museum audio tour equipment

Guide to Museum Audio Tour Equipment & Which to Choose

22 December 2022

We’ve seen mobile app technology make major changes across every facet of our personal and professional lives. Museum audio tour equipment is no different. 

Rented audio devices have become outdated, particularly in the post-2020 world where museums want to cater to visitors’ expectations for touch-free experiences .

Even before the pandemic, museums were rapidly replacing old audio tour equipment with mobile tour guides that can be easily consumed on visitors’ own devices. 

Mobile apps are not only more sanitary, but they also provide a consistent, high-quality experience for consuming multimedia content. 

In this guide to museum audio tour equipment, we dive into the three main options for creating self-serve tours, from modern to traditional.

Option 1: Museum audio tours on visitors’ mobile devices

The first option is now the most popular choice, regardless of a museum’s size or operating budget. In recent years, it has become increasingly affordable to launch your mobile application because of the advent of no-code technology .

What’s more, mobile technology is known to positively impact the visitor experience . Visitors enjoy using their own devices to explore. 

Pros and cons

• Pros: With a modern app-building platform, you can launch an audio tour app without coding in-house or hiring a development agency. Create multimedia and multilanguage experiences and allow visitors to use their own devices and continue to engage with your content after their visit. You can also use your app to sell memberships or add-on experiences. 
• Cons: Apps do require wifi, but the vast majority of museums have consistent wifi access. If your museum is remote, or if you’re looking for audio equipment for a park, you can encourage visitors to download the tours to their devices before they head out hiking. 

Software and hardware requirements

To launch an audio tour app, you don’t need any special hardware. You can test the app with your mobile phone. Your mobile app could be a native app present in the app stores, or it could function as a mobile website with no downloading required.

You’ll want to create handouts and signage with the URL and/or QR code for finding your app. This will increase usage from your on-site visitors.

As for software, choose an app builder specific to museum audio tours. This will make it faster for your team to customize than if you used a generic app builder.

Keep in mind that visitors won’t always have their Air Pods and earbuds in their backpacks, so you might want to consider renting, providing, or selling headphones (the way that airlines do).

Example solution: STQRY Apps 

With STQRY Apps , you can launch a location-based audio guide app . The hardest part will be sourcing the content: the audio tracks, images, and text descriptions to bring your museum assets to life. 

Adding your content to your app is easily done, and our team is here to help you. User data isn’t stored, so you don’t have to worry about cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

STQRY Apps is our product designed for launching native mobile apps, while STQRY Guide is a little more affordable, as you can offer a mobile website or host your content in our app instead.

Option 2: Museum audio tours on your mobile device

The second option is frequently used in combination with Option 1. If you have elderly or very young visitors who don’t have their own mobile devices, then you might want to consider using the same mobile strategy—but with on-site devices. 

You could have a small fleet of mobile phones and tablets available for rent or free use.

• Pros: You get the best of both worlds: rentable devices running modern, multimedia content. This option is more affordable than traditional audio equipment because it’s easy to source late-model phones and tablets.
• Cons: If you only use this option and don’t also launch content for use on visitors’ own devices, some visitors might be frustrated, particularly if they’re germ-conscious. 

85% of Americans own a smartphone, so you won’t need to purchase very many devices. You also don’t need the newest iPhones or a data plan for these devices. All you need are late-model phones and tablets. If your museum is a 501c3, you might be able to get a donation from a local wireless retailer. Or, purchase refurbished devices at a low cost. 

Make sure you choose a software provider that will help you offer a consistent experience so that people using your devices will enjoy the same content as people using their own devices. 

Example solution: STQRY Fleet

With STQRY Fleet , you can offer audio tours with on-site tablets and mobile phones.

The platform works with:

• iOS devices
• Android devices
• Devices with an up-to-date web browser

Option 3: Traditional museum audio tour equipment

The third option is to use traditional audio tour equipment. These devices don’t require internet access, but they tend to be a little clunky. And of course, someone needs to be sanitizing them in between uses. 

• Pros: Older visitors will be accustomed to renting and using traditional devices, and might expect or prefer it. These devices don’t require wifi. 
• Cons: It’s very expensive to purchase enough devices for all of the visitors who want to consume your content at their own pace. Because these sorts of devices are outdated, their software might be as well—making it challenging to deploy new content across your entire fleet.

There are a lot of different options when it comes to traditional museum audio tour equipment. You could purchase a fleet of hand-held, audio-only devices. Or, you could opt for hand-held multimedia devices that can play video files and display images as well. 

The devices you purchase will come with their own software and operating systems. Make sure to test these to validate the user experience before moving forward.

Example solution: Orpheo

Orpheo provides a variety of audio tour equipment designed for museums, including hand-held audio devices, tour guide systems for groups, and multimedia guide devices that don’t require wifi. 

Considering that 85% of Americans own smartphones and you likely have wifi on site, these products aren’t necessary for most museums.

You can provide a modern, high-quality audio experience using mobile devices and tablets. 

The final word? Use an app-building platform that puts your content center stage.

Looking for modern audio tour equipment? The answer is in the palm of your hand. Learn how to launch a beautiful mobile tour app with STQRY. 

Immersive audioguides and guidance systems for museums

Multimedia audioguides for museums: unveiling new features.

Offer your visitors an exceptional cultural experience while benefiting from a comprehensive, flexible, and personalized tool, without any need for downloads. Thanks to their intuitive design, our audioguides provide instant access to detailed information about artworks, monuments, and points of interest. Visitors can explore at their own pace, choosing the elements that spark their curiosity. The audioguide immerses you in a captivating journey, allowing you to connect more deeply with the surrounding cultural content.

Human connection at the heart of the experience

Storytelling and multilingual content creation for museums and cultural institutions.

We understand the importance of creating engaging and immersive experiences for visitors. Whether you’re a museum, gallery or other cultural institution, our agency can provide tailored solutions to enhance your visitor experience with engaging narratives, informative stories and interactive elements.

With an innovative approach to multimedia content creation, audioguides become unforgettable discovery experiences. With LenseUp, unleash the full potential of your museum or institution, and captivate audiences by proposing innovative solutions.

Creative partner

LenseUp is not only a provider of technological solutions, but also a creative partner, helping you to enrich your exhibitions and sites with unique multimedia audio guides. LenseUp places talent and creativity at the heart of its activities, thanks to partnerships with artists and creators: sound creation, historical reconstructions, 3D, augmented reality or simply artistic creation…

Ai powered audioguides

In a time where technological advancements are reshaping every facet of our existence, the audioguide industry is a notable example of this wave of transformation. The advent of AI-driven platforms is altering the landscape of audio guides, offering a new way of experiencing and engaging with them: text to speech, audio restoration, content creation, chatbots, augmented reality….

Sound creation

The audio creation process for an audio guide with voice-over actors or artificial voices includes preparation and scripting, casting and recording of voices, audio editing and mixing, technical integration, revisions and adaptations, as well as launch and evaluation. The use of artificial intelligence can help enrich the audio experience by adding appropriate ambience and sound effects.

Sound restoration

Restoring historic audio files can significantly enhance the value and experience of an audio guide. When dealing with recordings from the past, these often suffer from degradation, background noise, and various other audio quality issues due to older recording technologies. Through sound restoration, these historical audio artifacts can be revitalized. This process involves meticulously removing or minimizing noises and distortions, while carefully preserving the original essence and authenticity of the recording. The outcome is a clearer, more audible, and more engaging listening experience. For listeners, this restoration can bring history to life. It provides a more authentic and immersive understanding of the period being depicted, whether it’s the ambiance of a bygone era or the distinct nuances in a historical figure’s speech.

Audioguides with chatbots for museums and cultural institutions

LenseUp optionally offers chatbots that can be integrated into your audio guide: visitors to museums, castles, tourist sites can ask detailed questions about artists, buildings, works of art…

The answers are precise because they come from a document designed by us and used to train the chatbot. Thanks to the latest LLM models, the chatbot has an answer to everything, with a fluency close to natural language. The chatbot is multilingual, with the ability to respond in more than 30 languages.

LenseUp optionally offers chatbots that can be integrated into your audio guide: visitors to museums, castles, tourist sites can ask detailed questions about artists, buildings, works of art… The answers are precise because they come from a document designed by us and used to train the chatbot. Thanks to the latest LLM models, the chatbot has an answer to everything, with a fluency close to natural language. The chatbot is multilingual, with the ability to respond in more than 30 languages.

Multimedia audioguides with augmented reality

Augmented reality involves using technology to superimpose images, text, or sounds onto what a person can already see. The user stands in front of a scene and raises their smartphone.

It will show them a modified version of reality, the artworks come to life. Museums and cultural institutions can use augmented reality in many ways: information about the artwork in audio, video, or textual format artistic creation overlaying the real world, gamification, treasure hunt…

Audio guided tours with interactive map

Make it easy for visitors to find all the works on display in the museum. The indoor navigation system will show visitors the way through the complex exhibitions, providing access to digital maps on smartphones and mini-tours according to their preferences.

Audio guided tours with interactive maps are useful for visitors as they offer a comprehensive and engaging way to explore cultural sites, providing detailed information and allowing visitors to navigate at their own pace, enhancing their overall experience.

LenseUp: revolutionizing the museum experience with creative audioguides

In the evolving landscape of museum experiences, storytelling through audio has emerged as a game-changer. LenseUp offers audioguides that weave unique and compelling narratives tailored for specific museums or even individual exhibitions. This ensures that listeners are not only informed but also deeply engaged.

What sets LenseUp apart is the meticulous craftsmanship behind each audioguide. Our seasoned production teams bring together an ensemble of talents—from professional voice actors and adept translators to skilled sound editors and content creators. This holistic approach guarantees an immersive and memorable experience for every listener. By intricately understanding and catering to diverse audiences, LenseUp’s audioguides resonate with everyone, from curious children and history enthusiasts to international tourists and art connoisseurs. With LenseUp, the museum experience is not just heard, it’s felt.

The transformative power of immersive audio guiding systems

In the worlds of cinema sound design has long been a cornerstone, crafting an immersive atmosphere that propels audiences into the epicenter of the story. Now, in the sphere of audio-guided experiences, LenseUp is elevating sound design to perform a comparable function. Our immersive audioguides go beyond mere narration. They can vividly paint scenes in the visitor’s imagination, constructing an immersive experience. Our sound design not only amplifies emotions but also sets the rhythm of the tour, providing critical context that transforms each guide from a basic narrative into a rich, multi-sensory journey.

Multiple Customizable Features

audio only or multimedia guide multilingual (up to 10 languages but we can manage content in 30 languages) images / image carousels 360º panoramic images videos lists of interests audio transcriptions e-commerce / shop section (optional) events section visitor comments newsletter sign-up web app (PWA) (optional) augmented reality (optional) monetizable with a single-use or non-single-use code system (optional)

interactive maps with points of interest (optional) chatbot (optional) qr codes quizz analytics

Always up to date, easy access

easy to update scalable fast display of contents can be accessed via any smartphone (direct URL or QR code), no download required offline mode

Code-based payment system

You can offer free access to your audioguide, or monetise it, thanks to a system of codes that can be configured: single use, multiple use, expiry date, etc. E

Each code represents a point of access to a content-rich web application (PWA), easily accessible from a smartphone, making it an innovative, affordable and cost-effective solution for museums, cultural institutions and tourist sites, whether permanent or temporary installations. The code can be printed on a unique card with a QR code, which the customer scans to access the audio guide.

Talent and creativity

content creation: text, audio, video, augmented reality partnerships with voice-over actors, musicians, audiovisual artists, graphic designers, etc.

Technologies

• LLMs (large language models such as ChatGpt)
• augmented reality WebAr

Multilingual

The self guided tours offered by LenseUp are multilingual, delivering content in up to 30 different languages. This guarantees an inclusive experience for all visitors, whatever their origin.

Customization

Each guide can be fully customized to meet the specific needs of each site. Whether in terms of content, design, or features, everything is adaptable. The content of the guides can be easily updated, ensuring that the information provided to visitors is always current and relevant.

Eco-friendly

LenseUp’s guides are directly accessible from the visitor’s smartphone, eliminating the need to purchase or rent an additional device. This not only reduces the ecological footprint but also ensures compliance with health standards by avoiding the sharing of equipment.

Cost-effective

Choosing a multimedia guide from LenseUp requires no additional hardware investments. Everything is accessible online, making the experience affordable for businesses.

By designing innovative products, LenseUp accompanies museums and cultural institutions throughout the process of creating visitor itineraries. Whether through audioguides, multimedia guides or chatbots, LenseUp offers unique and captivating experiences.

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Industry leaders in technology & creative interpretation..

Award Winning Interpretive Solutions

Tour-Mate Systems Limited is an award winning interpretive solutions provider with clients all across the globe. We are a full service provider able to accomodate any request including ground-up content creation, interpretation consulting, and the purchase or rental of an interpretive system.

We have been offering Interpretive Solutions since 1988 and have worked with venues all over the globe. Millions of people have taken Tour-Mate tours in museums, art galleries, historic sites, zoos, aquariums, botanical gardens, national parks and commercial establishments. Our high quality, easy to use hardware and software, as well as our approach to content creation, ensures that each visitor has a significantly enhanced and memorable experience.

Turnkey audio and multimedia tour content creation: writing, editing, production

Interpretive Products

We offer a variety of platforms for achieving your interpretive goals.

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Our North American service depots allow for quick turnaround for repairs and maintenance.

Service Solutions

We offer multiple plans to ensure your system is always in perfect working condition, allowing you to choose the best route for your business

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We offer solutions that cater to differently-abled individuals, in hopes that our solutions are as accessible as possible.

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Latest Technology and Hardware

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Featured clients.

Client Testimonials

Mission San Juan Capistrano

Henry morrison flagler museum, uss bowfin submarine museum & park, illinois holocaust museum & education center, museum of russian icons, sacramento history museum.

"Mission San Juan Capistrano is a California mission, historic landmark, and museum located midway between Los Angeles and San Diego. We welcome 300,000 guests every year, and strive to share our mission of education, inspiration, and preservation with all who visit. Our audio tour, developed with Tour-Mate Systems, helps our organization provide a high quality educational experience to all who visit. It has been a pleasure working with Tour-Mate’s creative team in developing our tour, which incorporates, storytelling, music, and history. Our guests remark at the quality of the tour, and walk away with a better appreciation and understanding of the Mission’s significance as a historic, cultural and religious site. We are pleased with Tour-Mate’s top rate customer service and have found the entire system of audio tour equipment easy to use in our daily operations."

Megan Dukett Education and Interpretive Program Director

"I just wanted to let you know that setup of the audio tours went really well at all three centres and all devices are running well… Thanks again for all your help, we have to say that we’re so excited at how easy the pieces are to use and how it took just a few minutes to set everything up including the security alerts."

Jaclyn D’Souza Marketing Specialist, Visitor Centres

"The wands are certainly a hit. We’ll be looking to add more languages over the next few years and perhaps even more tour “stops” on each tour."

Kiran Gill Judge Manager, Visitor Centres

"When we made the switch to TourMate Systems, inc. from a major competitor, we did so with confidence that both the products and the client services provided to us would be far superior than what we'd been served as the industry standard. The SC550 continues to be a customer favorite for its easy to use design and intuitive programming. The TourMate team on whole continues to exceed our expectations around every turn, nearly a decade after beginning to work with them."

Allison Flagler Museum

“We needed to refresh the audio tour of our submarine and museum and to explore content delivery options. We selected Tour-Mate after an industry wide search and have been thoroughly satisfied with our decision. The content creation process was interactive and the end result was a significant improvement over our previous version. Tour-Mate was an outstanding partner throughout the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and we look forward to working with them for years to come.”

“As a Museum that values the power of storytelling to teach, learn, and inspire our audiences on the history and lessons of the Holocaust, the Tour-Mate system enables our guides with a high-level of clarity and meaning to connect with our visitors on a personal and more intimate level. They have enabled us to grow our tour program for both student and adults, and allowed them to share the same galleries without diminishing the experience or effectiveness of the tour quality because the guides are able to have an almost “private” conversation with their groups, providing another level of human connection for both our docents and the visitors.”

Kelley Szany Director of Education

“The Museum of Russian Icons has been Tour Mate customers for twelve years. Visitors love being able to access so much additional content at their own pace.”

Tara Young Deputy Director

"We’re really happy with the TM600 Tour-Mate system, which serves The Sacramento History Museum’s three tour programs beautifully. The Museum needed to upgrade from a radio frequency sound system to digital, and Tour-Mate’s system provides improved sound quality with a price that fit our budget, and comes with extremely responsive service. The Tour-Mate units are lightweight and small (guides portray 19th Century characters and hide the transmitters in their costumes) and easy to maintain. And we know we’ll get a quick and friendly response to our maintenance and operations questions. That’s really important to us."

Tour Manager Sacramento History Alliance and Sacramento History Museum

Featured installations.

Mount Rushmore

Outdoor audio tour.

For more than 10 years, guests at Mount Rushmore have relied on Tour-Mate's SC550 audio Wands...

Akustisher Stolperstein

Outdoor installation.

Exhibit Tour

National Museum of the Pacific War

Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum and USS Bowfin

To learn more about the self-guided tours available at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, please click here .

Tour-Mate’s EB-100s provide a multilingual audio platform, appealing to foreign visitors as well as both visitors and residents with visual impairments. The stumbling stones and acoustic stumbling stones provide an opportunity for those in the 21st century to relate to the larger, traumatic histories of the 20th century, and learn about the often over-shadowed effects it had on individual lives that deserve to be remembered. To find where you may stumble upon one of the Stolpersteine, please click here .

This multilingual, rich multimedia App is available on any device with web browser access. To access the Museum of Russian Icons Web App, please click here .

For information on the Museum of the Pacific War and directions on getting to Fredericksburg from nearby Austin or San Antonio, TX, please click here .

The USS Bowfin, nicknamed the ‘Pearl Harbor Avenger’ is a decommissioned World War II Submarine and living memorial. The USS Bowfin conducted nine war patrols between 1943 and 1945 and sunk 44 enemy ships. The USS Bowfin, declared a National Historic Site in 1986, is apart of the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum Association (PFSMA). The PFSMA completed a major renovation of the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum in 2021. The museum was expanded and documents the history of the United States Navy’s Submarine Force during World War II, and the Cold War.

The Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum and the USS Bowfin feature audio tours using Tour-Mate’s SC600 mini wands. The SC600 mini wands utilizes RF triggering to trigger the USS Bowfin Submarine audio tour without the need for visitors to press a stop number. The audio tours were written and produced by Tour-Mate and narrates the history of the USS Bowfin and life in the submarine for the U.S Navy. The combined Bowfin/Museum tours feature both adult and children’s tours and are available in English, Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Korean and Mandarin.

With about 400,000 annual visitors (2019), the Deputy Director of the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum, Rafael Escalera expressed how Tour-Mate’s audio tours enhance their visitors’ museum experience. Escalera stated that “without Tour- Mate, our visitors would miss about 50% of the information we hope they receive.”

If you want to learn more about Tour-Mate Systems audio tours at the USS Bowfin and the Pacific Fleet Submarine Museum, please click here

Tour-Mate Systems has been working with BC Hydro since 2017 to help provide educational audio tours at each of its three Dams. The Revelstoke Dam Visitor Center is one of the most powerful dams in British Columbia while the Powerhouse at Stave Falls is a 100-year-old powerhouse, designated as a National Historic Site in Canada. The W.A.C Bennett Dam is one of the world’s largest earth-fill structures.

Using Tour-Mate’s SC600 Listening Wands and SC600 Mini Listening Wands, BC Hydro delivers engaging audio tours about the history of the dams and how it powers the province. The SC600 and SC600 Mini are easy to use audio wands that allow visitors to take the tour at their own pace. The Listening Wands have a 50 language/tour capability and can store up to 999 primary messages. BC Hydro’s audio tours are translated into 10 languages including French, Spanish, Mandarin, Japanese and Punjabi.

Want to learn more?

Contact a tour-mate representative today..

We'll set you up with a complete audio guide package to have your visitors listening to your stories in no time!

Let your collection do the talking

We believe in undivided attention for your collection and its stories. An audio-only tour makes sure the visitors' full attention is directed to the

object itself. Let their imagination run free while listening to the tales of your exhibition. Tell them a damn good and

unforgettable story!

We believe in undivided attention for your collection and its stories.

An audio-only tour makes sure the visitors' full attention is directed to the object itself.

Let their imagination run free while listening to the tales of your exhibition.

Tell them a damn good and unforgettable story!

Let your collection

do the talking

We believe in undivided attention for your collection and its stories. An audio-only tour makes

sure the visitors' full attention is directed to the object itself. Let their imagination run free

while listening to the tales of your exhibition. Tell them a damn good and

Keeping it simple & smart

Our audio guiding technology works effortlessly and includes a smart audio tour manager . So you can easily tell the best stories.

What about your visitors? The Podcatcher Pro is their personal, tiny tour guide. They’ll leave your place wanting to hear and see more.

Keeping it simple

Our audio guiding technology works effortlessly and Includes a simple audio tour manager. So you can easily tell the best stories.What about your visitors?

The Podcatcher is their personal, tiny tour guide.They’ll leave your place wanting to hear and

Our audio guiding technology works effortlessly and Includes a simple audio tour manager. So you can easily tell the best stories.

What about your visitors? The Podcatcher is their personal, tiny tour guide. They’ll leave your place wanting to hear and see more.

No distraction

Audio only to highlight 

your collection.

Foolproof audio tour management

Online content management to simply create and adjust your audio tour.

Easy as ABC

Point, Listen and Enjoy.

No distractions, just listen 

 Audio-only to highlight 

Smart online content management to simply create and adjust your audio tour .

That's really all your visitors have to do.

audio tour management

Online content management to simply create

and adjust your

Get a sneak preview of our Podcatcher Pro. The demo kit is a mini audio guide experience at the comfort of your own site.

We'll make you an offer you, can't refuse.

A great first audio tour on ready-to-use audio guides and visitor insights:

We'll set you up with the complete package to have your visitors listening to

 your stories in no time!

We'll make you an offer you can't refuse

A great first audio tour on ready-to-use audio guides and visitor insights : We'll set you up with

a complete package to have your visitors listening to your stories in no time!

A great first audio tour on ready-to-use audio guides and visitor insights: We'll set you up with the complete package to have your visitors listening to your stories

 in no time!

Get to know 

Your visitors.

We don't read minds (unfortunately), but we do know how your visitors move and listen. Now you can too. Use visitor data to understand their routes and favourite objects to improve the experience.

We don't read minds (unfortunately), but we do know how your visitors move and listen. Now you can too. Use visitor data to understand their routes and favourite objects to improve

the experience.

Here’s to collaboration! 

We're always here to help you tell your collection’s stories. Together, we'll take

your visitors to amazing places. Curious to know more about audio guiding?

We are happy to tell you all about it.

We provide...

The world's smartest audio guide. We know. That's a pretty bold statement. No worries, we have our clients worldwide to back it up.

Slide title

Here's how we helped

The amsterdam museum.

The Amsterdam Museum increased their audio guide pick-up rate to 67,2% after switching to Guide-ID. They also improved their visitor satisfaction and TripAdvisor reviews. 

Read the full story

The Amsterdam Museum increased their audio guide pick-up rate to   67,2%   after switching to Guide-ID. They also improved their visitor satisfaction and TripAdvisor reviews. 

The USS Midway:

A successful (hi)story.

After the USS Midway Museum started using

the Podcatchers , they saw a 35% decrease on waiting

lines and a higher staff engagement with their visitors.

How we helped the Tirpitz Museum to share their stories

By transforming the traditional museum experience Tirpitz Museum reached out to different audiences from all ages and backgrounds.

One of the secret ingredients? Audio stories.  

The Amsterdam Museum increased their 

audio guide pick-up rate to 67,2% after switching to Guide-ID. They also improved their visitor satisfaction and TripAdvisor reviews. 

How the Royal Delft Museum reached new audiences

Delft Blue is a big success with international audiences, but what about local visitors? The Royal Delft Museum set a new objective ; they were looking into bringing the world of Royal Delft Blue to a new audience. 

After the USS Midway Museum started using the Podcatchers, they saw a 35% decrease on waiting lines and a higher staff engagement with their visitors.

By transforming the traditional museum experience Tirpitz Museum reached out to different audiences from all ages and backgrounds .

One of the secret ingredients? Audio stories. 

Here's the success story of the KODE Art Museum

KODE Art Museum was preparing a different visitor experience for their Edvard Munch exhibition. The result? 69,000 visitors, 23% of their total annual visitors.

the Tirpitz Museum

The success story of Museum Ons' Lieve Heer op Solder

Museum Ons’ Lieve Heer op Solder implemented a kids audio tour which helped the Museum to increase visitors’ use of the audio guide, now 90% to 95% visitors use the Podcatcher. 

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Innovative Exhibit Listening Devices

< products, soundstik® exhibit audio handsets, upgrade your exhibit with soundstik ® audio handsets, add the impact of sound. reduce noise pollution. assure low maintenance., explore now.

SoundStik ® museum audio handsets present your stories clearly even in noisy environments. They eliminate sound spillover and keep video kiosk clusters quiet. They help people who are hard-of-hearing or who have low vision. SoundStik ® audio handsets are easy to install, easy to clean, easy to use, versatile, and ultra-reliable.

“If you want to install it and forget about it, get a SoundStik. Five years later it will still be working.”  — David Benjamin Assal, Db-mediainc.com

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“If you want to install it and forget about it, get a SoundStik. Five years later it will still be working.” — David Benjamin Assal, Db-mediainc.com

Easy for visitors, lift and listen, raise or lower volume, hear crisp, clear sound even in noisy environments, socially responsible, made in the usa, eco-friendly, repairable, serviced in the usa, compliant: meets americans with disabilities act (ada) objectives and revised rehabilitation act of 1973 -anti-discrimination §508, versatile features, silent speaker when hanging up — ideal for videos, auto-reset listener-controlled volume, interactive client device control, explore soundstik ® devices.

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Entry-level exhibition handset with optional controls.

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Multipurpose. for vcx 150, second language, custom exhibits.

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Convenient. complete exhibit audio system in a handset, national sept 11 memorial & museum, are you ready to explore more about soundstik ® , call us or describe your project goals..

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Call them what you will—audio tours or guides—or as we like to say— experiences , but the creative minds at Acoustiguide always innovate to create memorable audio. We creates multi-lingual, character-driven experiences that seamlessly pair with our intuitive audio tour software and hardware solutions. Whether you are a museum, gallery, exhibition, tour, or entertainment venue, our award-winning team of passionate storytellers will deliver their trademark creativity. We conceptualize , create , and provide immersive audio and multimedia experiences to hundreds of museums, tourist sites, and entertainment venues around the world. We do this because we’ve understood the audio tour longer— and do them better—than anyone else.

Everyone is different… so Acoustiguide customizes its work—and its work process—to suit your needs.

How We do it

We continually explore the possibilities of technology that best complement audio tours.

What We’ve Done

Since its founding in 1901, the Toledo Museum of Art has earned a global reputation for the quality of its collections, innovative and extensive education programs, and architecturally significant campus.

Some say the Haihe River in Tianjin is like a beautiful necklace, its many bridges the sparkling pearls that adorn the necklace’s glittering band.

A fortress, palace and prison, the Tower of London is one of the UK’s most visited heritage attractions with nearly three million visitors a year from around the world.

The 19th century basilica in Barcelona has been the source of curiosity and delight for its unique architecture by Antoni Gaudí and its century-long construction.

also known as “Knights’ Halls” or “the Knight Kingdom” is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, making it a significant destination for foreign and domestic tourists alike.

The Met in New York City is the largest art museum in the United States, and is among the most visited art museums in the world.

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Tour Guide System

Wireless two-way tour guide systems are created with flexibility in mind. They allow the tour guide the ability to choose and easily set up the ideal participation mode for their tour.

• Include up to 10 groups with unlimited participants in the same space.
• Use with headset or personal smartphone earbuds.
• Pair groups in bulk with the docking station or on the go with a simple tap.

How Can a Two-Way Communications System Work for You?

How to use tour guide systems for enhanced hearing.

Two-way communication headsets both transmit and receive audio, making them an ideal advanced hearing solution for indoor and outdoor tour guides who need to communicate clearly without shouting or whispering. Whether touring a museum or an environment where safety is a concern, guides must be able to communicate with participants and field questions without having to raise their voice or repeat themselves.

The audio tour guide equipment is easy to use. The transceiver is worn on a lanyard around the tour guide’s neck accompanied by a microphone and headset system for hands-free communication. There is no handheld microphone or tethered speaker to lug around. Audience members wear the transceiver around their necks accompanied by an earphone for enhanced hearing. With a push of a button, they can speak into the unit’s microphone when they have questions or comments.

There are options to allow the participants to ask questions and have everyone hear or just the tour guide. This tour guide microphone and headset system can also be used as a one-way communication system, if the tour guide would like to transmit to participants without interruptions.

Click HERE to read a case study about how Metroparks Toledo uses a two-way communication system to improve their outdoor programming and connect parks to people.

Recommended Products for Guided Tour Two-Way Communication

Starter System with 1 Headset and 4 Transceivers

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Full System with 8 Headsets and 8 Transceivers

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• Why Rent Two-Way Communications Systems?
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How to Create a World Class Audio Tour

As a kid visiting museums, I approached audio tours with caution. I knew that the information on these devices would fill in a lot of the facts and details I otherwise may miss in the exhibits, but I also wanted to view the museum at my own pace and to not have to carry around an extra device.

As the technology improved, audio tours became more in sync with the visitor experience; the devices generally became smaller, and you could “choose your adventure” with a number pad that correlated to the exhibits. Great!

And audio tour technology continues to develop. Today, many museums are transitioning their audio experiences to mobile apps, which allows for greater distribution and functionality of the material.

That’s why I was THRILLED when Historic Charleston Foundation reached out to Museum Hack to create an audio tour experience for visitors to the city. Today’s post is a case study on how we created that tour, including specific best practices we applied to create a world-class audio experience.

What You Don’t Know About Charleston

The Historic Charleston Foundation (“HCF”), founded in 1947, has an important mission: to preserve and protect the integrity of the architectural, historical and cultural heritage of Charleston, South Carolina.

To “preserve”, taken literally, is, of course, ensuring that the buildings, monuments and other objects of Charleston remain in their present condition for as long as possible. Another way to think of preservation is promotion; ensuring that the city’s cultural heritage reaches the hearts and minds of visitors for generations to come.

With this mission in mind, HCF reached out to Museum Hack to collaborate on an exciting new project: an audio tour app to tell the amazing preservation stories dating back to the mid-1600s, including the stories of two historic houses and a city guide.

Let’s get into it…

Building An Audio Tour Experience From Scratch

The HCF audio tour experience took the form of a mobile app and had two main components:

• The City Guide, with 30 audio tour stops, and 300+ additional text stops highlighting the larger preservation history of the city; and
• The two historic house tours, including stories of the families and enslaved people who called the houses home, with both stories meant to preserve the heritage as well as educate visitors with the until now “untold stories” of these houses.

Approaching an app, or any project, of this scale involves significant planning, blueprinting, and brainstorming. We drew from the experience and expertise of Museum Hack team members across the company, including audience engagement, strategic planning, marketing and more; all in collaboration with HCF to ensure the audio tour experience we created would match their expectations. Specifically, Museum Hack has a unique style and voice, and we worked closely with HCF staff to refine the stories to match THEIR voice.

Here are four best practices we applied to create a world-class audio tour experience:

• We built the City Guide as a nonlinear system. Like child-me, many visitors want to experience your space at their own pace and on their own path; moving to the pieces which catch their eye or inspire them. We built the City Guide as a collection of audio and text stops, so that as visitors explore the city they can use a map function on the app to find the preservation stories close to them.
• We turned the un-highlights into highlights. Instead of telling only the best-known stories of Charleston’s rich history, we created a comprehensive resource that also included the, until now, untold stories. Because of this, the app has the unique opportunity of sharing the story of Charleston’s founding, as well as its African American history, women’s history, immigrant history, LGBTQ history, and working-class history.
• Research, research, research . We used the usual methods of research for this project, including books, internet resources and other literature. To go a step deeper, we also interviewed Charleston residents to learn their personal stories and experience, and combined these with the already documented resources to create engaging, memorable stories.
• Shorten those stories! Live guest experiences allow for a flexible approach to story length; you can start with the most memorable elements and then gauge your audience’s reaction, adding more facts and context as needed. With audio experiences, the story isn’t quite as flexible. After testing numerous formats, we’ve found that short stories work best to engage listeners. You can use our Story Shortening Exercise to help with this. Start with a four-minute story, and then try to tell that same story in one minute. What did you leave out? Use this one minute story as the base for your recording, and add in additional content as needed.

With these considerations, and others, we created a unique and exciting experience that visitors to Charleston will learn from and share for years to come.

Our Review: “We are obsessed with this fresh new experience…”

Museum Hack is best known for our renegade tours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, American Museum of Natural History, Art Institute of Chicago and other amazing institutions across the country. From the moment we started, our guides have been obsessed with the live experience, crafting tours that engage and delight audiences.

Building an audio tour experience with the Historic Charleston Foundation was a fresh opportunity to reimagine the way visitors engage with a space. We collaborated to infuse Museum Hack’s style and approach into the app, while maintaining the reverent tone of the historic houses, content, and institution.

Are you working on an audio experience of your space? Email us at [email protected] , or learn more on our audio tour development page; we’d love to chat about best practices and how we can help create a world class experience for your visitors.

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Place Your Collection in Your Visitors Hands

Create flexibility for your visitors by enabling them to access your collection on their mobile devices. Support for a range of multi-media options; custom maps; iBeacons; multi-lingual content which will enrich your visitors experience of your museum or gallery, indoors and out.

Guide your visitors

Add interactive maps of your museum to help visitors find the exhibits they’re excited about. GPS-enabled maps can also be added for outdoor points of interest.

Be Location Aware

Use proximity beacons indoors to create a interactive experience for your visitors as they move within the museum.

Provide the Most Current Information

OnCell provides a unique web app that is updated in real time. Your museum app is never stale; if an exhibit changes or moves, updates to the app are in real time.

Expand Your Museum Tour Options

Provide your visitors with beautiful custom maps, photos, videos, audio, and other opportunities to interact with exhibits at their own pace.

Gather Valuable Data

OnCell mobile tour apps deliver valuable real-time analytics about your visitors and allow you to create museum visitor surveys for immediate feedback.

Cut Down on Equipment Expenses

Remove the burden of keeping museum audio tour equipment on hand by providing cell phone tours. Take advantage of the technology that your visitors are already carrying.

Tackle Accessibility

OnCell mobile tour apps work with accessibility options on most devices for the visually- and hearing-impaired. Learn more.

Grow Your App Over Time

Build on a flexible platform–with OnCell you can add multiple languages, create interactive images, match your organization's brand, or add a game or scavenger hunt component to your app.

You choose whether to offer your app on the web, Apple or Google Play stores. So many options. Something for everyone.

Ready to get started? Try our tour builder for free or get in touch!

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Customer App Examples

The strong national museum of play.

Rochester, NY, United States

Meet history’s playful side at The Strong—the nation’s museum of play! Discover two floors of vibrant, interactive exhibit spaces and the world's most comprehensive collection of toys, dolls, board games, and electronic games. Be guided with the app through a whole lot of educational, entertaining, and unforgettable intergenerational experiences.

The app contains self-guided artefact tours, as well as an events calendar so you make sure you don’t miss out on any of the fun. The app is available in English, French and Chinese.

Reynolda House Museum of American Art

Winston-Salem, NC, United States

Reynolda Revealed is the ultimate way to experience Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda Gardens, and Reynolda Village. Go behind the scenes of the grand 64-room manor house while you listen to audio clips of Reynolds descendants, relatives, and estate employees recalling anecdotes of life in the South during the early half of the 20th century. Incorporating abundant video, archival audio, and period and contemporary photographs, Reynolda Revealed delivers a remarkable narrative of one of America’s founding industrial families. 

This stunning app is available in English and Spanish.

Henry Morrison Flagler Museum

Palm Beach, FL, United States

When it was completed in 1902, the New York Herald proclaimed that Whitehall, Henry Flagler's Gilded Age estate in Palm Beach, was "more wonderful than any palace in Europe, grander and more magnificent than any other private dwelling in the world." Today, Whitehall is a National Historic Landmark and is open to the public as the Flagler Museum. This official app features a complete audio guide, which includes photos. Visitors can take the full sequential tour or locate points of interest through interactive floor maps or by using the keypad.

Canadian Museum of Nature

Ottawa, Canada

The Nature Trek app at the Canadian Museum of Nature is designed specifically to engage young visitors. In this creative app, users are encouraged to explore this science museum by themes such as Gross, Bizarre, or Ugly. The app contains candid video interviews with museum curators and staff; and even includes a Highlight Tour of staff favorites around the museum. The app is offered in both French and English.

Cranbrook Educational Community

Bloomfield Hills, MI, United States

The official Cranbrook Educational Community app allows you to discover one of the world's leading centers of education, science, and art effortlessly. Explore Cranbrook and discover campus tours, art tours, garden tours and information on events of what critics call the most enchanted and enchanting setting in America. The app includes additional features such as, donation and point of interest alerts coming directly to your phone so you do not miss a stop.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

New York, NY, United States

To celebrate the reopening of their American Wing, the world-renowned Metropolitan Museum of Art teamed up with Green Door Labs and OnCell to develop an interactive mobile game called "Murder at the Met: An American Art Mystery". The smartphone app leads visitors on an investigative journey through the Museum

In the game, the mysterious Madame X has been murdered! Sleuths must use their smartphones to explore museum objects and interview suspects and witnesses to discover who the killer was, the weapon that was used, where she was murdered, and why

This game is an amazing example of the flexibility and power of the OnCell mobile platform. The app won a 2013 Bronze Muse Award in the Games and Augmented Reality category

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How the Creative Use of Museum Audio Tours is Attracting New Audiences

They say an image can convey a thousand words. But what about the context behind that image? Here’s how audio tours are helping to deepen museum-goers’ appreciation of exhibits and installations.

Audio guides certainly aren’t new to the museum scene. In fact, the idea of providing pre-recorded commentary on exhibits has been used for as long as portable devices have been available, providing visitors with supplementary information and context.

Originally introduced in the form of cassette players – where listeners had to periodically flip the tape to gain all the necessary information – audio guides are now more compact, easy to use and customisable than ever. Whether it’s via an app on one’s phone or a dedicated mp3 device rented out by the museum for the length of a visit, it’s never been easier to tap into essential knowledge.

Audio guides are used by thousands of museum visitors every year but, with a new wave of innovative technologies making their way into museums, should we be asking whether audio is becoming old news? Does the advent of the smart phone and handheld device present an existential crisis for the humble audiotape.

Well, perhaps we have said goodbye to the tape format for good but certainly not the audio experience. Whether it be breaking down language barriers or helping people to learn without resorting to reading signs and information boards, audio guides are as popular as ever – perhaps even more so, given that we now live in the age of the podcast .

However, institutions are adding further value to the traditional audio guide to create enhanced audio or “creative audio guides”.

Creativity in Museum Audio Guides

By using storytelling, creative audio guides give the listener a unique and engaging narrative to follow. This narrative is unique to a certain museum, or perhaps even a certain exhibition, ensuring a clear focus and message.

Graham Davies, Digital Programmes Manager at the Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum of Wales , describes how their museum doesn’t “currently supply traditional audio tours”, instead opting for “more dynamic and agile” audio methods to “complement its art installations.”

The best examples of museum audio guides are crafted by experienced production teams, who bring together a range of factors like professional voice actors, translators, sound editors and archivists to ensure a memorable and engrossing product for the target audience . By taking the time to identify and tailor content towards the appropriate audience, guide creators can meet the demands of children to history lovers; foreign visitors to art experts.

Percy Jackson: Bringing History to Modern Ears

A recent example of a successful creative museum audio guide is The Demigods, A Villa Audio Tour from the World of Percy Jackson , an exhibition at the Getty Villa in Malibu, California.

Inspired by the immensely popular Percy Jackson book series – in which a dyslexic twelve year old boy discovers his father is the Greek sea god Poseidon, and is sent to a training camp for demigods – the audio tour allowed fans of the books to embark on their own personal quest around the Getty Villa: a museum dedicated to the arts and cultures of the ancient Mediterranean world.

The museum contains 44,000 Greek, Roman and Etruscan antiquities, and the guide enabled listeners to meet heroes, avoid unfriendly gods and monsters, and of course learn about and interact with their surroundings.

This creative audio guide was successful because its story was perfectly paired both to its source material and its environment. By linking historical artefacts with an exciting fictional narrative and quest element, visitors (particularly children, of course) were able to learn about the exhibits in a fun and engaging context.

The choices they made and the answers they gave within the exhibition affected the conclusion of the guide’s story (which god or goddess is their parent), providing them with a unique, tailored museum experience that celebrated what they most enjoy.

How Have Creative Museum Audio Guides Been Implemented?

Culloden Battlefield Visitor Centre in the Scottish Highlands, managed by the National Trust for Scotland, is a museum dedicated to one of the bloodiest and most significant battles in British history. It is the site where, in April 1746, the Jacobites fought the Duke of Cumberland’s government troops. In the resulting bloodbath, 1600 men died – 1500 of which were Jacobites.

The visitor centre lies beside the battlefield, and houses artefacts from both armies, as well as interactive displays, to keep the memory of the battle alive. It also has a creative audio guide to match, one that uses a mixture of professional voice actors, folk songs of the time, and scripts developed by expert military historians to guide visitors through the field and monuments, giving an emotional (not to mention factual) context to the site.

The team behind the exhibition explain that their audio guide has a significant role to play in “engaging better with families and international visitors” as well as creating a “strong narrative”. In order to do this, they “developed scripts for both Adult and Family tours, which were also produced in a number of foreign languages. Over 300 devices are provided fully serviced and maintained.”

Similarly, in 2014, the British Museum sought to redesign its existing audio guide in order to appeal to a broader range of visitors. Available in ten languages and enjoyed by nearly 160,000 people each year, the new guide is designed to be highly customisable, taking into account how much time the listener has to spend in the museum, and how they would like to explore the exhibits.

Visitors can therefore choose to take a quick hour-long tour of the institution’s most popular collections, or embark on a themed tour based on their interests. The guide keeps track of what the visitor sees and creates a digital souvenir from the 220 objects displayed in the museum’s galleries. They can then send themselves this souvenir once the tour is over – an extra little touch that enables visitors to not only make memories but also revisit them.

What Makes a Successful Museum Audio Guide?

Before they began to redesign their audio guide, the British Museum set about researching the habits of its visitors, not just its audio guide users, to see why some people opted for audio guides, and others did not. The results were very interesting.

The main insight their research provided was that people want the freedom to explore a museum in their own way and in their own time. This means that any successful creative audio guide needs to be customisable, something both the British Museum and the Percy Jackson guide accomplish. Even if an audio guide provides more structure to the visitor experience, it should be a structure that allows for freedom of choice. A user cannot feel like they are playing a significant role in a story if they cannot affect the story’s outcome.

Several prototypes and 250 test visitors later and the results have proven to be incredibly popular at the British Museum.

One of the key takeaways at the British Museum – and one that is echoed in institutions around the world – is that entertaining visitors should be seen as being as valuable an objective as educating them. Acquiring knowledge for knowledge’s sake is made all the more interesting by appealing to a person’s emotions. In fact, in many cases learning and memory consolidation takes place more effectively when delivered through entertainment.

Interested in the latest thinking from Museums? Explore our MuseumNext event series here .

About the author – Rebecca Carlsson

Rebecca Carlsson is a journalist writing extensively about the arts. She has a passion for modern art and when she’s not writing about museums, she can be found spending her weekends in them.

• How museums can use image licensing to enrich engagement with digital audiences August 17 2021
• Personalising the audio tour experience through AI at the Smithsonian American Art Museum January 18 2024
• Reimagining Museum Tours: How Creatives are Transforming the Museum Experience July 15 2023
• International Spy Museum Offers Children in Hospital Virtual Tours June 09 2021
• Cooper Hewitt’s new Design and Healing exhibition showcases creative responses to COVID-19 December 10 2021

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Museum Audio Tour

U.S. Patent No. 10,959,051 & 11,496,863

Create Your Museum Audio Tour

Create and publish an audio tour in hours. 

Replace Clunky Audio Guides.

Easily mange/update anytime.

visitors get your tour on their Smart phone.

$599/Year or $59/Month

Create your Tour by Numbers audio tour in hours.

Easily mange your content.  , publish instantly in 10+ languages. , reduce overhead costs., ​no extra  devices and staff, no headphones needed to listen., with our patented "ear phone" feature the speaker is blocked and visitors can  listen only on the ear speaker.  quiet, like a museum should be.  .

Have your tour available on iPhone an Android, today.

Increase visitor engagement., unique tour qr codes so visitors can easily get the app. , increase social media with our easy sharing features. , easily engage and stay in contact with visitors.  , no narration  no problem, our text to audio feature publishes audio files in minutes., publish in 10+ languages.  with our language translation feature your text will be translated and audio created for 10+ languages., support.  we offer live training to get you up and running and are always here to help.  .

Extra Features and Services

We offer additional services including:, script writing, narration, production, on site set up and more.  ​, location aware hands free bluetooth beacon tours., visitors press start and put their phone in their pockets.  as they walk around the museum they interact with objects and hear their stories.  our patented location aware indoor tour.  ​, sign up and create your  museum audio tour today..

If you have any questions about our audio tours or how to use our platform, please don't hesitate to contact us. We are here to help!

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"This was the best tour experience I’ve ever had. It was so great that it was self guided, extremely easy to use and informative."

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"We loved it! Got to go at our own pace. The narrator even captures the vibe. Great product"

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HYBRID MULTIMEDIA GUIDE WITH TOUR GUIDE MODE

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As both a hardware manufacturer and a multimedia studio , Orpheo has been a key player in the culture and tourism market since 1992. For over 30 years, millions of visitors around the world have been using our solutions every day, immersing themselves in captivating cultural stories. Our commitment has always revolved around enhancing the visitor experience , with our dedicated teams designing tailored tours, creating multimedia content and overseeing on-site operations. We continue to apply this philosophy to craft unique experiences that align with evolving public expectations.

As a holistic provider, Orpheo delivers end-to-end visitor solutions encompassing both hardware and software, along with immersive content.

Orpheo is actively engaged in five complementary activities to address the diverse needs of museums, cultural institutions, and tourist sites: – Manufacturing of devices including audio and multimedia guides, tour guide systems, headset, and more. – Production of multimedia content ranging from audio to video and images, 3D and augmented reality. – Software development : developing mobile apps, VR headsets, and comprehensive ecosystems for seamless experiences. – Design and integration of audiovisual installations , elevating cultural spaces with cutting-edge audiovisual solutions. – Design and operation of night walks and immersive tours : creating unforgettable nocturnal experiences.

Orpheo earned its reputation as a trailblazer in the culture and tourism industry. Beyond manufacturing innovative products, we specialize in creating, translating, and recording inspirational audio and multimedia tours.Through a harmonious blend of creativity, interactivity, interpretation, and immersion, Orpheo is steadfast in its commitment to enriching the cultural journey for every visitor.

With over three decades of experience, our global footprint spans 12 subsidiaries and includes an extensive network of partners operating in more than 40 countries . To date, Orpheo has manufactured over 300,000 devices , produced thousands of hours of cultural content, and developed several hundreds of mobile apps to explore the world.

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​​​Audio / Video Tours

Whether you are a museum, cultural institution, heritage or historical site, zoo, or aquarium, our aim is to enhance the audio and visual experience of your visitors and open the door to reach new audiences. This revenue stream will not only expand the capabilities of the attraction, but will allow financial development for future exhibits.

Casework and Fabrication

Museum Works provides comprehensive services to museums and visitor centers that include exhibit requirement consulting, concept development, exhibit design, fabrication, installation, crating, transportation, and ongoing support.  We produce many of these products and services in-house, including audio and video, which allows us to offer competitive pricing.

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Caravaggio. Beyond the Canvas From October 6th 2018 to January 27th 2019 the Museo della Permanente hosts the immersive...

Audio Guide

Exhibition playlists.

The Harlem Renaissance and Transatlantic Modernism

Look Again: European Paintings 1300–1800

Art of Native America: The Charles and Valerie Diker Collection

The Calculated Curve: Eighteenth-Century American Furniture

Featured audio.

The Highlights Tour

Tour the Collection

Egyptian Art: Family Tour

The British Galleries

Musical Instruments: Fanfare

Musical Instruments: Mapping the Art of Music

Viewpoints: Body Language

Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera

Past exhibitions.

Africa & Byzantium

Manet/Degas

Tree & Serpent: Early Buddhist Art in India, 200 BCE–400 CE

Juan de Pareja, Afro-Hispanic Painter

Lives of the Gods: Divinity in Maya Art

Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux Recast

Hear Me Now: The Black Potters of Old Edgefield, South Carolina

The Tudors: Art and Majesty in Renaissance England

Winslow Homer: Crosscurrents

Inspiring Walt Disney: The Animation of French Decorative Arts

Making The Met, 1870–2020

In Praise of Painting: Dutch Masterpieces at The Met

• Preplanned tours
• Daytrips out of Moscow
• Themed tours
• Customized tours
• St. Petersburg

Monino aviation museum tour

The Central Airforce Museum in Monino, some 32km from Moscow is extremely popular among aircraft enthusiasts. Pre-soviet and Soviet planes, helicopters and jets are on display here. The tour price includes cost of transportation by car. You will be picked up from your hotel and taken back by car.

What to see in the museum:

ANT-2 - the first all-metal Russian aircraft

On ANT-25 several record-breaking flights were performed. Among them - a 60 hour non-stop flight from Moscow to Portland, Oregon in the United States.

The first ever supersonic passenger aircraft Tu-144

A unique, all-titanium reconnaissance jet-bomber the Sukhoi T-4

Tour duration : 5-6 hours Tour cost: 250 USD for 1-2 people, 280 USD for 3-5 people. Car/minivan service is included

This tour does not have a discounted price in winter

Additional expenses: museum entrance fee (150 RUB per person) 

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Here's why you must visit the Gulag Museum in Moscow

Children who were once labeled "enemies of the people" are now advanced in their years, but they can still recall the most terrible moments of their lives, when people in uniforms came for their parents late at night - the last time they ever saw them. Today, a young woman watches these video interviews in a room at the Gulag Museum. She starts to cry. A group of high school students hang on the guide's every word, dismay written on their faces. It seems they find it difficult to imagine that in the 1930s kids their own age found themselves behind barbed wire. Meanwhile, a group of foreigners sit in the museum cafe, trying to digest what they have just seen and unable to say a word.

In a prisoner's shoes

The Gulag History Museum  used to be based in a tiny building, but it recently moved to new premises and, with its huge archive, it now has a home of its own. The designers tried to make it look like a prison camp: intimidating steel gates, brickwork, dim light and lots of sullen and drab black color. From the very first minute, a visitor is immersed in the atmosphere of the darkest side of Soviet power - the terrible years of the Great Terror and repressions.

In the first room, you're greeted by numerous doors – a door from a camp barracks, a door from a cell in a remand prison in Magadan, a door from one of the Seven Sisters buildings in Moscow, from where people were taken away forever – it is a metaphor of moving to another, terrible world .

In the execution chamber, the floor is strewn with empty casings, while portraits of the murdered are projected onto a brick wall, one replacing another to the sound of cocking the gun. Archival footage shows prisoners working at a logging camp. There are personal items, including those found in mass graves. Once you're surrounded by all this, it is difficult to recover.

A system of reprisals from 1917 to Stalin's death

The purpose of the museum is to trace not only the history of the camps themselves, but of the entire system of political repressions. In order to show how executions without trial and investigation became part of the legal practice of the USSR, the museum displays documents, NKVD resolutions and quotes from leaders of the Revolution .

The Soviet authorities believed that in order to build a new world, it was necessary to exterminate people who, in one way or another, allegedly sabotaged it. The list of these categories of people was forever expanding. “Repression for the attainment of economic ends is a necessary weapon of the socialist dictatorship,” said one of the main ideologists of the revolution, Leon Trotsky .

The first political prisoners in the USSR were put into existing prisons and monasteries, from where monks were being expelled. A separate section of the exhibition is devoted to the Solovki Special-Purpose Camp, the first of its kind. Later, in the 1930s, during the years of the Great Terror, camps were built across the country and convict labor became one of the pillars of the Soviet economy.

For the first time, Gulag is presented through multimedia

The museum also offers audio versions of memoirs of people who went through the camps: the author of The Kolyma Tales , Varlam Shalamov; Alexander Solzhenitsyn (who has a separate room dedicated to his life); Leo Tolstoy’s daughter Alexandra; and many others .

An interactive map of the Gulag shows the chronology, location, number of prisoners and types of camps (corrective labor, special, screening and filtration) throughout the country. It is available online, so you can see it without visiting the museum - gulagmap.ru .

With the help of a VR helmet, you can take a virtual tour with museum director Roman Romanov around what remains of the Butugychag camp in the Russian Far East, where inmates worked in uranium mines without wearing any radiation protection. The museum plans to develop more virtual tours like this .

All information in the museum is translated into English; same as all the audio materials, and the videos have English subtitles. The museum has a documents center, where one can get information about victims of repressions.

In the last room, a voice on the speaker system reads out the names of people who were wrongfully convicted and killed. A young couple, holding hands and motionless, listen to the seemingly endless list. As part of the finale, there are horrifying figures displayed on the black wall: during the Great Terror, more than 20 million people were sent to prison camps; two million died there, and 700,000 were executed.

Watch Russia Beyond documentary: The memory of the Solovetsky islands  

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Russian Submarine Museum

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