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May 2007
Acoustiguide Dominates the 2007 Award Season - Winning 3 MUSE and 2 IABC Awards
(New York,
May 2007) -- Acoustiguide is proud to announce that it has been recognized with
five major awards. The company is the recipient of 3 MUSE Awards in the Audio
and Visual Interpretation category and 2 IRIS awards in the Audio or Visual
Medium category.
At the 2007
MUSE Awards Acoustiguide won a gold for The Blanton Museum of Art’s permanent
collection audio program, Uncommon Commentaries, bronze for the
Museum
of Modern Art’s (MoMA), Red
Studio Teen Podcast
and an honorable mention for the
Chicago Office of Tourism’s enhanced podcast,
Chicago
Blues.
No other company has ever received three MUSE awards in one year. All three
programs are available for download on iTunes.
Now in its 18th
year, the MUSE Awards recognize outstanding achievement in museum media and are
organized by the Media and Technology Standing Professional Committee of the
American Association of Museums (AAM). Museum and media professionals from
across the
US
judged nearly 200 applications submitted from a wide variety of museums in North
America, Europe, Australia and Asia. Winning entries were expected to
demonstrate outstanding achievement in content quality; interface design;
functionality; production quality; visual appeal; the user’s experience; and the
intent to which new directions were charted or old challenges resolved through
technical innovation.
“The quality
and diversity of entries has been exceptional”, said Nik Honeyset, Chair of
AAM’s Media & Technology Committee. “The ingenuity and creativity of the people
who conceptualize and build these projects, never ceases to amaze me.”
In
Acoustiguide’s gold winning Blanton Museum of Art’s, Uncommon
Commentaries, voices of local Austin residents join the museum’s curators
and the University of Texas faculty in illuminating 32 works of art for
listeners. The tour was designed to appeal to intellectually and artistically
curious visitors, and creates an extraordinary experience connecting art and
ideas. Uncommon Commentaries demonstrates that there are many ways to
understand and enjoy works of art and encourages visitors to draw connections
between their own experiences and art objects.
The judges
said: “The skilful use of the audio medium results in an audio tour that is
enriching, engaging, and educational. The tour has a very high production value,
equal to segments on the radio” and commented that “much of its success comes
because the museum opened the conversation to voices beyond normal categories of
“authority” therefore validating the ability of the regular museum visitor to
exercise his or her own critical judgment about works on view. The tour is
enjoyable as an exhibition supplement, yet… is strong enough to stand on its own
as a purely audio experience”.
The Red
Studio Teen Podcast
was developed by Acoustiguide together with
MoMA’s Youth Advisory Council. The project grew out of the teens’ evaluation of
MoMA’s programs and their desire to include their own “voices” in museum
interpretation. The result is a dynamic podcast designed for teens by
teens in conjunction with Acoustiguide’s Pass the Mic curriculum.
The audio is available on Acoustiguide’s handheld exSite wands, and as streaming
and downloadable audio on moma.org and its teen subsite, Red
Studio
(moma.org/redstudio
The judges
said: “Red
Studio meets a great need to provide teen
audiences with a forum for expression and communication… MoMA’s approach in
utilizing its teen audience to engage new visitors and offer new perspectives is
fresh and inviting…featuring the audio as a podcast allows visitors greater
accessibility to the content outside the museum.”
The
Chicago Blues enhanced podcast, which is available at
www.downloadchicagotours.com
follows the development of electric blues,
a true American tradition. The program features actual cuts from many of the
great Blues artists and their followers. The primary goal of Chicago Blues
is to educate listeners in the significance of Blues to the history of
Chicago, as well as its importance in the larger landscape of American and
international culture. It is meant to be rewarding both to those visitors who
can come to take the tour in person, as well as those who cannot make the trip.
A downloadable enhanced podcast and website couples archival images and maps
with the audio production to allow users to experience the sights and sounds for
themselves
“They (the creators) went one step
beyond, creating a meaningful experience comprising a map, audio commentary and
musical samples” stated the judges. “The content is also available for off-line
use, and while it would offer an evocative introduction to a visitor on the
streets of Chicago, it is strong enough to be educational and engaging no matter
where the listener may be.”
The coveted
MUSE awards are in addition to two IRIS Awards bestowed by the International
Association of Business Communicators’ (IABC) on Uncommon Commentaries,
and the Dead Sea Scrolls Family Tour, created with Discovery
Place and the
Pacific
Science
Center.
IRIS awards
are presented by the
New Jersey
chapter of the IABC), a prestigious association of communications, marketing and
PR executives.
About
Espro Acoustigide:
Espro is a global developer, manufacturer and marketer of audio and
multimedia hand held interpretive systems and multi-lingual content. Espro’s
products and services are used in museums, cultural and visitor centres, walking
tours and trade shows worldwide. The client base of the Group includes over 400
active sites, and comprises some of the world's best known museums and heritage
sites, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the National Gallery of
Art in Washington, the Orsay Museum and the Rodin Museum in Paris, the Imperial
War Museum in London, the Guggenheim Bilbao in Spain, the State Hermitage Museum
in St. Petersburg, the Museum of Fine Arts in Vienna, the Israel Museum in
Jerusalem, the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels and the
Forbidden City in Beijing. The Group has 8 subsidiaries worldwide. For
further information, please visit the Group website at www.espro.com.
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