The Museum of the Bible in Washington D.C. set out to create an immersive experience that goes far beyond static displays. Through its innovative Digital Guide, the museum delivers personalized storytelling, proactive navigation and rich multimedia that adapts in real time to each visitor’s location and interests. Achieving that vision required a location technology precise and reliable enough to perform inside one of the most challenging indoor environments imaginable. Qorvo’s Ultra-Wideband technology made it possible to transform the museum visit into a dynamic guided journey that responds to every step a guest takes. 

“Accurate location is what turns a digital guide from a novelty into an experience.” — Museum of the Bible Technology Team

The Challenge: Reliable Indoor Location in a Dense and Difficult Environment

Housed in a converted warehouse near the National Mall, the Museum of the Bible features heavy concrete and steel construction that creates signal shadows and dead zones for most wireless technologies. The challenge was compounded by high visitor density, especially large tour groups clustering in popular exhibits, which historically caused electronic guides to fail or lag. Technologies such as GPS Wi-Fi and Bluetooth could not deliver the consistent accuracy and responsiveness needed to guide visitors smoothly manage congestion or support group coordination. The museum needed a system that could locate thousands of devices simultaneously with high accuracy low latency and reliability across seven floors. 

The Solution: A UWB-Powered Digital Guide Built for Scale and Precision

The museum selected Ciholas’ solution powered by our Ultra-Wideband technology to deliver micro-location accuracy throughout the building. Nearly 600 UWB anchors were installed to cover 43,000 square meters with each Digital Guide using a UWB transceiver based on Qorvo’s DW1000 chip. Using nav mode and track mode positioning the system computes location up to ten times per second while supporting unlimited devices in dense areas. Advanced location algorithms mitigate signal occlusions and ensure stable performance even in crowded galleries. The result is a seamless visitor experience with real-time navigation personalized content group coordination and analytics that help the museum continuously refine how stories are told and spaces are used. 

For more detail about this solution, read the blog post.