I think it would be advantageous to post a list of audioguide companies who
offer nonlinear digital equipment.

After the last AAM meeting I contacted one of the biggest companies in the
business to request info on their system. The annual cost of putting 100
units in a museum was in excess of $60,000 per year rental, no purchase
options were available, and the cost of creating the nonlinear program was
in excess of $20,000. Clearly the vendor was disinterested in offering a
system affordable to any but the largest museums, despite the fact that the
market was primarily smaller museums.

My guess is that a company capable of putting a flashram system on the
market for $250 a unit, and enabling the client to inexpensively record
his/her own program, will own the market. Companies only interested in
selling to the BIG museums should study what happened to IBM when PCs were
introduced and their subsequent failure to develop affordable systems for
Joe and Jane average. Let's see now, 3,000+ museums in the U.S., most of
them small . . .hmmm?

Byron A. Johnson, Exec. Dir.
The Tampa Bay History Center
E-Mail: [log in to unmask]
after 2/26 The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum