On weekends, the museum is always crowded with people – just as you have stopped at the display case of bronze artifacts with the guide, the voice of the explanation from the adjacent exhibition hall has drifted over, buzzing and disrupting your train of thought; the child wants to take a closer look at that Tang Sancai, but the main group has already moved to the next exhibition area, and you can only hurriedly follow along, not even hearing the explanation clearly; before leaving, you also have to remember to return the rented explanation device, for fear of accidentally losing it and incurring a loss. If you have had such an experience when visiting the museum, then today you must definitely talk about the “black technology” in the museum – multi channel tour guide system.
It is not like the relics displayed in the showcases, which are “silent”, nor is it like the explanation device you hold in your hand. Instead, it is the “invisible tour guide” hidden in every corner of the museum: as you enter a certain exhibition area, the explanation will automatically play; even if multiple groups are visiting simultaneously, they will not interfere with each other; without wearing any equipment, the elderly and children can enjoy it easily. Today, let’s talk from the perspective of tourists about how useful this system is and what troubles it can solve in the museum.
Problems Encountered While Visiting Museums
Before coming into contact with multi channel tour guide system, I always felt that visiting museums was a “both-liked-and-fearful” experience – I loved the stories behind the artifacts, but was afraid that a bad explanation would ruin my mood. If we think carefully, the troubles that we tourists often encounter actually fall into three points:
Unable to hear clearly, being disturbed
Especially in popular museums, several groups crowded in adjacent exhibition halls. This tour guide was explaining “the firing process of blue and white porcelain”, while another tour guide was talking about “the symbolic meanings of the patterns on Ming and Qing furniture”. The voices mixed together, and in the end, nothing could be understood. Once in the modern history exhibition area of a certain museum, I managed to get to the front to listen to the details. However, suddenly the explanation of the children’s group next door raised the volume, instantly diverting all my attention. I could only helplessly shake my head and leave.
Not having freedom, being pushed along
All traditional explanations follow the pattern of “the guide leads the way, and the tourists follow”. When encountering an exhibit that interests you and you want to stay for a few more minutes to examine the details, the main group has already moved forward. You either have to give up or have to run after them at a fast pace, making the museum visit a “race”. When I took my parents to the museum, the elderly had slow legs and often couldn’t keep up with the group. In the end, they could only look at the exhibits randomly and didn’t even have a clear understanding of the basic historical background.
Equipment issues, fear of loss
Some museums offer handheld audio guides. Holding them makes it difficult to take photos and view the exhibits; wearing headphones can cause discomfort over time, and there’s always the worry of losing them – I’ve heard of tourists leaving their audio guides in the exhibition hall and having to pay several hundred dollars as a compensation. Moreover, the battery life of the audio guides is limited. If you run out of power halfway through your visit, you’ll be left to “witness in silence” the remaining sections.
These problems, in essence, stem from the fact that the traditional explanation method fails to meet the needs of our tourists – what we want is “I can listen however I choose when I’m exploring”, rather than “I follow exactly what others do”. And multi channel tour guide system precisely addresses these issues.
The intelligent guide assistant in the museum
Perhaps you might wonder, this system sounds quite impressive. How does it work exactly? In fact, it’s not that complicated. To put it simply, the museum divides the entire venue into several “independent guide areas”, each of which has its own speaker and intelligent sensing device, and is then uniformly managed through the central system.
You don’t need to wear any equipment or press any buttons. When you follow the guide to the A exhibition hall, the sensing device in the hall will immediately “recognize” you and automatically turn on the speakers in this area to play the explanations for the A exhibition hall. Once you reach the B exhibition hall, the speakers in the A hall will automatically turn off and the speakers in the B hall will turn on simultaneously. The entire process is like “someone gently turning on and off the radio behind you”, and you don’t have to worry about anything.
What’s even more convenient is that these “small spaces” do not interfere with each other. Even if a team in the A exhibition hall is listening to the explanation about bronze artifacts, and another team in the B exhibition hall is listening to the explanation about calligraphy and paintings, the sounds from both sides will not blend together – you can only hear the content of the A exhibition hall in the A exhibition hall, and the content of the B exhibition hall in the B exhibition hall. Even if the two exhibition halls are very close to each other, there will be no noise interference.
My first experience was last year when I visited the Palace Museum in Beijing. At that time, I was puzzled: There were several foreign groups around me, but all I heard was Chinese explanations. The foreign tourists nearby heard in English, and the sound was very clear. Even though there was some noise on Tahe Hall Square, it didn’t affect the listening. Later, I asked the staff and found out that the Palace Museum uses the multi channel tour guide system. It divides the 720,000 square meters of exhibits into 38 “intelligent units”, and supports automatic switching between four languages – Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean – and the system will match the appropriate language for you based on your language preference. It’s very flexible.
The four core applications in the museum
If you think this system is just “automatically turning on the horn”, you are underestimating it. During actual museum visits, it can help us solve many specific problems and even make the otherwise boring visit more interesting. Now let’s talk about the four most practical applications of this system in the museum, each of which meets the needs of our visitors.
Automatic explanation
This is the most basic and practical function – you no longer have to follow the tour guide’s pace and “rush through” the exhibition. Instead, you can stroll through the exhibition at your own pace. For example, when you approach a display case of Tang Sancai, the speaker will automatically start to give a description: “This group of Tang Sancai is a burial item from the Tang Dynasty. It is mainly composed of yellow, green, and white colors, and showcases the superb pottery-making technique of that time…” If you want to take a closer look at the details, just stand there and listen; when you are done listening and want to leave, just a few meters away from the display case, the explanation will automatically stop. It won’t be like the traditional explanation where “you keep talking even when you leave, or you start talking before you arrive”.
Moreover, the positioning of this system is extremely accurate, and there won’t be a situation like “you are in the A exhibition hall but hear the explanation from the B exhibition hall”. The staff said that it uses a “high-precision positioning technology”. Even if the layout of the museum’s exhibition halls is complex, such as having corners or partitions, the system can accurately determine where you are, with an extremely small error. Just like when you use a navigation system to find a store in a shopping mall and won’t get lost, this system won’t allow you to “mishear the explanation”.
Multilingual automatic switching
Nowadays, more and more foreign tourists are visiting museums. However, many museums only offer Chinese explanations. Foreign tourists either have to find a translator or can only read the text descriptions, which greatly reduces their experience. The multilingual function of multi channel tour guide system precisely solves this problem.
Just like the case of the Forbidden City in Beijing, the system supports four languages – Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean. Foreign tourists can simply select their preferred language in the museum’s mini-program before entering the museum. Once they reach a certain exhibition hall, they will be able to hear the corresponding language explanation. According to the data, since the Forbidden City adopted this system, the proportion of foreign tourists has increased by 27%. Many foreign tourists said that before visiting the Forbidden City, they could only see the “appearance” of the buildings and artifacts. Now they can understand the historical stories behind them, such as the functions of the Taihe Hall and the symbolic meaning of the dragon throne. The sense of gain from visiting the exhibition has also become much stronger.
I once met a French couple at a museum in Xi’an. They were listening to the French interpretation of the Terracotta Army. The gentleman told me that when they visited other museums before, they could only rely on their wife’s Chinese language skills to “guess” the content of the explanations. This time, with the French interpretation available, they were finally able to clearly understand “Each Terracotta Army figure has a different expression” and “How the Terracotta Army was discovered”. They even deliberately spent a little more time exploring the exhibition. This “language barrier-free” experience not only facilitated foreign tourists but also enabled our Chinese culture to be better disseminated.
Manual + Pre-recorded Audio Dual Mode
Many tourists have a confusion: When following a tour guide, they can hear interesting stories, but the professional details might be insufficient; when reading the textual explanations, the professional details are sufficient, but they are too boring. multi channel tour guide system combines “manual explanation” and “pre-recorded audio”, precisely meeting the needs of different tourists.
On the one hand, the tour guide can use a microphone to give real-time explanations, such as telling the historical stories behind the cultural relics and the interesting facts about archaeological discoveries – these “live contents” cannot be matched by pre-recorded audio. For example, in a certain red museum, when the guide was talking about “the binoculars used by the Eighth Route Army”, he added that “this binoculars was captured by the soldiers from the enemy and had accompanied the soldiers in three battles”, such details made the cultural relics come to life instantly, which was much more touching than simple textual explanations.
On the other hand, the system can also store some professional audio content, such as the manufacturing process of cultural relics, their historical background, and academic research results. If you are particularly interested in a certain artifact and want to learn more in depth, you don’t have to chase after the tour guide to ask questions. Just stay in front of the display case for a while, and the pre-stored audio will automatically play. For example, in the calligraphy and painting exhibition area, the pre-stored audio will explain “Is this painting’s brushwork ‘meticulous’ or ‘impressionistic’?” “Are the pigments natural minerals or synthetic?” These professional knowledge can satisfy tourists who like to “dive deep into the exhibition”.
I have a friend who loves collecting. Every time he goes to the museum, he always finishes listening to the pre-recorded audio. He said, “Before, if I wanted to learn about the technical details of the artifacts, I could only look up information in books. Now, I can hear the experts’ explanations right in the exhibition hall, which is extremely convenient. Sometimes the tour guide speaks too fast and I don’t catch everything. In that case, the pre-recorded audio has additional explanations, which is like having ‘double guarantees’.”
Sound and light synchronization, creating a full atmosphere
If you have visited a museum with a multi channel tour guide system, you might have noticed a detail: when you enter a certain exhibition hall, the lights will gradually turn on; and when you leave, the lights will gradually dim again – this is the “sound and light synchronization” function. Not only is it energy-saving, but it also adds to the atmosphere of the exhibition.
For instance, in the “Ancient Life Exhibition Area” of a certain museum, when you approach the recreated scene of a “Song Dynasty Study”, the audio explanation begins: “This is the study of a scholar in the Song Dynasty. On the table are the ‘Four Treasures of the Study’, namely the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone…” At the same time, the lights in the study will gradually come on, illuminating the pen, ink, paper, and inkstone on the table, as if someone is “turning on the lights to show you” the scene; while the “Tang Dynasty Bedroom” scene next to it remains dim, not distracting your attention. This “the lights illuminate wherever the explanation reaches” experience is like watching a small theater, with an extremely strong sense of immersion.
When I took my parents to visit the museum, my mother said, “In the past, the lights in the museum were either all on or all off. Sometimes, to see the details of the artifacts clearly, one had to find the right angle. Now, wherever you go, the lights turn on accordingly. They are neither dazzling nor do they prevent you from seeing the artifacts clearly. It’s really very considerate.” Moreover, this interconnection can also protect the artifacts – some artifacts are sensitive to light and cannot be exposed to strong light for a long time. The system, through the method of “lights on when people are present and lights off when people leave”, can not only meet the needs of tourists’ visits but also reduce the wear and tear of the artifacts, achieving two benefits at once.
Feedback from real tourists
Having said all that, it would be more interesting to hear what actual visitors have to say. At the end of last year, I visited the old site of the Tax Bureau of the Border Region of Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan – this is a red education base and one of the earliest museums to use the Yingmi multi channel tour guide system. There, I met several tourists, and their feelings were particularly genuine.
Mr. Zhang from Zhengzhou brought his parents and children to visit. He said, “When I used to take my elderly parents and children to museums, the biggest problem was always ‘falling behind’. My parents moved slowly and the child was always running around. Every time, I had to look after this side and that side, and had no time to listen to the explanations. This time, with the help of this system, my parents listened slowly in front of the display cases, while the child watched the animated explanations in the ‘Children’s Interactive Area’. I could also focus on reading the descriptions of the cultural relics, and the whole family had a very comfortable visit.”
There was also a tourist from Beijing, Ms. Li, who is a museum enthusiast and has visited many museums both at home and abroad. She said, “I absolutely hate wearing the audio guide. It’s heavy, uncomfortable, and I always worry about running out of power. This system doesn’t require any accessories. You just need to walk and you can hear the audio. Moreover, the sound is extremely clear. Even in crowded places, there won’t be any noise. Last time at the Palace Museum, I spent two hours browsing in the ‘Treasure Hall’. I could hear the explanations for each exhibit clearly. This kind of experience was something I never dared to imagine before.”
Even the museum staff said that since they adopted this system, there have been significantly fewer complaints from visitors and a considerable increase in positive feedback. “Previously, there were frequent complaints from tourists such as ‘the audio explanation was unclear’ and ‘the equipment didn’t work properly’. Now such complaints are rare. Moreover, we can now accommodate multiple groups simultaneously without worrying about ‘interference between groups’, and our work efficiency has also improved.”
A good explanation system enables cultural relics and visitors to “get closer”
The significance of visiting a museum is not taking photos, but rather understanding the history and culture behind the relics. However，if the explanation experience is poor， even if the relics are very precious， it is difficult for visitors to truly “enter” history.
The most remarkable feature of multi channel tour guide system is that it does not use complicated technologies to “disturb” visitors, but instead provides “service” to them through thoughtful design – you don’t need to wear any equipment, you don’t have to follow the group, and you don’t have to worry about being disturbed. You can listen to the content you want at your own pace, truly achieving “freedom when visiting the exhibition”.
Nowadays, more and more museums are adopting this system. For instance, the Palace Museum in Beijing, the Terracotta Army in Xi’an, the West Lake Cultural Landscape Area in Hangzhou, and many others. The next time you visit a museum, if you see the sign multi channel tour guide system in the exhibition hall, be sure to give it a try – trust me, you will find that visiting a museum can be so easy and so interesting. And the stories behind the cultural relics can be so clearly and so touching to hear.
After all, when we visit a museum, our purpose is to have a dialogue with history. And a good explanation system is the most attentive “dialogue translator”.