Overview
NOAA partnered with Sagenverse to bring the Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center and Mangrove Key exhibits into an immersive digital format. Through a combination of real-world environment capture, custom 3D production, and interactive exhibit design, we delivered a connected web-based experience that supports tours, learning activities, and ongoing updates. The result is a scalable virtual exhibit system that NOAA can continue to expand and manage over time.
Client
Florida Keys Eco-Discovery Center
Released
January 26, 2026
Sagen Type
Virtual Museum
The Challenge
NOAA needed to communicate environmental science, maritime history, and ecosystem relationships in a way that felt spatial, exploratory, and accessible online. Traditional media could not capture the sense of place found underwater, within mangrove habitats, or across layered exhibit narratives.
Key challenges included:
Capturing real-world environments in the field with lightweight tools
Translating scan data into clean, performant 3D exhibit spaces
Recreating fragile or very small artifacts that could not be reliably scanned
Optimizing a large, content-dense presentation for web delivery
Supporting guided tours, quizzes, AR activities, and cross-exhibit navigation
Working around mobile browser and iOS limitations
Delivering a system NOAA could manage and update without ongoing vendor dependency
The Solution
Sagenverse provided professional services across environment construction and interactive exhibit development, delivering both the digital spaces and the engagement layers needed for long-term use.
Our work included:
Field capture using underwater mobile photography, hobby drones, Polycam, and Matterport references
Conversion of raw scans into custom Sagenverse scenes with cleanup and optimization
Manual recreation of artifacts that could not be scanned cleanly
Performance tuning for NOAA’s largest Sagenverse presentation to date
Creation of guided tours, self-paced exploration, and an interactive quiz experience
Linking exhibits through portals, embedded mini-browsers, and AR photo activities
Web deployment with embedded hosting and custom deep links to address iOS constraints
Delivery of an extensible platform NOAA can now update and expand internally
"Sagenverse has given us an opportunity to share this extremely important ecosystem with people around the world, including students, educators, adventurers, researchers, and more."
John Armor
Director NOAA's Office of National Marine Sanctuaries
Impact
120
Additional Weekly Visitors
More guests were able to visit the center a week
6 min
Average Visit Length
Online viewing averaged over 6 minutes
24/7 Access
Open Year Round
Center can host visitors any time anywhere
200%
More online traffic to website
Guests engaged with website 2X more than before