1. Will it still be possible to use Podcatchers when we reopen?
We understand you will have doubts whether you can still use handheld devices to guide your visitors. We will do our utmost to help you to be able to hand out the players in a safe and hygienic way.
Lots of museums are not allowed to guide the visitors in groups anymore. An audio tour can be the perfect solution to guide your visitors without having to stand in a group. You can make the tour individual and a visitor can keep distance from other visitors.
If you count the Podcatchers and give those to all visitors, you know exactly how many people are inside your museum. This way you have the perfect crowd control.
We advise to give guidance to the visitor, telling them where to go and also warn them to keep distance. Guide ID can provide standards texts, recorded in several languages, which you can add to your tour.
We advise to use short stops to avoid people standing too long at one spot and offer the longer stories online.
We all want to reduce the risk in spreading disease and would like to advise you in the best way. We advise to clean the Podcatcher before you hand them out to the visitor. Like supermarkets are currently doing with trolleys and baskets. See point 3 how to do this in the best way.
The Podcatcher is mostly used without headsets. We advise to avoid using headsets for hygienic reasons. If you still want to use them, we advise to ask visitors to use their own headphones. Our hardware uses a standard 3.5 mm headphone jack, which is commonly used for most headphones. Another option could be to offer earbuds to the visitors that they can keep after the visit. This can be an extra revenue if you sell them. However, bear in mind that it is not an environmentally friendly solution. Guide ID is not providing these earbuds.
2. Are there any alternatives?
Guide ID is offering all clients to launch their tours online at no extra costs. This way you can offer the tours to all visitors to be listened and read at home. Ask your business manager for advice how you can make use of this feature.
Visitors might ask for an App, so they can use their own smartphone. Before the Corona crisis started, cultural App’s were not used as much as handheld devices. Visitors preferred not to use their own phone for audio guiding. However, we can imagine that this will change now. Therefore, Guide ID has put full force resources on the development of a new app.
End of Q2 we will launch our new App, please ask your business manager for more information.
Until the launch of the new App, the existing Podcatcher app can be used for free for all our clients. Please contact our helpdesk if you need more details.
3. How do I clean the players?
Gently wipe them with a slightly moist soft cloth with a regular all-purpose household cleaning product, or use a disposable all- purpose cleaning tissue. Please keep water temperature below 60 °C to prevent degradation of the Podcatcher plastic.
We suggest to use normal (all-purpose) cleaning products, or specific types of alcohol wipes to clean the Podcatcher:
- Soap
- Ajax cleaner
- Detergents
- Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA) wipes
- Ethyl Alcohol wipes (Ethanol, with concentration up to 96%)
Make sure not to use acetone or ammonia based cleaning products, or to expose the Podcatcher to strong bases or acids.
4. Do you supply cleaning wipes?
We are not supplying the wipes. We advise you to buy these locally.
5. How do I clean the lanyards?
You can wash them in the washing machine in a laundry bag at maximum of 60 degrees Celsius. We advise to tie the lanyards together (25 pieces per bundle) so they will not get tangled. You can also use a spray with a maximum of 75% alcohol. Let them dry before you hand out the lanyards again. If you wish we can offer wristbands instead of lanyards that you hang around the neck. Please contact the helpdesk if you would like to start using these.
6. Is self-service still possible?
A number of our clients are offering the Podcatcher via a self-service desk. If possible, we advise to have a staff member taking control of the cleaning of the players. If this is not possible, make sure you have cleaning facilities in sight so visitors can do this themselves before they use the players.
7. Can we put a plastic cover around the Podcatcher? Will it still work?
We have tested the option of using a plastic cover around the Podcatcher to prevent the spread of the Covid-19 virus. As our Podcatcher does not have a tactile screen, it will still work the same.
After our tests our findings were that visitors take the plastic cover of instead of leaving it on. This is why we do not recommend the use of a plastic cover, unless staff is available to instruct the visitors on the right use of the plastic cover. You have to be able to offer a new plastic cover for each visitor to make sure the player is 100% hygienic.
If you want to know more about the use of plastic covers for your Podcatchers you can contact the Guide-ID Helpdesk. Helpdesk@guide-id.com
8. Can we use the MapMyVisit Mobile Website for text reading? We would like to prevent visitors getting too close to the text panels (and each other).
In the MapMyVisit Mobile Website you can choose to add a text overlay in your stops. This will show the texts which have been uploaded in our Toureditor.
9. Can we take off the lanyards for hygienic reasons?
We understand you want to reduce the risk of spreading the virus and save the effort of cleaning the lanyards. You can take the lanyards off but bear in mind that this is less comfortable for your visitors and the chance they will put the player in their pocket or bag is bigger. Guide ID cannot take responsibility for lost players. It might be interesting to have a look at an alarm system that will also react on players hidden in pockets or bags.
As an alternative solution can be to use our wristbands.
10. Do you have standard texts we can use in our tour (like “keep distance”)?
We have recorded a few standard phrases which you can use and add to your audio guide. E.g. “please make sure to keep 1 ½ meter distance from each other. Follow the one-way path in the museum to avoid having too many people in one area.”
The phrases are available in 4 languages and can be downloaded using the following links;
Covid 19 – Text & Audio – NL
Covid 19 – Text & Audio – EN
Covid 19 – Text & Audio – FR
Covid 19 – Text & Audio – BE
Tip! You can also use the text provided in the examples above to translate and record in other languages.
English 
Nederlands 
Français