Our Executive Director has asked that we prepare a low budget,
in-house audio tour for our upcoming exhibit "The Lanps of
Tiffany".  His thought is that we would use a stock Walkman with
 
a locally produced audio tape.  We're expecting that 5,000
persons might use these over a 12 week period.   I would like to
 
hear from anyone who has done this before and could offer some
advice and answer  the following questions;
         1) what equipment is best (specific brand & model if
possible)
         2) are the units which the profession aodio-tour
companies rent available for retail purchase or wholesale in
quantities of 20-30? from whom?
         3) in producing the audio tape, is it better to design it
to play continuously, with built in pauses for the visitor to
walk from point A to B, or should the visitor start and stop the
 
tape?
         4) what is the optimum length for each segment?  entire
 
tour?
         5) how are sanitary concerns with the headphones
addressed? cleanable, washable covers, or disposable?  if the
latter, what is a source?
         6) is it better to use rechargable batteries or standard
alkaline?
         7) what should we charge the visitor?
         8) what problems are we likely to encounter that we
should address up-front?
I have already called a number of professional companies in the
AAM directory, most of whom offer full service, and weren't too
helpful at discussing low budget strategies?  any advice would be
appreciated.
 
Sheldon Schafer
Deputy Director, Science/Planetarium Director
Lakeview Muweum of Arts and Sciences
1125 W Lake Ave Peoria, Il 61614
(309) 6867000,   E-Mail   [log in to unmask]