Audio specialists Sennheiser have developed a completely new information system for exhibitions and leisure parks. Sennheiser’s ”GuidePort” system allows visitors to freely plan their own guided tour while the audio information ”follows them around” – rather than the visitors having to follow the information. Apart from offering the usual selection of languages, GuidePort has an extra special feature: visitors can choose from several levels of information. Museums, for example, can provide information that is tailor-made for children and adults. Unlike infra-red systems, GuidePort uses RF transmission, which means that it can used in daylight and in the open air without any difficulties: the sound is always clearly comprehensible.

”We traditionally have a high level of expertise in the field of visitor information systems”, says Rolf Meyer, President of Marketing and Sales at Sennheiser. ”We are therefore especially proud of GuidePort, as it is a system with completely new components and innovative logics which sets new standards in its field.” Norbert Hilbich, Product Manager for GuidePort, adds: ”Thanks to the liberalization of radio frequency ranges in recent years, a window became available at 2.4 Gigahertz which is ideally suited for guidance systems of this kind. With the exception of Japan, every customer can make free use of this frequency band without having to get a license.

The End of the Endless Loop
”Right at the start of the development, we carried out a market survey”, says Norbert Hilbich. ”We wanted to know, for example, what visitors find most annoying about using conventional information systems. The result was: the endless loop. Visitors come up to the exhibit, the speaker is somewhere in the middle of the explanation and they first have to listen until the end before the speaker starts all over again. The main demand was therefore: No more endless loops!”

GuidePort works in a different way: next to each exhibit there is an ”identifier”, a small transmitter that sends out an identification signal. Each identification signal belongs to a certain text. As soon as a visitor comes within range of the identifier, the receiver reacts and, after a pre-specified time – typically one second – starts to play the information on the exhibit from the beginning.
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1. Visitor with a GuidePort receiver
2. Receivers can be handed out directly from the charging station
3. The identifier triggers the audio programme for each exhibit
4. The cell transmitters are supplied with audio information from a central PC
5. The cell transmitters are connected to antenna modules which transmit the information
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My Information Area – Your Information Area
The identifier means that each exhibit has a certain radius within which ”its” information is triggered. The receiver can be given a different pre-setting for adjacent exhibits. As Norbert Hilbich explains: ”For example, a text can be made to continue only until the visitor approaches the next exhibit. Then it is faded out and the new text begins. It is also possible to fade out the text as soon as the visitor has moved a certain distance away from the identifier. The identifier usually has a transmission radius of three meters, but this can also be reduced in steps of 10%. If one needs to increase the radius – for example for a large sculpture or a larger area in a theme park – one simply uses several identifiers, all of which trigger the same information.”

Information at Every Level
GuidePort makes it easy to organize tailor-made guided tours, as the convenient receiver allows the visitor to choose not only from different languages but also between different levels of information. Kids will have much more fun visiting museums and experts will no longer be bored by listening to information that is just right for the non-expert.

The Technology Behind It
GuidePort stores all the audio data in a central computer which sends the information to so-called ”cell transmitters” in the exhibition rooms. The cell transmitters continuously transmit all the audio information for their area (”cell”) of the exhibition via antenna modules. As soon as a visitor enters this area, the receiver loads all the audio texts for this ”cell” into its RAM. On the basis of the visitor’s selection, the receiver knows what information it needs to call up – for example, ”Spanish / expert level”. Since the receiver has already stored all the texts for a certain area, the visitor is free to move around – all explanations are available and are then triggered by the identifiers.
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The GuidePort system will revolutionize museums and exhibitions. The picture shows the visitor’s receiver, the practical clip-on headset, the charging station and the identifier.
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Norbert Hilbich: ”We use data reduction for the digital transmission but not MPEG, since computing times are still too high for Realtime Audio. We use a much faster algorithm. With a latency (i.e. time delay) of less than 10 milliseconds, GuidePort is able to provide lip sync video and multi-media presentations.”

Since the GuidePort receiver loads the texts over again for every tour, the system is always ”on air” and therefore always accessible for special announcements, information on events, etc., etc. What is more, it makes it relatively easy to change or expand an exhibition. The updated texts are simply fed into the corresponding cell transmitters – and the next visitor can already hear the updated information.

Training Included
Such a flexible system as GuidePort obviously requires a certain complexity, and for this reason, Sennheiser provides training in the use of the system as part of its customer service. As Norbert Hilbich explains: ”Sennheiser organizes special training sessions lasting at least a day not only for sales partners but also for staff of PA companies and operators on-site. Our partners should then be able to train their customers, for example the technical staff of a theme park.”

”It’s true that a certain amount of effort is required in providing on-site training, but for us it is a major part of the product and e nsures that the system works without problems. The system installation is carried out by our partners together with the museum planners. When it comes to detailed programming, it works the other way round: the museum operator is in charge and our people help out.”

”Till next time…”
GuidePort can log how each visitor moves through the leisure park or the exhibition. Operators can then use this information for statistical purposes or even to optimize the exhibition. For example, they can give more space to popular exhibits or relocate a souvenir shop to a particularly popular route. And visitors also benefit from this ”log book”: on the basis of this personal souvenir, they can follow the route they have taken, see where they haven’t yet been and perhaps even plan their next visit.

As the world’s leading manufacturer of microphones, headphones and wireless transmission systems, the Sennheiser Group with its headquarters in Wedemark near Hanover, Germany, had total sales of approx. DM 396 million in 2000. The export share is 80%. Sennheiser has a total workforce of approx. 1,300 employees, of whom about 61% are employed in Germany. Sennheiser is active world-wide and, in addition to other partnerships, has its own sales subsidiaries in France, the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands, China, Singapore, Canada, Mexico and the USA.

For further information, please contact:

Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG

Public Relations • Edelgard Marquardt
Am Labor 1 • 30900 Wedemark
Tel: +49 (5130) 600-329
Fax: +49 (5130) 600-295
e-mail: marquare@sennheiser.com