Overview
This release marks a significant shift in how visitors navigate the physical world with Empower. The Outdoor Map initiative replaces static, manual uploads with a dynamic, vector-based "world map" view. This allows visitors to orient themselves using real-world geographic context—including streets, landmarks, and green spaces—while providing a suite of new tools for custom terminology and metadata.
Additionally, we have introduced Bulk Actions for Objects, designed to streamline high-volume workflows and reduce the manual effort required to manage large-scale exhibitions.
New Features & Improvements
⚡ Bulk Actions for Objects
Managing large collections just got significantly faster. Instead of editing objects one by one, you can now perform updates across your entire collection in seconds.
Bulk Publish Status: Update the publishing state (Draft or Published) for up to 50 objects at once. This ensures confidence in your workflow and speeds up exhibition turnaround.
Bulk Tagging Updates: Apply or remove tags across groups of objects simultaneously. This supports both visitor-facing Themes and internal workflows (e.g., tagging items as "Needs Review").
Positioning Filters: A new filter in the Object table allows you to quickly identify "positioned" vs. "unpositioned" objects, making it easier to see exactly what still needs to be placed on a map.
For institutions managing hundreds of objects, these updates turn hours of manual clicks into a few simple actions, reducing the risk of errors and making large-scale collection management viable.
🗺️ Outdoor Maps: A New Way to Navigate
We’ve moved beyond static images to a living, breathing geographic layer for outdoor levels and venues.
Vector Geographic World Map: This release introduces a map that rotates, zooms, and automatically displays an uncluttered geographic layer (roads, water, and landmarks). Detail is revealed progressively as the user zooms in, ensuring a clean interface at any scale.
Setup: To activate this, simply create an outdoor level and release a map set in the Console. No map assets or uploads needed!
Note: If you currently use a branded raster image, you’ll need to delete it to enable the vector world map view; the two cannot be displayed simultaneously.Custom Landing Levels: You can now define exactly which level the map opens on by default, ensuring visitors start their journey exactly where you want them.
Note: Blue Dot GPS navigation only works with the outdoor maps, and is not available for indoor navigation.
📍 Enhanced Map UX & Discovery
Finding specific locations is now more intuitive with smarter markers and better data integration.
Visual Space Pins: Space pins now include image previews to drive discoverability. Point of Interest (POI) markers are now dynamic—they stay small to prioritize Spaces at a distance but grow larger as the user zooms in to find specific amenities.
Physical Addresses & "Open in Maps": You can now assign addresses and GPS coordinates to outdoor Spaces. This enables an "Open in Maps" link to instantly launch your preferred map app and get turn-by-turn directions. If no address is provided, visitors are prompted to use Pathways (if available) to find their way. You can configure your Pathways in the Console.
🧭 Live Positioning & GPS Upgrades
Help visitors orient themselves accurately and navigate your Venue with real-time location and direction.
Direction: The blue dot now features a pointer showing your real-time physical direction.
Contextual Consent: To put you in control, location and orientation permissions are now only requested when you tap the location icon or start a journey.
🚶 Outdoor Pathways
Pathways now officially supports navigation for fully outdoor and hybrid journeys.
GPS-Led Journeys: Visitors can initiate journeys from their current location and track progress via the live blue dot.
Optimized UI: For outdoor routes, we’ve removed the "Step-by-Step" instructions in favor of a map-centric view, which is more effective in open environments.
Walking Estimates: All outdoor journeys now provide an estimated walking duration at the start.
🔤 Flexible Terminology & Metadata
We are continuing to expand how you can label and describe your content to better fit your specific industry.
New "Object" Terminology: You can now rename the "Object" entity in the Console to better reflect your collection. New options include: Exhibits, Artworks, Stories, and Animals.
Expanded Object Properties: We’ve introduced a range of new metadata fields for Object records, including Dimensions, Conservation Status, Habitat, Scientific Name, Acquisition, and Accession Number.
You can can choose which fields are included in the Object form, and the order that they display. This can be configured from your Console Settings.
🛠️ Console Updates
Language Selector Improvement: Languages in the Console are now displayed in English alongside their native name (e.g., Korean – 한국어). This makes it much easier for English-speaking administrators to navigate and configure multi-language support accurately.