MiniDisc-Based Audio Tours at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller, Alberta, Canada

Chris Stanley
Vancouver, B.C., Canada

On a recent visit in August of 1999 to the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Alberta, I discovered that the museum was using MiniDisc for their self-paced audio tours of the galleries. For $4 per machine ($7 for two), you could rent a Sony MZ-E20 equipped to be worn around your neck. Verbal information, with simple musical accompaniment, pertaining to each of the approximately 30 stops in the museum was provided, track numbers being coded to each pertinent display via a Headset + Track Number icon appearing in the corner of the display's title board. The museum appeared to have a fleet of about 50 MZ-E20s, and I was told that they had been using this system for about the past 2 years. Certainly a far cry from cassette-based tours of the past.


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