AudioSign Turn – Moreton Island, Queensland

One hour off the coast of the Queensland Capital Brisbane is Moreton Island. It’s a Sand Island and is 71.8 square miles in size, it’s almost entirely a National Park and travel on the Island is only possible via four wheel drive vehicles. With only a small local population, Moreton is mainly a popular destination for holiday makers, especially those with a love for the outdoors with fishing, camping and whale watching amongst the activities on offer.

Focus Productions are our distributor in Australia and they were recently awarded a project to improve the visitor centre on Moreton Island.

Behind Panel U-Turn Round

The Moreton Visitor Centre is perched upon a hill right on the cape near the lighthouse. Its position means it often gets hammered by salt, sun, rain and wind. Although it has a roof and walls it isn’t completely locked up which means anything inside will still be exposed to the elements. Temperatures reach over 40°C daily and there’s regular tropical thunderstorms which bring the salt air in to settle within the Centre. The site only has access to limited solar power and the displays do not receive regular maintenance.

This meant that any interpretation hardware used inside the visitor centre needed to be resistant to the elements, and due to the limited power options at the location, self powered if possible. The client was very specific that all displays had to require minimal power and have high durability, with the end goal of having an interpretation panel that allowed visitors to learn about and sample some local bird calls. In essence they wanted an audio sign.

The client desperately wanted some interactive displays on the location, but given the challenges believed it not feasible, however when Focus Productions showed them the U-Turn they loved it immediately. The AudioSign Turn combines the U-Turn with signage and can be installed into custom interpretation panels, allowing the addition of audio to correspond with the graphics of the sign. Being weather resistant and powered through the winding of its handle makes the device perfect for outdoor use although also great for use indoors, with this the core brief for the project it was the obvious choice.

The audio interpretation panel was designed so it would exactly mirror the style of those around it. The UTR was built seamlessly into the panel and now informs visitors about the local bird life they can find on the island.

Adding an audio aspect to normal signage has really improved the visitor experience and created a certain level of interactivity due to the nature of the U-Turn. Both Focus Productions and the client were more than pleased with the results.