A capture point your exhibit can run all season
A museum photo system is a permanent capture point beside an exhibit that lets a visitor take a branded photo and receive it on their own phone, with no member of staff at the station. Curator Live runs that capture point on an iPad.
It has to hold a family for a minute, teach something while it does, and survive a procurement review. The sections below are ordered accordingly.
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Where Curator already runs
Countries those events took place in
Operating since December 2015
Online chat staffed around the clock
Give the family a reason to stop
A capture point is an exhibit element, not a kiosk parked next to one. It should say something about what the visitor is standing in front of.
Put them inside the habitat
A physical green screen places visitors in a scene you supply, and the backgrounds are searchable from a built-in library or built from your own artwork. Chroma keying runs in the app on the device.
No green screen, no problem
Background removal runs on the iPad itself, with no upload and no connection needed, so a capture point in a basement gallery works the same as one in the atrium. There is no per-use charge for it.
One system, many exhibits
Overlays and frames can apply across the whole install or differ per experience, so the dinosaur hall and the touring exhibition each look like themselves. Digital props track to the face for younger visitors.
The photo can be the thing they buy on the way out
The exit is where a visit turns into a transaction. A capture point can take the money itself, so selling a photo does not need a counter, a till or somebody rostered to stand behind one.
Pay, then pose
A kiosk takes the payment first and then runs the session. It is the self-serve version of the photo desk at the end of the ride, and it works the same at half past four on a wet Tuesday.
Pose, then decide
Or capture first and show the visitor their photo with a sales watermark on it, then take the payment to lift it. Nothing about the queue changes, because the buying happens on their own phone.
Straight to the institution
Payment runs through a Stripe account you connect and own, so the takings land in the institution’s own account. Managing sales is its own permission, so a duty manager can run it without your Curator login.
Pricing an all-photos price, a per-photo price, or both, each switched on separately.
Currency chosen per event.
Collections built automatically by a rule you choose, including Photo Match, so a family of five buys one set rather than searching for each other.
Confirmation the message on the screen after payment is yours to write, which is where a membership offer or a gift-shop line belongs.
A whole season without a rota
Nobody is going to staff a photo station between 10 and 5, seven days a week. It has to look after itself and tell you when it cannot.
Locked to one exhibit
Kiosk Mode locks the iPad to a single event, launched from an event code rather than an account password, and a four-digit PIN keeps the in-app settings closed to visitors.
Locked to the app
Apple’s Guided Access keeps a visitor inside Curator. With an MDM that supports Autonomous Single App Mode, tested with SimpleMDM and Jamf, the iPad locks itself in when the event starts.
Closed without unplugging
Booth Closed mode holds a full-screen message you write yourself while the gallery is shut or the exhibit is being changed, without quitting the event or the app.
Watched from your desk
See how much storage each device has left from the website, and check printer connection, upload queue, camera and storage in the in-app health panel before the doors open.
The answers your procurement review will ask for
This is the section that decides whether a public institution can sign. The controls below are settings in the product, not policies on a page.
Consent before collection
A disclaimer with a title and body you write appears before any visitor data is collected, and can require a tick to continue.
Delete the contact details
A per-event switch deletes each visitor’s email address and phone number shortly after their photo is delivered. The trade-off is stated plainly: you cannot resend afterwards, and that data is not available for analytics or marketing.
No public gallery at all
The public gallery can be switched off entirely, or kept behind a shared password. With the gallery off, a visitor can still search and see their own photos and nobody else’s.
Your bucket, if you prefer
Event media can be stored in your own Google Cloud Storage or AWS S3 bucket rather than Curator’s, configured with your provider, bucket, region and keys.
Retention. Media stays live for 365 days from the last capture in an event, and then moves to an archive your account can still reach. You can archive or delete an event yourself at any point before that. Archiving breaks every guest link already sent, which is the reason it is a deliberate action rather than an automatic one.
Where responsibility sits. Curator provides the consent gate, the deletion switches and the retention windows. The institution running the event remains the party responsible for how visitor data is handled, and Curator does not give legal advice.
A family of five, one gallery, no scrolling
Photo Match lets a visitor pull their own pictures out of the gallery instead of scrolling past strangers. The visitor asks for their own photos. The result is a private gallery, not a record of who attended. You switch it on per exhibit, and the face data is deleted on the same two-year schedule as the photos. It works with the public gallery switched off.
Where a station is far from a signal, a visitor who scans before their photo has uploaded lands on a Notify Me page and is texted or emailed the moment it is ready. Printed QR access cards work across several stations on one site.
Numbers for the board, not just for you
Total photos, gallery views, share counts, popular photos and data-capture totals sit in one dashboard with date-range filtering, so an exhibition can be measured against the one before it. Visitor data exports to a spreadsheet, and all the media downloads as a ZIP.
There is also a shareable analytics page behind its own password, which is what you hand to a funder or an exhibition partner rather than an account login.
Someone is awake while your galleries are open
Online chat is staffed 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including the weekends and public holidays that are your busiest admissions days. Chat stays open while your event runs.
When it cannot wait for a chat reply, there is a number for emergencies during a live event: +1 (800) 708-0247.
Common questions
What is a museum photo system?
A museum photo system is a permanent capture point beside an exhibit that lets a visitor take a branded photo and receive it on their own phone, with no member of staff at the station. Curator Live runs that capture point on an iPad, and has been operating since December 2015 across 96 countries.
Can it run without a member of staff at the station?
Yes. Kiosk Mode locks the iPad to a single event and launches it from an event code rather than an account password, a four-digit PIN keeps the in-app settings closed, and Booth Closed mode holds a message you write while the gallery is shut. With an MDM that supports Autonomous Single App Mode, tested with SimpleMDM and Jamf, the iPad locks itself into Curator when the event starts.
How long do you keep visitor photos?
Media stays live for 365 days from the last capture in an event, and then moves to an archive your account can still reach. You can archive or delete an event yourself at any point before that. Archiving breaks every guest link already sent, so it is a deliberate action rather than an automatic one.
Can we stop the system keeping visitors’ email addresses and phone numbers?
Yes. A per-event switch deletes each visitor’s email address and phone number shortly after their photo is delivered. The trade-off is that you cannot resend afterwards, and that data is not available for analytics or marketing.
Can visitor photos be kept off a public gallery?
Yes. The public gallery can be switched off entirely, or kept behind a shared password. With the gallery off, a visitor can still search and see their own photos and nobody else’s.
Does Curator identify visitors?
Not by name. Photo Match lets a visitor pull their own pictures out of the gallery instead of scrolling past strangers. The visitor asks for their own photos. The result is a private gallery, not a record of who attended. You switch it on per exhibit, and the face data is deleted on the same two-year schedule as the photos.
Are visitors asked before any data is collected?
Yes. A disclaimer with a title and body you write appears before any data is collected, and can require a tick to continue. Curator provides that gate, the deletion switches and the retention windows; the institution running the event remains responsible for how visitor data is handled, and Curator does not give legal advice.
Can we store the media in our own cloud account?
Yes. Event media can be stored in your own Google Cloud Storage or AWS S3 bucket rather than Curator’s, configured with your provider, bucket, region and access keys.
What happens if the internet goes down mid-event?
The event keeps running. Photos capture to a local queue, printing continues, and the booth behaves exactly as it does online. Text and email delivery pause and send automatically once the connection returns.
How many devices does one licence cover?
One licence covers one device.
Can visitors buy their photos?
Yes. Sales are turned on per event and visitors buy their own photos from the gallery. Set an all-photos price, a per-photo price, or both, and choose the currency for that event. A kiosk can take the payment before it runs the session, or capture first and take the payment to lift the sales watermark. The money runs through a Stripe account the institution connects and owns.
See it beside your exhibit
Book a demo and we will go through the install, the data controls and the retention windows with whoever needs to sign them off.