London museum makes podtours available online

From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <BlindNews@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:10:44 -0400
MacWorld UK
Friday, October 12, 2007

London museum makes podtours available online

By Jonny Evans

Narrated by Eleanor Bron and Stephen Fry, the Sir John Soane's Museum scoops a 
UK first

The quirky and unusual Sir John Soane's Museum in London's Lincoln's Inn Fields 
has grabbed a new distinction - it's the first national museum to offer free 
iPod tours of its exhibits. 

The Sir John Soane's Museum - which is the world's most supreme surviving 
example of a house museum - is offering complete tours of its building and 
contents in this way. 

Actors Eleanor Bron and Stephen Fry are the distinctive voices behind Sir John 
Soane's Museum's new free podtours. Both gave their time for free as they 
support the museum. 

The two tours, one designed for older children (read by Bron) and one designed 
for adults (read by Fry), will enable visitors to explore this fascinating and 
idiosyncratic Georgian home room by room. The tours are available now for free 
download from the museum's website. 

LINK:
http://www.soane.org/

The museum is crammed with extraordinary objects and artefacts ranging from the 
ancient sarcophagus of Pharaoh Seti I and full-sized casts taken from the 
colossal columns supporting Roman temples to works by Hogarth, including the 
complete Rake's Progress series of paintings. 

Famed thespian and Mac user, Stephen Fry describes the Soane as: "My favourite 
museum in London," adding: "You get this extraordinary sense of being inside 
the mind of Sir John Soane himself. It's as if you are going in and sitting in 
the company of an extraordinary, civilised, charming, witty man." 

St Albans Primary School kids test the service 

Often described as the father of modern architecture, it's in-keeping with Sir 
John Soane's spirit that his unique house should be preserved as a learning 
resource that it is now easily accessible via the most modern of mediums - the 
internet. 

Museum director Tim Knox said: "We have taken a very deliberate decision to 
embrace new technology because it is totally in sympathy with our founder's 
forward-thinking spirit. As well as using the podtours as a personal guide 
while exploring the Soane, visitors can also listen to them before they arrive 
or after their visit. Even those unable to visit us here in Lincoln's Inn 
Fields can use the tours to find out more about the museum and the man who 
created it." 

The museum plans to add more podtours in the near future. Along with tours in 
other languages, the museum is currently developing plans for tours designed 
for the partially sighted; as a resource for schools and as a means to involve 
and engage the diverse local community. 

The podtours are available now for free download. 


http://www.macworld.co.uk/education/news/index.cfm?newsid=19363&pagtype=allchandate
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London museum makes podtours available online

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