INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA: The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) uses "It's the Journey" as a tagline to describe the unique personality of its hall of fame documenting decades of student athletics - the NCAA Hall of Champions. Indeed, the hall is a testament to the dedication required over the course of many years - the journey - to become the type of outstanding student athlete celebrated inside its walls.

But just seeing the all of the exhibits in the 25,000-square-foot hall spread over two floors is a journey unto itself for most of the 60,000-plus visitors who annually make the pilgrimage to Indianapolis, home to both the hall and the NCAA headquarters.

For the average visitor, the sheer size of the hall can be daunting, posing a real challenge to those who want to see, either as much of everything as possible, or make a beeline to exhibitions of their favorite sports.

For the first time in the hall's five years of existence, though, experiencing all the entire hall has to offer, at a progression and pace that better suits the individual visitor, is now much more feasible.

A new automated audio tour guide system - guidePORT by Sennheiser - gives visitors more freedom than ever to roam the hall at their leisure, and a new ability to learn more about the exhibits than ever before. The wireless, radio-frequency based system, that delivers descriptive audio files to light weight headsets as visitors enter specific zones, greatly enhances the visitor experience, replacing a docent system that put too many constraints on visitors.

"Over the course of five years we had noticed that many visitors move at their own pace," says George Smith, managing director of the Hall of Champions. "This new system enables them to do that and ensures that we're able to communicate all the information that's important for them to know as they peruse the exhibits."

With guidePORT, visitors simply pick up two simple components - a clip-on personal wireless receiver unit and a lightweight headset - as they enter the hall. As they walk the different areas of the hall, which covers 23 sports and encompasses NCAA Division I, II and III, the receiver automatically picks up the descriptive audio specific to the area they've just entered. In total, there are currently 28 separate zones for which unique audio files have been created.

In each of the zones, discretely placed wireless identifier units sense when a visitor has entered. The receiver is then activated via a multi-channel radio frequency wireless transmitter, and the appropriate audio file is quickly downloaded into the receiver, where it's stored and transmitted to the headset.

The final piece of guidePORT's wireless wonder is five antennas that are strategically placed throughout the exhibit area. The antennae allow the receivers and the cell transmitters to communicate and inter-operate. The antennae are specially designed to operate indoors on a frequency ideal for digital audio and resistant to outside interference.

NCAA's initial exposure to guidePORT encompasses a modest complement of 20 receivers. But more than 5,000 NCAA logo-enhanced headsets were ordered, allowing NCAA to give many to visitors as a souvenir. In addition, three transmitter units are deployed and are connected to the transmitters via Cat 5 cable. In total, the 28 digital audio files, which are stored on a computer, comprise a combined 30 minutes of audio.

The guidePORT system was brought to NCAA's attention by its AV systems consultant, Markey's Audio Visual Inc., an Indianapolis-based AV systems integrator. Brad Ehrlich, the NCAA account manager for Markey's, who maintains an office on site at the NCAA headquarters, says guidePORT looked like the ideal answer to the hall's challenge of finding a way to improve the hall visitor's total experience.

"We had always talked with NCAA about installing some sort of guided tour system in the hall and we were on the lookout for products that fit the bill," he says. "We brought guidePORT to the hall's attention and after testing it out they liked the concept."

Today, each of the roughly 500 visitors that go through the hall each week, are getting a chance to experience the exhibits in a way that the many thousands who have gone before weren't able to. While guidePORT allows visitors to experience the hall at their leisure, the receivers are engineered to give the visitor limited control. A rewind button allows them to start each audio presentation from the start, while a pause button gives them another level of control. Also, a volume control feature allows them to tailor the volume to their needs.

"We didn't have anything like this before," Smith says. "Unlike personal tours, which can cause some visitors to miss portions of a presentation, guidePORT leaves nothing out."

In addition to giving the visitors an enhanced experience, the system also has given NCAA more opportunities to transmit useful information to visitors and to learn more about how visitors move through the hall. Currently, NCAA has included one audio file that reminds visitors to stop by the gift shop. In addition, the system is configured to include software that tracks the exact paths of visitors as well as time spent at each exhibit. It also utilizes software that allows live announcements to be transmitted to the headsets.
One of the great advantages to the system is its ability to be easily adapted to future needs. "There's definitely room to expand the system by simply adding more receivers as needed," Ehrlich says.