The Offshore Experience

The hard but unknown world of "De Offshore" is brought to life in the new experience of the Rotterdam Maritime Museum. A particularly successful project in terms of cooperation and end result.

Sporting a safety vest and a helmet, visitors imagine themselves on board of an off-shore platform in the middle of the sea. Visitors are invited to test and contemplate energy supplies of the future with the aid of around ten simulations, the spectacular work of helicopter pilots, divers and wind mill specialists. The extreme sea weather is the most challenging part of this type of work. Professions in this sector are extremely demanding due to the hard wind and very high waves.

A 360-degree film projection will incite the visitors' senses. Ships come and go and helicopters land on the designated platforms. An impressive world out at sea where an important part of our energy production takes place. Oil, gas and wind are gained at sea. Many visitors often do not realize what exactly takes place on the various platforms. During interactive challenges an "offshore-pass" will register how suitable visitors are, for example, for deep sea drilling or for maintaining a ship's location at wind force 10. Visitors descend to a depth of three kilometres below the sea surface in an elevator, and arrive in a dark area where they can enjoy 3D projections of submarine robots, deep sea fauna and objects in actual size in silence. In the final area of the Offshore Experience, visitors discover whether they are suitable for the sector on a reading of the data on the RFID card. The journey comes to an end in the future. Visitors will then be able to vote on the best durable idea for energy production at sea. The ideas could be from professional engineers in the offshore world or perhaps an eight-year-old pupil.

The Maritime Museum of Rotterdam managed to gather a very suitable team for this tough high-tech project. We developed this complex and top of the range exhibition together with Kossmann.dejong on the basis of intensive design & build. Robust show control systems, triggers. A time controlled show with light, sound and images in a 3-dimensional world of yellow steel and very robust hands-on devices and exhibits. Everything was developed, engineered and produced in a durable manner with much attention to precision.

The Offshore Experience is a great success! On average, twice as much visitors attended the exhibition in the first few months, and people were lining up to get in during the vacation period. Due to the high amount of visitors, the Maritime Museum decided to close the museum one hour later during spring break.