A Site has a few properties that can be configured. Some are left blank and have to be filled in, while others have default values and you probably won’t have to touch them (but you can if you wish). The following pages can be used to manage those settings:
Tab – General
General settings for your Site can be managed here. Make sure your Site’s details are correct: This not only helps us greatly whenever we need to assist you, but more importantly also lets visitors know about your contact details so they can actually visit you. These details are shows in the Podcatcher App, MapMyVisit, and on guideid.com.
Tab – Language & Content
On this page you can enter the localized details of your Site, so they can appear in the proper language in the Podcatcher App and MapMyVisit.
Most fields are self-explanatory, but to clarify some of them:
Description: A description of your Site which is used in the Podcatcher App, or used as a backup for MapMyVisit when the MapMyVisit Introduction is left empty.
MapMyVisit Introduction: As the name implies, this is the introduction text that appears on MapMyVisit only. If left blank, the website will display the Description instead.
Tab – Images
Here you can manage the images for your Site. For the best result, upload the best quality images you have. The three you can upload are:
Logo: This should be a square image of at least 100 x 100 pixels.
Photo: Any square image larger than 300 x 300 pixels will do.
MapMyVisit App skin: This should be a portrait image of at least 1080 x 1920 pixels
Tab – Podcatcher Settings
On this page you can configure all of your Site’s Podcatchers’ settings.
Podcatcher Volume
The value 0 represents the maximum volume, -32 effectively represents silence.
Minimum volume:Minimum volume that can be set by the visitor when they press the volume down button.
Maximum volume: Maximum volume that can be set by the visitor.
Initial volume: The Podcatcher’s initial volume when it is taken out of its dock.
Alarm
The Podcatcher can sound the alarm if it ‘thinks’ it’s being taken out of the Site. See this article for more information about alarms.
Idle time: If this is set to something above zero, the Podcatcher will play its alarm after the set number of minutes.
Duration: How long will the alarm continue to sound, in seconds. The alarm will also stop when any button is pressed.
Podcatcher settings
Generate audible feedback when a button is pressed: When this checkbox is checked, the Podcatcher will make an audible click noise when a button is pressed.
Tab – Manage Users
In this screen you can manage the Portal users that are allowed to see and/or make changes to the various parts of your Site. You can only access this page if you’re a Site administrator.
Add users
Adding a user to this Site is done through the e-mail invite box. If you enter an e-mail address that already exists on the Portal, they will be automatically granted access to the Site.
If the e-maill address doesn’t exist yet, they will be sent an invitation link instead. By default, a new user is granted access to the TourEditor and Sync parts of the Portal for your Site.
Users linked to this site
The list of users shows the name, e-mail address, organization and access rights in the list. Checking the box next to user accounts allows you to remove them from your Site with the [ Remove selected user(s) ] button.
Clicking on a user will take you to the User rights page, explained below.
User rights
After clicking on a user, their access rights page opens up. Here you can change which parts of your Site they’re allowed to access, as well as the ability to promote or demote them to/from a Site administrator. Note that you can’t revoke your own Site administrator rights.
Tab – Tags
You can add, remove or edit Tags for your Site here. Click the [ + Add Tag ] button to create a new one, click a Tag to edit it, or tick the checkboxes next to Tags you want to remove and click the corresponding button to remove the Tags.
Note: Removing a Tag will also remove it from all of the associated Stops.
A Stop exists of one or more clips, and within these clips you have several sections which you can edit:
Tab – Language & Content
This page is perhaps the most important one of them all, since this is where you can upload the actual audio.
Title (language neutral): The title of the clip is used in the clip editor & Analytics. It is also a fallback description for missing translated titles for this clip.
The translated titles and script texts for public viewing are not relevant for Podcatcher-only Stops. Only the Podcatcher App and MapMyVisit use this information.
Language: You can select one of the languages available for the Tour in this drop-down menu. If there are two or more languages available, you will see two languages side-by-side.
Title: Translated name of the Clip. If left empty, the language neutral title is used.
Script (for studio/voice): This text is used when exporting scripts. If the script for public viewing is left empty, this text shows up instead.
Script (for public viewing in App or MapMyVisit): This is the text that will be shown in the Podcatcher App and MapMyVisit. If it’s left empty, the script for studio/voice will be used instead.
Audio: The audio content for the Clip.
Upload audio…: Opens your browser’s file selection window. Only MP3 files are supported. This option is the manual alternative to the bulk audio upload as described in this article. : This icon is called a “drop zone”. Drag audio files from your desktop (or any other folder on your computer) to here to upload them. : Play the audio fragment. The gray bar represents the position in the clip. You can click this bar to jump to that position. : Download the original audio file. : Delete the audio content.
Tab – Images
Uploading of an image for this clip can be done here. These images are only used for the Podcatcher App. If no image is provided, the image of the Stop is used instead.
We recommend using images of 1080 x 1920 pixels (portrait) or larger.
Tab – Advanced
Advanced Clip options can be tweaked here.
Audio Video Sync
Offset: When a Podcatcher receives the AV-Sync IDentifier code, it also receives a time code for the video to skip to. By the time the Podcatcher has calculated where it should start playing, the video will have moved on. It will then skip this many audio frames to catch up again. You can try changing this value if the Podcatcher is frequently out of sync when playing AV-Sync Stops.
Audio Video Sync Mode: AV-Sync has three modes:
Default: it behaves like an IDentifier, but with a time code.
Long Range: the IDentifier part of the AV Sync IDentifier is replaced by a Long Range IDentifier, so a large area can be triggered at once.
Interactive: this mode is not supported anymore, but is kept for backwards compatibility.
Long Range Hold Mode: If this is a Long Range AV-Sync Stop, you can select a mode. Normally when a Long Range IDentifier is received on the Podcatcher, it remembers the code so while it is still in range, it won’t trigger again. When we then point at any other IDentifier, the Podcatcher forgets about the Long Range IDentifier, this means that when the visitor gets back in range the Long Range IDentifier can be triggered once more. Sometimes you can’t escape a Long Range IDentifier but you also want to be able to aim at another IDentifier without the Long Range kicking back in (because it is still in range). That is what this option is for. If this option is enabled, the Podcatcher keeps remembering the Long Range IDentifier code so it won’t trigger even when pointing at a different IDentifier.
The options are:
No change: don’t change the current setting.
Enabled: Turn this behaviour on.
Disabled: Turn this behaviour off.
Interactive
If your Tour uses interactives, the variable numbers and associated values can be set here. These will be set when the Podcatcher plays this Clip.
Stops correspond to locations in the real world and are used to play the appropriate audio. A Stop has one or more Clips that are linked together with Connections. A Stop has the following pages:
Tab – Clips
Introduction to the Clip flow editor
While a Stop is a place in the Site – usually near a piece of art in a museum, but can also be a room or an explanation for visitors – a Clip (or set of Clips) is the content that gets played when a Stop is triggered. This page gives you full control over how Clips flow into one another.
Note: If your Stop should just play one Clip, then you can skip most of the explanation and just use the [ Edit Clip ] button to add content.
Working with the Clip flow editor
Start Clip
A Stop will always have at least one Clip. When you make a new Stop, a new Clip (named ‘untitled’) is added to it and is marked the Start Clip. As the name implies, this is where the Stop will start playing content when it is triggered.
Editing Clips
Having an empty Clip is all well and good, but it exists so it can play content. While having a Clip selected – the selected Clip is marked by the dotted line around it – click the [ Edit Clip ] button. This will take you to the Clip – Language & Content screen, where you can add content. Double-clicking the Clip works as well.
Adding Clips
Next to the Edit Clip button is the [ Add Clip ] button, which adds a Clip connected to the selected Clip. A menu will pop up with all the options for adding a new Clip. The following fields are present:
Clip title (optional): While this field is optional, it’s very beneficial to enter something descriptive here. Partly for the convenience and clarity in the Clip flow, but also in Analytics, where the Clip titles are shown for some of the options. It’s impossible to distinguish between all the ‘untitled’s if you don’t give them another name. Regardless, it’s not required.
Select how the clips are connected: This will let the system know when it should proceed to the next Clip. ‘Auto continue’ simply plays the next Clip when the current one has finished playing its content. Options A, B and C allow the visitor to choose between the buttons on the Podcatcher. Lastly, ‘Manual continue’ and ‘App’ only work in the Podcatcher App; ‘Manual continue’ requires a button to be tapped on the smartphone, while ‘App’ is effectively an ‘Auto continue’, but only the App will follow it.
Note: If a certain type of connection is not possible – for example, a second ‘Auto continue’ connection wouldn’t work – you won’t be able to select it.
Score: This isn’t relevant to most Clips, but you can opt to grant the visitor points for this connection. Score can then be used to respond in various ways. As an example, a quiz could grant points to correct answers, which would prompt a “Well done” from a Score IDentifier.
Removing Clips
To remove a Clip, click it and then the [ Remove Clip ] button. If you can’t find the button, you’ve probably selected a Start Clip – which can’t be removed.
Note: All Clip content will also be removed! Then again, this is probably what you’d want if you’re deleting a Clip.
Tip: If you want to temporarily not use a Clip, you can remove the connections to this Clip.
Setting a different Clip as the Start Clip
Similarly to removing a Clip, the button to make a Clip a Start Clip, you have to be selecting a Clip that isn’t already a Start Clip. Click the [ Set as Start Clip ] button to do just that. The Stop will now start from the new Start Clip when triggered.
Adding Connections
You can add Connections between existing Clips by hovering your cursor over the semicircle in the Clip, clicking and dragging to the next Clip, then releasing the mouse button.
Note: You can also make the Clip refer to itself to make it loop.
Note: It’s entirely possible to make multiple Connections from one Clip to another Clip, even if the other Clip is the same one each time. You can use this to make a “press any button to continue”-style flow.
When you’ve dragged the Connection from one Clip to the other, a dialog will appear. This is effectively the same one as for adding a Clip, just without the new Clip’s title. Refer there for the full explanation of the options.
Editing or removing Connections
You can edit or remove a Connection by clicking it and then clicking either the [ Remove Connection] or the [ Edit Connection ] button, depending on what you want to do with the Connection. If you’ve come this far, removing a Connection shouldn’t be confusing and editing a Connection is pretty straight-forward as well so it shouldn’t give you any trouble.
Simple Clip flows
In the example below you can see a simple flow of Clips. When this Stop is triggered, it will start playing at the ‘Tree’ Clip, and when that’s finished, move on to the ‘Rose’ Clip.
Note: You can drag Clips around just like you would icons on your desktop. You can’t do this with Connections, however.
A/B/C choice Clips
You can add layers to a Stop to provide extra information to your visitor (for example; “if you’d like to know more about the painter press A, if you would like to know more about his style of painting press B or if you would like to hear more about the use of colors press C). You can achieve this by adding extra A/B/C choices in your Clip flow for that specific stop.
If you would like to use such a flow, we recommend starting out with an introductory Clip, which connects with an ‘Auto continue’ to the actual question clip, which then connects to the possible choice clips A, B, and/or C clips. You need to use this flow so the visitor can still adjust the volume on the Podcatcher or use the pause/ playback button, while the audio is playing and no question is yet being asked. This same flow can also be used if you would like to add a quiz question to a Stop. (Click here if you would like to learn more about setting up a quiz)
Advanced Clip flows
You can combine all these features into more advanced flows if you’d like. The example below is similar to the A/B/C Clip flow from above, except it also has a looping “Press any key to continue” Clip after the introduction, as well as every option looping back to the question Clip (to make a “would you like to know more” style flow). Really, the sky’s (and the various mutually exclusive Connections) the limit in terms of how complicated you can make the flow. Feel free to experiment, and remember that you can drag Clips around to keep everything organised.
Tab – Language & Content
On this page you can manage the various names used for this Stop, as well as add a description for it that is used in the Podcatcher App and MapMyVisit.
Title (language neutral): The title of the Stop is used in the Stop list and in Analytics. It is also a fallback description for missing translated Names for this Stop for MapMyVisit and the Podcatcher App.
The translations are not relevant for Podcatcher-only Stops. Only the Podcatcher App and MapMyVisit use this information.
Language: You can select one of the languages available for the Tour in this drop-down menu. If there are two or more languages available, you will see two languages side-by-side.
Title: Translated name of the Stop. If left empty the title of the fallback language is used when present. If that title in the fallback is empty too, the language neutral title is used.
Description: Description presented with this Stop in the App and on MapMyVisit.
Tab – Images
On this page you can upload an image that will be shown in the Podcatcher App and on MapMyVisit. This image is also used in case an image for a Clip in this Stop does not have one.
If you use only MapMyVisit, any square image larger than 300 x 300 pixels will do.
If you use the Podcatcher App, we recommend an image of 1080 x 1920 pixels (portrait) or larger.
Tab – Triggers
Here you can add or remove triggers from the Stop.
Clicking the [ Add ] button will open a pop-up where you can specify what type of trigger to add, as well as any IDentifier code.
The most commonly used triggers are shown first. With “Show more…” you can select more triggers for instance for AV-Sync .
! You only see trigger types that are enabled for your site. If you need a trigger type that is not listed, contact us to enable it for you.
After clicking the [ Next > ] button you can enter the trigger details:
IDentifier code: Applicable to most IDentifier types, enter the IDentifier code (usually printed on the back of the IDentifier) here. Language: Applicable to Start IDentifiers and Autostart IDentifiers, these triggers can select a language to start the Tour in. Score: The Score prununciation trigger will play the content of this Stop if the Podcatcher receives a Score IDentifier code while the current Tour has the specified amount of Score points. Email Console: Select which event applies to the current Stop. Post-Alarm and Unknown Trigger don’t have any options to set. As such, only one of each can exist in a Tour at any given time.
Click [ Finish ] to add the trigger to the Stop.
Start IDentifier
The Podcatcher needs to know which objects it can expect on top of which language it should play the audio in. We can let it know with one of two methods: the most common one is using Start IDentifiers, the alternative is the Autostart IDentifier.
Audio added to a Stop with either trigger will be played as usual after the Podcatcher receives the trigger. We’ve noticed it’s common for these Stops to contain audio like “You have chosen English” when starting a Tour in English, “U heeft gekozen voor Nederlands” for a Tour in Dutch, “Sie haben Deutsch gewählt”, for German, and so on. Some Sites also add an instruction for visitors to it, but it is up to you to decide what’s most appropriate here.
Start IDentifiers, as the name suggests, start a Tour by pointing the Podcatcher at an IDentifier. It can be any IDentifier you have, however usually these will have a flag printed on the label to distinguish between languages. Note that a Stop designated as a Start IDentifier Stop can have multiple Start IDentifiers added to it – one or multiple for each language in the Tour. If the Tour has the default stops created (the checkbox at the bottom of making a new Tour), the ‘Activate Podcatcher’ Stop is designed to hold the Start IDentifiers. The only restriction on adding Start IDentifiers is that you can’t have it as an Object or Start IDentifier anywhere else, since the Podcatcher wouldn’t know what to do if it had to both start a new Tour as well as play audio for a Stop in another Tour.
Autostart IDentifier
The Autostart IDentifier is not an actual device, but rather an option for the Podcatcher. It makes the Podcatcher start in the Tour it is assigned to, in the language you’ve specified for it, when it is taken out of the Docking station. However, there can be only one Autostart IDentifier added on a Site, since otherwise the Podcatcher wouldn’t know which Tour or language to use. Therefore, if you decide to use it, it’s advised to use it for your most popular Tour and language.
A Tour started in this fashion can be switched to a different Tour (or language in the same Tour) by pointing the Podcatcher at a Start IDentifier.
To make a Stop be an Autostart Stop, select the Autostart IDentifier in the Triggers screen for that Stop. Click “show more” in the popup to reveal it.
Tab – General
Here you can change the availability of the Stop, whether it’s an AV-Sync Stop, and Tags.
Platform availability: Pick which of the platforms the Stop should be available on. For example, you might want to exclude the Start IDentifier stops that explain Podcatcher usage from MapMyVisit and the App.
Note: A message will appear notifying you if a Stop is set to be used on a platform the Tour isn’t configured for; see the image below for one such example.
Note: These are specific to this Stop in the current Tour. If this stop was linked to multiple Tours, changing these here won’t affect the other instances.
Audio/Video Synchronization: Tick the box if this is an AV-Sync Stop.
A Tour consists of one or more Stops, which in turn have Clips. Accessing this ‘section’ of the TourEditor is done through the TourEditor – start screen or by navigating back to it from Stops or Clips. A Tour has the following screens:
Tab – Stops
The Stop list is the main page of a Tour, this list shows all of the Stops in the Tour. Similar to the list of Tours, clicking on a row in a particular location will take you to the relevant part of that Stop, so clicking on the image will take you to the image part of that Stop.
Just above the list on the right-hand side are the Search (left) and Tag filter (right) boxes. Typing a search term here – for example, “Van Gogh” – and pressing the Enter button will search the Stop names for it and show only those. Similarly, selecting an option in the drop down menu of the Tag filters will only show the Stops that have that Tag attached to them.
The list shows the following properties for each Stop:
Stop title: The internal name of this Stop. This name is also used in Analytics for Stop-based queries.
Script: Every language that has script content in this Stop will show up here.
Audio: Every language that has audio content in this Stop will show up here.
Triggers: The Triggers linked to this Stop.
Availability: Which publish destinations this Stop will be published to. There is one icon for each, and it can have one of three ‘states’:
If the icon is blue, that means it will be published and available on that platform the next time you publish.
If the icon grey, it means that the Stop won’t be published to that platform (or removed if it was previously available).
If the icon is part blue with a warning icon, the Stop is set to be published to the given platform but the Tour is not. Consequently, it will not be published to the platform. If you want it to make it available you have to check the box in the General tab of the tour.
Add Stop
Create New: Create blank new stop. Select Existing: Re-use an existing stop from another tour of your site. When you select this option, the Stop will be shared with both the original tour and the current one (as well as any others it may be linked to). This means that changes to the Stop will affect both Tours. Only the availability and the triggers are not shared; those are copied (so editing those properties won’t affect the others). All of the content is shared, however. Note; If you want to use a Stop form another tour, but do not want changes to affect the Stop in the other Tour, then use the action Copy (see below)
When you choose for “Select existing” you get a pop-up like this. You can see here stops of other tours including archived tours. You can search on title or filter on Tag/ Tour.
Remove the Stop from this Tour. If this Stop is available for MapMyVisit it is good practice to check the “Keep the stop …” If the Stop was used in multiple Tours, the Stop will stay available in the other Tours.
Copy
Copy stop(s) to a Tour. This can be the same Tour or a different one. Include images: Also copy the Stop’s images. Include audio: Also copy the Stop’s audio. Include triggers: Also copy the Stop’s triggers. If this would cause conflicts, copying is skipped for that particular trigger. Include tags: Also copy the Stop’s Tags.
Set Availability
Enable: set the availability to enabled for all selected Stops. Disable: set the availability to disabled for all selected Stops. No change: Leave this availability unchanged for all selected Stops.
Tab – Language & Content
Title (language neutral): The title of the Tour is used in the Tours list and in Analytics. It is also a fallback description for missing translated names for this tour for MapMyVisit and the Podcatcher App.
These translations are not relevant for Podcatcher-only Tours. Only the Podcatcher App and MapMyVisit use this information.
Translations
Language: You can select one of the languages available for the Tour in this drop-down menu. If there are two or more languages available, you will see two languages side-by-side.
Name: Translated name of tour. If left empty, the language neutral title is used.
Description: Description presented with this Tour in App and on MapMyVisit.
Tab – Images
On this page you can upload an image that will be shown in the Podcatcher App. Any square image larger than 300 x 300 pixels will do.
Tab – General
On this page you can configure some general settings for the Tour.
Select on which platforms the tour should be available
Select the languages in which the tour should be available Pick the tour languages here
Fallback languages: Should (Stop) content not be available in the language the Tour is being experienced in, the Podcatcher will ‘fall back’ to another language.
Tab – Export Scripts
This page serves as a tool to quickly export all script text to a file (or print it), for use by an audio recording studio.
First, select a language to export, then decide whether you only want to export the text for Clips that don’t yet have audio uploaded, and click [ Export script ].
Next, review the script that appears and click the [ Print script ] button. This will open up your browser’s print document dialog.
To save it as a PDF file, change the printer (“destination” in Google Chrome, “printer name” in Mozilla Firefox) to “save as PDF” or “Microsoft Print to PDF” – either works. Click ‘OK’ or ‘Print’ until the printer would normally start doing its thing and you’ll instead see a ‘save file’ dialog from your browser. Save it somewhere you can find it again and click ‘Save’. Now you can simply e-mail it to the audio recording studio; the instructions should be simple enough for them to deliver the files in the requested format.
The Publish screen is where you can make the Tour you’ve made, available to the Podcatcher, Podcatcher App and/or MapMyVisit.
The screen changes slightly depending on the publish status, that is whether the Tour has or has not been published, is in the process of being published, or has been published but has unpublished changes.
At the top is the publish status bar, informing you whether the Tour has been published.
Below that is the publish overview, which will warn you should there be any missing content for a given publish destination. Clicking the ‘details’ button on any of them will present you with a list of items that are missing content in one form or other.
Publish Tour: Prepared the Tour as configured in the TourEditor for active publish destinations
Unpublish Tour: Make this Tour unavailable for all destinations. If this Tour is outdated, it is easier to archive the Tour instead of unpublishing.
At the very bottom of the page you can find a collapsible section that shows you when content was published to which platform. This is the same information as presented at the top, but in more detail.
The Tours page shows all the active Tours available on your Site. The Tour list is displayed by default when clicking the TourEditor icon on the home page. A Site (usually) has one or more Tours which allow the Podcatcher to keep track of which audio to play where, and in which language.
The list of Tours shows the image for the Tour, its title (with a small number next to it, which is the number of Stops in that Tour), content languages, publish destinations and publish status. Clicking on a row in a particular location will take you to the relevant part of that Tour – for example, clicking a Tour’s image will take you to the Images screen of that Tour.
Title: Name of the tour for use in the Podcatcher Portal (particularly the TourEditor and Analytics). Localized tour titles can be edited on the Tour Language & Content page; however if the localized title for a language doesn’t exist, this generic one will be shown instead.
Content languages: The languages included in this tour.
Publish Destinations: The publish destinations for this Tour (Podcatcher, Podcatcher App, MapMyVisit).
Publish Status: Whether this Tour has not yet been published, is publishing, has been published, or has unpublished changes.
Add tour
The [+ Add Tour] button can be used to create a new Tour. A popup will appear where you can enter the new Tour’s details.
Most of the options have been described above, but there is one that hasn’t:
Automatically add default stops?: Enabling this checkbox creates a standard set of stops we think are useful to every Tour, although you don’t have to have them for a successful one. It’s a quick way to add stops a lot of Tours will find useful.
Actions
The [ Actions ] button is for actions that affect the selected Tour(s).
Remove
Clicking this option opens a pop-up:
Archive: Make the selected Tour(s) inactive and remove it from Podcatchers and the Podcatcher App. The Tour can be accessed in editor via “archived” tab of start screen
Keep stops available in in MapMyVisit: Keep the content available in MapMyVisit. Any visitors that have experienced this Tour before it was archived will still be able to see it on MapMyVisit if this checkbox is ticked, otherwise it’ll be removed from that as well.
Permanently delete: The Tour is permanently removed and cannot be recovered. It will be removed from all publish destinations and is gone for good.
Archived tours are shown in this page. The content in them is not available on Podcatchers nor on the Podcatcher App, however depending on whether the “Keep content available in MapMyVisit” option was used when archiving the Tour, it can still be available there.
Actions
Restore: Place the selected Tour(s) back to active Tours, so it can be used once more.
Delete permanently: Permanently remove the selected Tour(s). This cannot be undone.
Edit tour
By clicking on a Tour like you would normally when you want to edit it, you can still see and edit its contents. This can be useful for copying Stops from an archived Tour to an active one. It will show a warning that you’re working in an archived Tour, like so:
Synchronization of the Podcatchers is the process of updating them with the latest published content, uploading the Podcatcher logs to the Portal, and charging their batteries. The first screen you’re presented with when clicking on the Sync icon on the home page is the list of Sync Consoles connected to your Site.
Note: All Sync Consoles on your Site will sync the same content. If you have multiple hand-out points, it doesn’t matter where you synchronize the Podcatchers.
In the Sync Console overview you can see the consoles’ status, what happened during the last synchronization, and buttons to sync or reboot the console. You can also see at-a-glance how many Podcatchers are ready to go with the latest content, and what the consoles’ status is. Green means good, red means something’s wrong, and grey means the data is outdated.
Actions
Add Sync Console
Adding a Sync Console means linking the authentication code displayed on the Sync Console to your Site so it knows which content to sync.
Sync Console Authentication Key: the code as shown by the Podcatcher Sync application on your Sync Console. Sync Console Description: A description for the Sync Console, for example ‘Front desk’. Number of Docking Stations connected: the number of docking stations that are connected to the Sync Console. The system will start warning you if this number doesn’t match the number of docks found during a sync. Daily Sync time: When should the daily sync be scheduled? Auto-reboot on possible hang: Check this box if you want to allow the Sync application to be able to automatically reboot the computer if it seems like the computer has frozen up.
The Sync Consoles overview will update itself and show the status of the recently added Sync Console. It can take a few minutes before the Sync Console shows as ‘online’ in the Sync desktop application. It can also take a couple of minutes before the new Sync Console notices its activation in the Portal.
Remove Sync Console
If you no longer want to synchronize your Sync Console, you can remove it from the list by clicking the red [ X ] button. It’s no problem to re-add a removed Sync Console at a later date. But while it’s not linked to your Site, it’s not possible to synchronize your Podcatchers on that Sync Console.
Note: Please remember to unlink your Sync Console from your Site if you don’t use it anymore, as our systems will think something’s wrong and e-mail you about it.
Sync now
When your Sync Console in online, it’s possible to synchronize it on-demand. To do so click the [ Sync Now ] button. If this button is greyed out, your Sync Console is already syncing (or stuck trying to). The ‘Sync Now’ button turns light grey as soon a synchronization is scheduled or if the Sync Console synchronization is in progress, and it’s not possible to click the button while that’s going on.
Reboot
If there is a problem with the Sync Console, you can make it restart by pressing the [ Reboot… ] button. Within several minutes Windows will try to shut down and restart the Sync Console. Normally the Sync Console will be online again in within minutes. If you have given a reboot command, the ‘Reboot Now’ button will be greyed out until the Sync Console has been restarted.
Note: Restarting a console forces it to reboot with no chance to save changes!
Sync Console details
When you click on a sync console, the page showing its details will open. Here you can edit those details, such as when the console should schedule its daily sync, how many docking stations should be connected (so the application knows when something is wrong in that department) and so on. At the very bottom you will find an overview of all the docks and Podcatchers that were found. If there were any errors with a Podcatcher, those slots will be highlighted in red, normal Podcatchers in green, and empty slots are white.
Sync Console history
When viewing a Sync Console’s details, the other tab you’ll find (in the top-left) is History. This screen shows a summary of the syncs that took place this week. For each sync, it’ll show the date, the sync time, and the number of Docks, Podcatchers and errors that were found during the sync.
You can select a week to view and navigate between months using the mini-calendar on the left side of the page.
Tags are a way of labeling stops and to keep track of stops more easily. Tags are saved Site-wide, and can be reused between Tours.
It’s entirely possible to assign multiple Tags to a Stop, which is recommended especially with lots of Stops in a Tour so you can more quickly find the Stops you want to see.
New Tags can be created and assigned to a stop in the tab General of that stop (refer to this page for more information). Labels can be used to group Stops on a wide variety of properties, such as:
Before we start the how-to properly, let’s discuss the steps you should take while making a tour.
First, we need to make sure your Site’s details are correct. This not only helps us greatly whenever we need to assist you, but more importantly also lets visitors know about your contact details so they can actually visit you. These details are shown in the Podcatcher App, MapMyVisit, and on guideid.com.
After that, we can start making the foundation of the audio tour. We’ll create the relevant Stops, fill in their details, and add the Clip flow to them.
Once that’s done, we’ll put the audio script in the Clips and export those scripts for the studio to record.
When the studio sends their audio files back – with the proper file names – we’ll import all of them in one go.
The next step is to add Triggers – in this case, IDentifiers and Start IDentifiers – to the Tour so the Stops can be played.
Finally, we’ll publish everything so the Podcatcher can use the content.
Portal home page
This is the page presented to you when navigating to the Podcatcher Portal when logged in to it. Since we’re building a Tour, click on the TourEditor icon.
Tours, stops, clips at a glance
A site contains audio tours divided and organized in Tours. Tours are often used to distinguish audiences or different audio tours. For example, there could be a Tour for adults and one for children. When a Tour is started, only the IDentifiers linked in that Tour are recognized by a Podcatcher, but an IDentifier can be linked to multiple Tours. For example, the adults’ and children’s’ Tours can have the same IDentifiers, but with different audio for each museum piece.
It’s possible to build multiple Tours for a Site in the TourEditor. A Tour is comprised of a number of ‘Stops’. A Stop is usually an object in the museum, but can also be a room, or an introduction or welcoming message.
A Stop is made up of at least one audio clip (or just Clip). Multiple Clips can be connected in various ways. For example, two Clips can be connected with an automatic transition, so the second Clip starts playing after the first one has finished. Another way is by using A/B/C choice Clips, where visitors press the corresponding button on the Podcatcher to advance to a particular Clip.
Clips contain the language data for all languages in the Tour, both audio and text (which are also used in the Podcatcher App and MapMyVisit). When content of one language is missing, the Podcatcher will attempt to fall back to another language.
Stops are linked to triggers (IDentifiers) so when the corresponding code is received by the Podcatcher, it will start playing the Stop’s first Clip. From there, the Podcatcher will follow the connections until there are no more Clips to play.
To start a Tour, a special IDentifier needs to be activated: a Start IDentifier. There should be one Start IDentifier for each language in the Tour, to start the Tour (and all Clips in it) in that language. The Podcatcher will also let the visitor know which language the Tour was started in, by playing a Clip like ‘U heeft gekozen voor Nederlands’ for Dutch and ‘You have chosen English’ for English.
Some components in the TourEditor can include an image: Sites, Tours, Stops and Clips. As mentioned, these images are used in the Podcatcher App and in our visitor platform MapMyVisit. The Podcatcher doesn’t have the ability to display images.
Components can also include translated texts (such as Stop title and Clip audio script), which are also used in the Podcatcher App and MapMyVisit. The Podcatcher can’t display text (unless you count its label).
The Tour list
Here you see all your existing audio tours. Somewhat unsurprisingly, this list is empty when starting for the first time. Let’s add a Tour.
Click [ + Add Tour ] A pop-up screen will appear.
Title: Give it a name that makes sense for yourself and your colleagues.
Content languages used in this tour: Fairly straight-forward. Languages can be added or removed later, in the ‘General’ tab of the Tour.
Platforms: Will this tour be published to the Podcatcher, App, or MapMyVisit? This can be changed afterwards as well, also on the ‘General’ tab of the Tour.
Create default stops: When you check this, some default stops will be created in the tour. These stops can be deleted later on, but they can’t be added automatically afterwards.
After clicking [ Add Tour ], you will see that the list of tours has updated and the one you just made appears.
Now click on the new tour to edit it. The TourEditor shows the (empty) list of stops in the tour.
Add Stops
Now that we have a Tour to add content to, let’s add a Stop to add content to.
To create a new stop:
Click the [ Add Stop ] button.
Choose Create new for a new one.
Click the [ Next > ] button.
Enter the Stop title and click Save & Edit.
Clip flow editor
After creating the Stop and clicking Save & Edit (or by clicking on its name in the list), this screen appears. Here you can edit the flow of the Clips.
A Stop contains at least 1 Clip. When only one audio fragment has to be presented to the visitor (like in this example), one clip is enough. To edit a clip you can either double-click on it, or use the [ Edit Clip ] button when you have one selected.
To read more about the Clip Editor’s capabilities and functions, please read the related article.
Edit Clip
Language & Content
The Language & Content tab is the most important tab for a clip and also the page you see when editing a Clip and upload the audio.
Translations
The page is divided vertically to separate the languages on the left and right. The language either side represents can be changed by using the dropdown menu they’re shown in. Alternatively, to swap the places of the two active languages, you can use the [ ⇄ ] button.
Changing text in one language, then changing which language is displayed does not affect the now-invisible changes you’ve made. If you click the save button in this situation, all of the language data for that page is saved, including the hidden stuff.
Title (language neutral): Edit the title of this clip. Handy in the clip-editor, where it is shown. This title is als used in Analytics, where you can see how your visitors use the audio tour. Title: Translated title of this clip. This is used in the App & MapMyVisit. For Podcatcher-only Tours this can be left blank. If left blank, the language neutral title is used. Script for studio: Script for this clip. This is the text that shows up in the script export that you’ll send to the recording studio. Script for public…: This text is shown in the App & MapMyVisit for this clip. When left empty the main Script is used. If this Stop is for Podcatcher only, this can be left blank. Audio: This holds the audio fragment for this clip in this language.
Audio uploads
To get content on to the Podcatcher, you’ll need to upload it to the Portal first. Uploading is done without you having to wait for it. Once the file is received by the server, it’ll do the legwork in the background. When the processing is done, the file will become available for previewing in the TourEditor and the Podcatcher Portal keeps the original file available for you to download.
Optional; Send scripts to a studio
When you’ve built your Tour, added Stops and laid out the Clip flow with all the script texts in place, you can export all of the text from that Tour to send it to a recording studio. You can make an export for each language in a Tour. Go to the Tour, and open the Export Scripts tab.
The first part contains relevant general information about the tour, like what the audio format should be. Below that, every stop and every Clip in it have the script shown. Click the [ Print script ] button to get a printer-friendly version to more easily send it to the relevant parties. If you’d like to save it as a .PDF file rather than printing it out, most browsers support this by selecting “print to file” or similar as a printer.
When the studio uses the mentioned filenames, the audio files can be easily bulk-imported to the correct clip/language.
Import audio from studio
From the Tours list, you can click on the Actions button. Doing so reveals a menu with an option to import audio from studio.
When clicking [ Upload audio ] button, a popup will appear in which you can upload multiple files at a time.
As an alternative, the area to the right of this button is a “drop zone”. Audio-files can be dropped on this area to upload This only works if filenames are used as mentioned in the script export.
Triggers (IDentifiers)
To make the Podcatcher play a stop when the visitor is at a certain location, a Podcatcher needs to receive a ‘trigger’ (start signal) to know which audio file to play. The most common trigger is an IDentifier fixed near an artwork. In the TourEditor you have to assign the trigger’s code to that Stop, so the Podcatcher knows to play the relevant audio when it receives that code. IDentifiers are shipped with a built-in code, which is transmitted (via infrared) to the Podcatchers. Therefore, most triggers can’t be assigned until you receive the IDentifiers (as their codes are shown on a sticker on the back of the devices).
Assign Triggers to stops
All Stops that have to be used for the Podcatcher need to have a trigger assigned, or they won’t be accessible. To add a trigger go to the Triggers tab of the stop (or click [ Edit triggers ] in the stop list). Click the [ Add ] button to add a trigger.
The most common triggers are:
Object IDentifiers. These are the IDentifiers that you place near an artwork, at the entrance of a room, and so on.
Start IDentifiers. This is an IDentifier that we use to start the audio tour in a language. Therefore, every tour needs at least one Start IDentifier for every language. Read more about Start IDentifiers here.
Publish tour
Publishing means the Tour’s content is made available to the Podcatcher (and/or the Podcatcher App and/or MapMyVisit). After publishing, the next time the Podcatchers are synchronized, they will be updated with the content. Multiple Tours can be available on a Podcatcher, so you can have both a regular Tour as well as a children’s Tour in the same language.
How to publish the data
For the Tour you want to publish, go to Publish tab (or click on the publish status column in the Tour list to get there).
At the top of the page you’ll find a summary of what will and what will not be published to the available publish destinations (Podcatcher, Podcatcher App, MapMyVisit). If it says any content is missing, this doesn’t mean the Tour won’t be accessible, just that the content is missing and it won’t be available. Clicking on any of the messages will show you which Stops/Clips are missing things, with convenient links to the page to fix it. However, in the end it’s all up to your judgement: these are just messages to help make the Tour the best it can be.
When you click on the [ Publish Tour], the Tour will be prepared to be made available to the relevant publish destinations.
Synchronize your content
To synchronize the new content to your Podcatchers, a PC needs to be set up as a “Sync Console” near/at the handout desk which is connected to the Dockingstations and Internet. Depending on your contract we provide this PC to you or you can install your own PC. When the Sync console has been set up and all the hardware has been connected, the daily automatic sync will check your Podcatchers and will add the newly published Tour onto the Podcatchers. If you don’t want to wait until the automatic sync kicks in, you can start a manual sync by clicking on the Sync button in the sidebar.
Here you can see all your Sync Consoles, with some information on what happened during the last sync, as well as when the server last received status updates, and so on. Click on the [ Sync now ] button to, you guessed it, make the Sync Console retrieve the data from the servers and distribute it to the Podcatchers.
Test your tour
When the Sync has finished and all the Podcatchers are lit green, they are ready to use. Take a Podcatcher from a sync console, activate it with the appointed start IDentifier and test if all works as required.
If it does not work, you can check the Podcatcher sync errors page or go back to the homepage and have a look at the Frequently Asked Questions.
As the name implies, Analytics is the place where you can analyze your Site’s data – as far as we have the data for it, anyway. We use the Podcatchers’ log files to calculate a number of things.
Tours & Visitors; Here you’ll find the pages for viewing how many Tours were done in your Site, how long visitors took to do the Tour, and how many Podcatchers were in use over time.
Events & System; This category is for general events and the system hardware. It contains the graph for how many times the alarm was triggered on Podcatchers (read more on how to set this up if you haven’t already, here) and a IDentifier battery status sheet.
Content; This category contains statistics on your content, like how many times a Stop was triggered, which options were chosen in choice Clip flows, and so on.
The Podcatcher Portal allows you to manage your audio tours in-depth, see how your visitors use them, synchronize your Podcatchers remotely, and so on. If you’re working with the Portal and ever feel lost, remember that the help icon () at the top-right will open up the documentation for that page.
After you’ve logged in, you will be presented with the home page of the Podcatcher Portal. Here you can see at-a-glance how your site is doing.
The dashboard contains a summary of how many visitors your site has had in the past day, month and this year in the numbers. Further, the graphs represent how many visitors experienced a tour compared to last year. The ‘Tour publish status’ table shows how many tours may need publishing, to make sure Podcatchers are guaranteed to have all the latest content. Lastly, the ‘Sync status’ is a summary of what your Sync Consoles are up to.
On the left-hand side throughout the Portal, the sidebar allows quick navigation through the different parts of the application:
TourEditor: Create, update, and manage your audio tours and their content. Analytics: Analyze the data the Podcatchers have sent back as part of their synchronization. Sync: Schedule synchronization moments, review sync status reports, and manage sync console settings. Manage Site: Manage your Site’s information, such as contact details and who is allowed to change or view things in the other parts of the Portal. Documentation: Refers to this knowledgebase.
Should an icon be greyed out for you, this means it’s not been made available to you by your Site administrator. Contact them if you think this is in error.
You can collapse (or expand) the sidebar at any time by clicking the ‘<<‘ button at the bottom of it.
Introduction to the screen layout
The Podcatcher Portal has its layout built so that it’s consistent across the website. Here we’ll explain what the most important features are and how we recommend you use them.
Breadcrumbs
At the very top of every page is a strip of blue background with white arrows, text, and a few icons at the very end.
The Guide ID logo always takes you back to the home screen if you click on it.
The bit of the bar to the right of the logo – which is called the “breadcrumb trail” – represents the trail or path you can take to go back to the start of the application.
At the very right there are two more icons: click the question mark to open the Help popup (which opens this knowledgebase’s relevant article for that page), and the pawn icon to show the Account popup where you can change your account details or password, and log out of the Portal.
Tabs
Just below the breadcrumb trail are the Tabs. These buttons shows you which part you’re editing. For example, Sites have a General Tab, a Language & Content Tab, an Images Tab, a Tab for the Podcatcher settings, and lastly a Tab to manage the users on the Site. Each Tab has different things to add, edit or view. If you’re ever unsure about what the current Tab is for, simply click the question mark icon in the top-right of the page.
Page title
Below the Tabs is a concise indication of where in the application you’re working. The arrow on the left will take you ‘up’ one ‘level’; from a Stop to the Stop list in that Tour and so on.
Saving changes
Whenever you change something in a form, the [ Save ] button will pop up at the top right of the screen. Clicking it will save the changes to the server.
: This icon is called a “drop zone”. Drag audio files from your desktop (or any other folder on your computer) to here to upload them.
: Play the audio fragment. The gray bar represents the position in the clip. You can click this bar to jump to that position.
: Download the original audio file.
: Delete the audio content.
Availability: Which publish destinations this Stop will be published to. There is one icon for each, and it can have one of three ‘states’:
) at the top-right will open up the documentation for that page.
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