Tour Guide Systems FAQ

A wireless audio Tour Guide System allows for either a group of people - or several groups of people – to listen either to guides giving commentary or to pre-recorded audio. The guide has a transmitter – typically a bodypack device or handheld microphone. The tour participants have a receiver: again, typically a bodypack device.

A wireless audio Tour Guide System will consist of several components ranging from, wireless handheld microphones, or wireless bodypack transmitters utilising either an internal microphone, lapel microphone or a head-worn microphone headset. Participants on a tour will either wear a bodypack receiver, or bodypack receiver that has a talkback function; both units typically require the use of headphones. Completing a Tour Guide System will also require the use of a charging system, being either a fixed location charger or portable charging case.

It’s important to select a Tour Guide System that has suitable, cost effective and easy to clean tour guide headsets and/or headphones that are used to receive audio from the wireless receiver.

In the case of the beyerdynamic Unite receivers, a personal hearing loop can be used with the receivers allowing participants with hearing disabilities the ability to utilise their hearing aids during the tour.

Depending on the receiver equipment chosen and used, participants on a tour may also be able to communicate and interact with the tour guide and other participants in their tour. The ability to offer participants interactivity via the tour guide equipment can provide afar more valuable experience.

Depending on the Tour GuideSystem you buy it may be best suited to a single location, multiple locations, or for portable off-site use.

A Tour Guide System can support one or more tour groups at any one time, depending on the model selected. It is important before you buy a Tour Guide System to determine how many tour groups you expect to have running at the same time.

A Tour Guide System can support one or more tour guides per tour group, depending on the model selected. For example, a second guide could be a talking in another language to some of the group or be a specialist on a specific topic talking to the full group.

Tour Guide Systems -depending on the model - have limits on the total number of participants in each tour group, and limits on the total number of participants in all the groups at the same time. It is important before you buy a Tour Guide System to determine how many participants per tour group you will have, and how many participants you will have at the same time in total. For example, the beyerdynamic system can allow for up to 32 tour groups running in conjunction at any one time. Each tour group can theoretically have a countless number of participants; only being limited to the number of participants that can fit within a 300m line of sight radius from the tour guide in their group.

Charging and storage systems are used to charge equipment like transmitters and receivers. These can be installed in a fixed location or be mobile if portable charging and storage equipment is available.

Tour Guide Systems are available that allow both live commentary and pre-recorded audio streamed from a media device. For example, a guide gets to a specific point or time in the tour where they then stop to stream audio from a pre-recorded video that the participants listen to through their tour guide receiver while watching the video on a screen. This is a feature of advanced Tour Guide Systems such as the beyrdynamic Tour Guide System.At a particular point during a tour the guide can choose to use their primary bodypack transmitter by feeding an audio signal into the transmitter via a3.5mm input, USB-C input or via Bluetooth. As a further option a guide may choose to carry two transmitters, allowing for the second unit to be used in the same way. This allows for seamless communication from the guides primary bodypack transmitter while the additional transmitter is being connected and made ready for the audio stream to start.

It is possible to select a TourGuide System that can be re-tasked for other purposes such as meetings, conferences, assistive listening and interpretation applications.

Some Tour Guide Systems can be used to provide digital or virtual tours streamed online including via social media. The beyerdynamic system can allow for a total of three bi-directional audio signals at any onetime. As an example, up to three people can talk and transmit their audio signal to a bodypack receiver that can then send its audio feed directly into numerous devices such as, Smart Phones, Cameras, Tablets and Computers that are online feeding both audio and video to the Internet.

When buying a Tour Guide System, it’s important to look for a solution that can scale to meet your future needs. This can mean increased participant and group numbers, or additional applications.