Forestry Commission Wales Audio Donation Box 2011

The Forestry Commission, Wales approached blackbox-av requesting a special donation box for their one of their Visitor Centres, a box which played sound effects whenever a donation was made.

In response to this, we created the Audio Donation Box. Sensors sit inside a beautiful oak unit, with a vandal proof Perspex top and detect whenever a coin or note donation is made by a visitor and in response, plays a sound effect or message. A security sensor was also built in to alert staff to misuse and attempted theft further increasing the security of this durable yet simple and elegant device.

For the Forestry Commission, the audio used was the call of a Red Kite, a bird once common to Britain though nearly exterminated hundreds of years ago due to its reputation as a pest. Since then, people determined not to see this impressive bird vanish from our land carefully bred and reintroduced Kites to the wild. The Forestry Commission themselves are working with charities such as the RSPB and the Welsh Kite Trust to secure nesting sites for these birds as well as to provide a place where people can experience them in their natural habitat.

The Audio Donation Box not only draws more attention to itself through sound, encouraging donation through action and reaction, it can also educate visitors about the Kite so they know what to listen out for when exploring the site and to be aware of and appreciate the work these people carry out.