Cassettes with works by Emilios Riadis, posters and printed programs dedicated to musical evenings of previous decades, musical instruments with basic information, as well as costumes used in performances are “offered” to the public. At the same time, anyone from any place can take a guided tour of all the areas of the Thessaloniki Music Hall, as well as take a journey through its history, with stops on all dates – a milestone in its 24-year history.

This is the project “Digital actions to highlight and preserve the documents of the Thessaloniki Music Hall”, which was presented today and includes the digitization and documentation of its collections, the creation of a digital repository and the upgrade of the MMTH website, a digital chronology of its cultural journey, but also two apps, one for a virtual tour and one for the history of musical instruments.

“The rich archive of the Thessaloniki Music Hall, which also constitutes its history, has been digitized. It is a project that leads the Megaron into a new, even more modern era”, said the president of OMMH, Eugenia Alexandropoulou-Egyptiadou, in her greeting. “Culture certainly wouldn’t have the same value if it wasn’t accessible. With the digitization of the Megaros archive, every citizen will be able to browse its history at any time and moment, to get to know its actions and this whole musical journey that started almost 25 years ago”, added its artistic director Christos Galilaias.

With the aim of saving, exploiting and promoting the collections and archives of the Thessaloniki Music Hall, the project was included in the 2014-2020 Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Operational Program and was implemented by the cultural IT project management team of the Dotsoft company, based in Thessaloniki. “The equipment used for both digitization and photography was based on the specificity of the costumes, the documents, the posters, the programs, so that we could get the right copies and it was also done in different resolutions, while we tried to create faithful copies of all the material”, said the company’s managing director Tasos Manos.

“After the first stage of digitization, the second stage was the documentation, where a special team describes each item in a specific way so that we can know who is the owner, the creator, the performances, the contributors…” added Mr. Manos, emphasizing that people who either have a relationship with the Palace or know its record very well were chosen in this group, so that they could respond better.

In addition to the digital repository, an important parameter in the extroversion of the Mansion is the virtual tour where anyone can virtually navigate the spaces that have been captured in 360 degrees, while receiving information about various aspects of it.

In addition, through a second educational application aimed at students aged 12 – 16, the history of musical instruments is presented in an entertaining and interactive way, with descriptive texts and questions.

Finally, it became known that a lot of emphasis was placed on the part of …friendliness, so that it is a portal that one can quickly become familiar with its content and can be used just as easily from mobile devices, tablets, mobile phones and computers.

Users can get to know the new MMTH web portal at https://www.tch-digital.gr/ and there the interactive applications are offered free of charge.