Live Guided Tours:
Prepared by Paul Marshall
Oct 2020
How It Works
The Live guided tour (LGT) is a recently added option within exhibition software.
It is free to use.
The tour operates like a shared screen within Zoom/Skype/Teams. The exhibition is the shared screen element and is controlled by a ‘Host’.
Both the users’ and host’s cameras are visible on live screen, however to save space, at a certain number of visitors (4-6?) only the host video will be shown.
Administration Outline
The host is the primary guide of the tour.
They must also administer the session (see admin section below)
Including:
• Granting access in response to visitor requests to join the tour
• Closing the tour to new visitors
• Controlling what everyone sees and hears
• Granting permission for guests to take over the screen to browse
• Making guest microphones available, or muted.
Visuals
Both host and visitors’ cameras appear on screen in small live video thumbnails, as numbers increase, visitor cameras will reduce to a name tag only in order to not mask the tour.
Guests look on as the host moves through the exhibition and the host provides commentary for them.
A guest can request to take control of the browsing, to explore the exhibition and control what is seen by everyone. The host can grant/take back control at any time.
Audio
The host can activate guest microphones to allow guest comments and questions, or choose to mute them.
Muted is usually recommended during the guided tour element to avoid distractions during the delivery: phones vibrating, dogs barking, sniffles, microphones against clothing….
Asking visitors to save questions and comments until a natural pause is recommended. It is easy to bring the group back in front of any work in the show within 2-3 clicks
Multiple Tours Simultaneously.
More than one tour can happen at any time, as long as hosts in ongoing tours have locked access to new users. E.g.
• One host opens access and gathers a group to guide.
• That host sets ‘busy’ as status which stops access requests by new visitors
• A second host may then login and be available to a different group.
• Many individual tours can happen simultaneously, each with their own group and host as long as the prior hosts have marked their tour as busy
• Tours can be ongoing and still be ‘available’ to new guest access requests
o The host approves or denies this access
o If you want an uninterrupted tour, it is best to mark the tour as ‘busy’
PLEASE NOTE
NOT ALL USERS WILL BE ABLE TO CONNECT
Please read caveats
Administering the tour feature as host
You must use a desktop or laptop to be host – Mobiles will not work for hosting tours.
Open the tour and right click anywhere on the exhibition – a popup panel will appear
An option will exist to become host for the guided tour.
Enter your Host name – Can be your actual name or generic such as ‘Tour Guide’
Enter the password.
You will be met with a set of basic Host instructions (detailed further below)
A little Host control panel appears at the top of the window
Once logged in as host, click on the blue lightning symbol to make the tour available for users to join-in. It will turn red
You can run one on one private tours, public, small or large groups.
Alternatively, you may want to run scheduled public tours starting at certain times
Visitor access:
When a tour is open, any visitor to the site will see a popup that a live tour is available and invites them to join
Visitors are presented with the following explanation when requesting access:
When a user request access, as host you will see a notification on screen and hear a ringing sound to indicate that someone has asked to join the tour.
You will be required to approve their access before they can participate.
Clicking on the blue camera allows their video with audio,
clicking on the blue phone allows audio only.
Visitors can join tours underway if not closed to new entrants. To minimise distraction usually it is best to simply close the tour to new guests before starting.
Simply press the grey ‘stop’ sign to make it red indicating ‘busy’
.
Basic Host Instructions for Operation
Below are the panels that currently (Oct 2020) display when you join as host. They explain how to operate the tour.
The LGT feature will improve over time so this will develop, the core features should remain but appearances may change.
Test Test Test!
If intending to operate as host, before going live with public, clients or groups, it is highly recommended that you run multiple test tours just with friends and family.
You simply need to connect via two devices such as a phone and computer to be both host and guest simultaneously. You cannot host on mobile
If doing so and the devices are near enough for mics to ‘hear’ each other, make sure you use headphones or that volume is off on one device to avoid audio feedback.
If testing or in practice, you will want to mark the tour as busy (red stop sign) once you have both your host and visitors in place.
This will allow others to become host and run their own tours.
Administrator Symbols Explained
Set Status
Set BUSY
Hang up
Guide Mode
Tour Control
CAVEATS: PLEASE READ
Access
The Live Guided Tour (LGT) should work with any domestic connection on a PC/MAC using the recommended browser – Chrome.
Access using Apple mobile devices (iOS) must be made using the Safari browser
It is impossible to guarantee that it will work every time and will not work in all network situations or all mobile devices or all browsers, OS or various combinations thereof.
I cannot provide a fix because the issue is with their network or device not our Exhibition.
There is a specific known issue where a viewer is behind a network firewall which may block the peer to peer nature of the sharing – The visitor pop-up (right) advises them of this
Schools for example I would expect to have strong safety protocols in place surrounding web availability onsite, or large corporate firewalls such as corporate sponsors may have.
These may be problematic therefore if pre-booking to give a tour to groups or important clients / sponsors, please initiate a test tour at the enguiry stage with someone at the exact viewing site using the exact device to check the connection will work before confirming the booking.
Intending vistors may need to make specific arrangements to access this peer to peer functionality such as using personal devices, accessing via less secure wifi networks or using data hotspots.
Numbers of Visitors
There is no technical limit to the number of callers who can join a tour but cumulatively the connections may have substantial bandwidth demands which could affect tour performance or others’ ability to gain access.
Plan B.
An option to assist those unable to gain access is to try zoom, or teams or another screen sharing app as an alternative where the host simply shares their screen with the tour open. It is unlikely to be quite as smooth because your computer is downloading and uploading simultaneously and because sharing is susceptible to slower upload connection
Plan C.
in a class/group scenario that has a digital whiteboard or projector system installed, only the teacher need connect and the class can watch his enlarged screen.
NB: I can / will provide visitor number statistics however in this case, because the server will only show a single visitor instead of a class of 20+, you will need to manually add X number of student visitors to your visitor stats to get an accurate picture of numbers.