When you start a VoiceMap tour, you select its transport type from a dropdown list that includes the following:
- Walk
- Drive
- Indoor
- Cycle
- Train Trip
- Boat Ride
- Run
- Other
The most important distinction is between outdoor tours, which use automatic GPS playback, and indoor tours. GPS doesn’t work indoors and to accommodate this we display a different user interface better suited to the curating an audio guide. But every type has its own conventions and challenges, especially when it comes to how you give directions – or whether you need to give them at all.
This section of the tutorial is an overview of these conventions and challenges. It also includes links to specific sections in the tutorial that deal with each step of the process in detail.
Outdoor Tours #
Walking tours #
Walking tours form the majority of our available tours.
A walking tour is made up of a route line that the listener walks, and a sequence of GPS triggered points we call locations, that contain content and directions and automatically play back in the form of audio files.
The listener is guided by the narrator’s voice from one location to the next. When a listener walks into a location, the audio begins to play, and will play until it’s finished. This means we need to make sure that by the time a listener reaches the next location, the audio for the current location is finished. This is done matching the travel time to the talk time in the form of word counts.
GPS allows you to be incredibly accurate with where a location will trigger, for example pointing out a statue just before the listener passes it by. When done right, this can create some magical moments. One of our editors will work with you to make sure your script works logistically as an audio tour and help you bring your story to life the best way possible.
Nearly all our tours are sequential, meaning they have set a start and end, and follow a predetermined route. But you can also create a tour that is non-sequential, meaning there is no set route and a location can be triggered in any order.
Driving tours #
Driving tours differ in multiple ways from walking or cycling tours.
- They take place over greater distances and involve less stopping.
- The route line doesn’t have to be mapped out in Mapmaker
- They have fluctuations in the average speed, which effects the word count between locations
- They emphasise clear navigation and require directions being given in advance, for example, preparing to exit off a highway or changing lanes to make a turn.
- More thought needs to be put into the relationship between content and the space in between content, to allow for conversation over longer stretches.
- Driving tours can be made non-sequential and can have locations that only play in a particular direction, eg having content that can play depending on if the listener is going up or down a street.
Cycling tours #
An audio cycling tour is a great way to liven up a cycle along your favourite bike path, or reveal a city’s lesser explored corners.
We can help you get the most out of your cycling tour, from deciding on the best starting point for your route, to working out the timing between locations.
Train tours #
Audio tours offer a perfect companion for a train journey. Like driving tours, they can take place over longer routes. Content can also be reused to create a tour that works in both directions. They do pose their own set of challenges, such as variations in speed, trains that skip stations depending on schedules, and wait times at stations.
Boat and ferry tours #
Whether you’re creating a relaxed river kayak excursion or a ferry boat trip that works in both directions, we can help you get the most out of your aquatic endeavour.
Indoor tours #
If you want to create a tour indoors, where GPS triggering doesn’t work, such as a museum, art gallery or even a wine cellar, then the Indoor tour option is what you’re looking for.
Indoor tours work differently from all other tour types, in that they don’t use GPS to automatically trigger a location.