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KADIR, TURKEY: In a region of the world steeped in history, a new museum is showing off some of the very latest in audio distribution technology.
The Kadir HAS City & Mimarsinan Museum has installed Sennheiser's Guideport wireless visitor information system to deliver pre-recorded audio to visitors as they tour the exhibits.
The Kadir HAS City & Mimarsinan Museum, that opened in Turkey's Kayseri Municipality at the end of 2002, is using Sennheiser's Guideport wireless visitor information system to deliver pre-recorded audio to visitors as they make their way around the exhibits.
Using a wearable headset/receiving unit that automatically picks up explanatory audio based on the precise location, visitors are able to view exhibits and watch recorded video at touch point monitor kiosks furnished by Ipek Computer Ltd., a leading Turkish computer software and hardware company. Ipek was instrumental in helping bring the new museum to fruition. The kiosks utilize Ipek City Guide software that enables visitors to access a variety of information regarding the city as well.
The museum's exhibits cover a broad swath of history related to what is believed to be one of the world's oldest cities nestled in the mountains 165 miles southeast of Ankara. The city, which sits near Mt. Argaeus, an extinct volcano, was subjected to the effects of a massive earthquake in 1938, which left the area with a 40-mile long fault that at some points is a mile deep. Subjects covered included Kayseri's history, historical places, geography and population, natural beauty, handicrafts, modern Kayseri, education, agriculture and trade.
Unlike other exhibit audio systems that require users to press buttons that correspond to their location to activate the correct audio, Guideport allows for automatic starting and stopping depending on where the visitor is in the museum, and is virtually hands-free. A button on the receiver allows manual starting and stopping, as well as restarting of the location-specific audio from the beginning. The unit also allows for manual volume control and language selection.
The exhibit floor is partitioned into multiple cells, each of which covers the area of one or more of the galleries. Associated with each cell and program type, whether English or Turkish, are a base transmitter and an antenna. All audio files reside digitally in the base transmitters and are continuously broadcast into their respective cell. As a cell is entered, an identifier triggers the visitor's receiver, initiating a rapid download of the audio into the storage unit's memory. Similar triggering is done as the visitors move around the gallery.
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