extremely proud that Imagineear’s Maestro™ devices, our newest and most advanced hardware, are now available to visitors using the great Rijksmuseum app.”
The Rijksmuseum’s current temporary exhibition, Frans Hals, Way ahead of his Time, is one that we highly recommend visiting. Be sure to experience the multimedia guide and try out the Maestro™ as you enjoy Hals’ unparalleled masterpieces as well as the rest of the galleries.
Imagineear adds prestigious American institution, The Peabody Essex Museum, to its American portfolio
Our American client list continues to grow and we are excited to now include The Peabody Essex Museum in our portfolio.
The Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, is one of the oldest continuously operating museums in the United States and holds one of the major collections of Asian art in the United States. Its total holdings include about 1.3 million pieces, as well as twenty-two historic buildings.
The Peabody Essex Museum chose Imagineear as successor to their previous audio guide provider, recognising our professionalism and ability to implement and deliver outstanding services and technical support, remotely.
Audio content is delivered to visitors via our intuitive Imagineear Web App (IWA) solution to their own smartphones or, alternatively, via our robust and reliable on-site device, the Mirage™.
Content is available in both English and Mandarin.
