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]