Mary Rose Museum

Case Studies

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Project Overview

Client: Mary Rose Museum, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard

Location: HM Naval Base, Portsmouth

Sector: Heritage, Culture & Education

Scope: Intelligent Wi-Fi | Interactive Exhibits Connectivity | Operational Systems | Secure Network Design

Core Focus: Delivering a reliable, discreet digital backbone to support education, interpretation, and museum operations

The Mary Rose Museum is home to one of the world’s most important maritime artefacts — Henry VIII’s flagship, raised from the seabed after more than 400 years. The museum combines cutting-edge conservation science with immersive storytelling, relying heavily on digital systems to educate, engage, and protect.

The Challange

Unlike a conventional public venue, the Mary Rose Museum’s requirements went far beyond providing basic visitor connectivity.

The museum needed a wireless infrastructure that could:

Reliably support interactive exhibits, multimedia displays, and educational resources

Provide secure connectivity for museum control and monitoring systems

Operate within a highly sensitive conservation environment, where interference, heat, and disruption must be minimised

Remain largely invisible, preserving the aesthetic and historical integrity of the space

Deliver consistent, predictable performance, as digital systems form a core part of the visitor experience

In this environment, Wi-Fi was not a convenience — it was mission-critical infrastructure.

Our Approach

Cyber Ware designed the Wi-Fi solution as a core operational platform, not a guest network.

We began with detailed planning to understand the physical structure of the building, exhibit layouts, materials, and interference risks. Particular care was taken to ensure the deployment would not impact conservation conditions or the visual experience of visitors.

Key principles of our approach included:

Designing Wi-Fi specifically to support educational content, interactive exhibits, and digital interpretation

Segregating operational traffic to ensure security, stability, and compliance

Ensuring discreet access point placement to maintain the museum’s visual integrity

Building resilience into the network to support continuous daily operation

Aligning the solution with ISO-aligned security and operational standards

Rather than layering technology on top of the building, we engineered the network to become a quiet, dependable foundation for the museum’s digital storytelling.

The Outcome

The result is a wireless network that visitors rarely notice — yet experience constantly.

Wi-Fi now underpins the museum’s interactive exhibits, educational resources, and immersive multimedia, enabling visitors to engage deeply with the story of the Mary Rose through digital interpretation and hands-on learning.

At the same time, the same infrastructure supports operational and control systems, providing staff with secure, reliable connectivity essential to the day-to-day running of the museum.

Key outcomes include:

Consistent, reliable connectivity for interactive and educational exhibits

Seamless operation of digital interpretation systems throughout the museum

Secure support for operational and monitoring systems

Discreet infrastructure that preserves the historic and visual environment

Future-ready foundations, allowing new exhibits and technologies to be added without disruption

By treating Wi-Fi as an operational platform rather than a guest service, Cyber Ware helped the Mary Rose Museum deliver a modern, engaging visitor experience while safeguarding one of the UK’s most important heritage assets.

Solution Architecture (at a glance)

Purpose-designed wireless network for education and interpretation systems

Segmented networks for operational, exhibit, and management traffic

Discreet access point placement aligned with conservation requirements

Secure, standards-aligned network architecture

Centralised monitoring and management

Scalable design to support future exhibits and technologies

From Challenge to Solution

At the Mary Rose Museum, the challenge was clear: how to deliver modern, digital engagement without compromising history, conservation, or reliability.

Cyber Ware delivered a solution where technology quietly enables storytelling, education, and operations — proving that even the most sensitive heritage environments can be digitally empowered when connectivity is designed with care, expertise, and respect for place.