Mobile technology - Mobile guides

The Prestongrange mobile phone tour originally began with a concept for an audio tour for the site ? a remnant of the Industrial Revolution in Prestonpans, East Lothian. At the end of 2002, East Lothian Council Museums Service (ELCMS) approached Audio Exhibitions with the intention of creating a self-guided audio tour on domestic MP3 players, recalls Andy Wood. These are very cost-efficient and provide the same audio quality as purpose-built audio wands since both employ the same playback technology.

However, due to budgetary constraints, the visitor centre, where MP3 players were to be issued, closes from October until April each year. Even when open, the visitor centre is only staffed from 11am until 4pm, and relying solely on the MP3 players would have meant that visitors to the site outside these times would not have access to the audio tour ? not ideal given that there is little alternative interpretation of the industrial archaeology on-site.

We needed an alternative to the MP3 tour; a system whereby the audio tour was available all day and all year. Recalling details of a mobile phone service a friend had seen in Malta, I investigated the possibility of re-using the content of the MP3 tour for a mobile-phone audio tour at Prestongrange and discovered that it was feasible to make material available by phone. This was proposed to ELCMS, who were very keen to use the new technology at Prestongrange ? not least because it had never been used at a heritage site in the UK before.

The accessibility of the tour is its most significant advantage over all other types of audio tour. The tour is very simple to use, and works in a similar way to a conventional audio tour ? visitors simply call the main tour number (0870 national rate) and select the track relevant to the part of the site they are calling from. Signs around the site clearly mark the phone number and the appropriate option required. The largest single proportion of current contract users pay 10p a minute for the tour (some network providers include the number in ?free? allowances), and given that 75% of adults aged 15 and over now own mobile phones (Oftel, 2003), the majority of visitors to Prestongrange are able to access the phone tour if they wish. Importantly, visitors pay only for what they use.

Delivering an audio tour by mobile phone opens up the interpretative medium to heritage and arts venues with limited budgets and staff. Whereas a conventional audio tour requires staff to distribute and collect audio wands, the mobile phone tour does not; nor are there ongoing (and often expensive) hardware costs in terms of the rental and/or maintenance of equipment. Instead, there is a nominal monthly fee, which covers the hosting of the tour. Material can be updated as and when required ? even on a daily basis. This allows the content held on the mobile phone tour to reach beyond the interpretative to the point where almost any information ? whether it be access details or news of existing and forthcoming events and exhibitions ? can be presented to visitors.

We can expect to see this technology become more widespread in the future; indeed, at around the same time the Prestongrange tour became active, a Blue Plaques mobile phone tour was launched in London in conjunction with English Heritage. However, these types of tours are likely to grow beyond their traditional domain of city centres. Our historic buildings and landscapes are not restricted to city centres and the technology is now here to tell the stories behind our cultural and natural heritage, anywhere with network coverage.