How Paris Brings Court Culture to Life Today

The Hôtel de la Marine in Paris demonstrates just how engaging and entertaining experiencing history can be. For the newly opened museum, tonwelt’s French subsidiary RSF has developed an immersive audio guide. Here, technological innovation and storytelling work together so seamlessly that visitors can fully immerse themselves in the history of the city palace – and even feel as though they have become part of the story themselves.

It belongs to an ensemble of global significance: the Neoclassical Hôtel de la Marine in Paris, designed in the 18th century by First Architect to the King, Ange-Jacques Gabriel. However, the importance of this palace in the heart of the French capital is not based solely on its almost 200-year role as the Ministry of the Navy, from which it takes its name.

Until 1798, the building served as the Garde-Meuble de la Couronne, the official royal furniture repository, and was therefore part of the French Crown’s treasury. It housed not only the royal collections of furniture and decorative arts, but also jewellery and precious stones, state gifts, tapestries and ceremonial armour.

The complex at the Place de la Concorde also included offices, workshops, apartments, ceremonial rooms and, last but not least, the residence of the institution’s royal administrator.

Since April 2021, the monument has once again been open to the public following a four-year restoration project. The Centre des monuments nationaux, France’s state authority responsible for managing national monuments, carried out an extensive restoration and renovation programme costing an impressive €132 million.

The lavish 18th-century apartments, 19th-century reception rooms and a ballroom were opened to visitors in April 2021 and now tell the story of this emblematic building.

The interpretation follows a living history approach, as museums have long become part of the cultural landscape and must compete with other leisure and entertainment experiences. At the Hôtel de la Marine, visitors do not discover the past solely through exhibits, but through experiencing it almost as if they were present themselves.

The rooms have therefore been authentically furnished with furniture from state collections and the art market, as well as historical textiles and silk wall coverings. The aim was to recreate the atmosphere of lived-in spaces.

The dining room presents the scene of a dinner: napkins are unfolded, glasses remain on the table and a jacket has casually been placed over a chair. Books lie open in the salon, and towels hang over the edge of the bathtub.

Could the owner of the residence, the royal furniture administrator Pierre-Elisabeth de Fontanieu, simply walk in at any moment?

To make the atmosphere within the rooms even more realistic, the Hôtel de la Marine also chose a state-of-the-art immersive audio guide headset.

Developed specifically for this museum, tonwelt subsidiary RSF from Toulouse (while tonwelt’s German headquarters are located in Berlin) created a revolutionary all-in-one headset with 3D sound that fundamentally transforms the visitor experience.

The interactive tool is based on binaural recordings produced by Radio France.

“With our supraGuide SPHERIC, it is possible to create truly immersive experiences,” says tonwelt CEO Gürsan Acar. “It does not simply provide spatial sound; it gives users the feeling that they are actually present within the scene.

If someone whispers behind you, you genuinely feel that someone is standing there. However, when you turn around, nobody is visible.

This means that everything visitors cannot see with their eyes can now be experienced through sound. Thanks to the immersive headset, they become part of the events taking place around them.

The new technology stimulates creativity and imagination and brings museum spaces to life.

At the Hôtel de la Marine, for example, visitors move from the salon to the banquet hall, where a formal dinner is taking place. With every step into the room, more and more voices gradually become audible.”

With precisely tailored audiovisual content and visitor guidance solutions based on its own audio guides, multimedia guides and apps – all integrated within a comprehensive multiplatform approach – the international tonwelt Group has established itself as a successful provider in the museum sector and has equipped numerous museums and exhibition venues worldwide.

Its clients include the Louvre, the Kunsthaus Zürich, the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Documentation Centre on Flight, Expulsion, Reconciliation, the New-York Historical Society and the Jewish Museum.

For the Völklingen Ironworks, the Berlin-based company further developed its proven triggering and video synchronisation technologies. The automatic activation of content works with extremely high precision, while the multimedia guide reproduces the soundtrack with perfect lip synchronisation.

The starting point for the audio tours at the Hôtel de la Marine is the inner courtyard, which is now covered by a new pyramid-shaped glass roof measuring more than 300 square metres and made of laminated glass and mirrors.

The structure was designed by architect Hugh Dutton in close collaboration with Christophe Bottineau, chief architect responsible for France’s historic monuments.

Immediately upon entering the grand staircase, visitors encounter maritime scenes that recall the building’s second chapter as the headquarters of the French Navy, as explained by the audio guide.

Because the Navy administration had fundamentally altered both the decoration and organisation of the building, the aim of the restoration was to return the Hôtel de la Marine to its earlier appearance.

Extensive research was carried out in order to reconstruct the staircase and its decorative elements as accurately as possible.

Precision localisation creates a natural sound experience

During the creation of the audio guide for the Hôtel de la Marine, Atsavinn Panyasak provided consultancy and highlights the advantages of the system:

“The supraGuide SPHERIC is particularly attractive because it combines the technical complexity of a high-end audio player with the latest innovations in localisation technology.

This means that 3D audio events can be acoustically positioned at a specific point within a space.

Depending on the movement and viewing direction of the listener, the sound remains fixed in the same location within the room. Visitors therefore move intuitively through the soundscape.

There are no abrupt transitions; smooth sound changes are guaranteed.”

The headset can also be synchronised with external video installations.

In addition, the supraGuide SPHERIC is lightweight, completely wireless and offers a long operating time of up to 14 hours.

Finally, the expert in acoustic visitor guidance highlights another important advantage:

“The speakers positioned above the ears make it possible for users to continue communicating with each other, even while listening to music, audio dramas or soundscapes, without having to remove the headset.”

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ABSTRACT

How Paris brings courtly culture to life

The Hôtel de la Marine in Paris demonstrates how engaging and inspiring experiencing history can be. For the newly reopened museum, tonwelt’s French subsidiary RSF developed an immersive audio guide. By combining technological innovation with compelling storytelling, the solution allows visitors to fully immerse themselves in the history of the landmark building – and even feel as though they have become part of the story.

This text was originally published in German. The English translation provided here was generated using AI.