Audio tour
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An audio tour or audio guide provides a recorded spoken commentary, normally through a handheld device, to a visitor attraction such as an exhibition (often an art exhibition) or museum collection. They can also be available for self-guided tours of outdoor locations. Typically, the user selects a short piece of spoken information by typing in a number that may be displayed by an artwork or some other museum object, for example. Increasingly, PDAs are being used to provide a multimedia experience for such tours rather than just sound.
An audio guide provides background, context, and information on the works being viewed (Fisher 2004, p.49). Recently, city audio guides describing the attraction of cities or recommended walking tours are becoming more popular. An audio guide can be rented on the spot, often in multilingual versions, but also downloaded from the Internet, often in MP3 format. Some audio guides are free or included in the entrance fee, others have to be purchased separately. Audio guides are similar to audio books.
Major producers of audio guides include:
- Acoustiguide
- Antenna Audio
- Audissey Guides - audio guides to cities for travelers (not tourists)
- CityZeum — mobile travel guide
- iAudioguide.com — free audio guides for iPod and mobile phone
- mp3cityguides.com - audio city guides for iPod, mp3 player and mobile phone
- Soundwalk — audio tours
- Tourcaster — tour guides for iPods
- Tegonal - VGuide — Audio- and multimedia guide
Portals listing audio guides from several producers sorted by location include
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Fisher, Jennifer (2004), "Speeches of Display: Museum Audioguides by Artists". In Drobnick, Jim, Aural Cultures. ISBN 0-920397-80-8.
[edit] External links
- tourdio.com — Tourdio - The Audio Tour Directory
- [1] — iPod Audio Guides
- Audioguide2go.com — portal to audio guides in the UK.
- Audio tours at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
- Audio guide at the Art Institute of Chicago.
- Tours at the British Museum, London, including audio tours.
- City Surf - MP3 Audio Tours - Canada
- Audiogid.ru - MP3 Audio Tours in Moscow and S-Petersburg (Russian)
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