JOIN USYou can now rediscover the Bangalore Palace in a whole new way. Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar and Penelope Street, founder and executive director of Narrowcasters India, launched the first multilingual audio tour of the Bangalore Palace.
The tourists have always wanted an in-depth view of whatever they see and that’s what inspired the Maharajah to launch an audio that contains the entire history of the Bangalore Palace.
Wadiyar will also launch the audio tour guide of the Mysore Palace Residential Museum soon. The audio guide is a headset with built-in microphones through which a tourist can hear a recorded script describing what he or she is looking at. The script leads them on a sign-posted tour through the Palace.
The signposts are numbered and the corresponding number announced in the headset draws the attention to the highlighted history of a painting, place, room or even a location.
The listener pause, slow down or delay their progress as and when they wish to. The script has been thoroughly researched and recorded by a team of professionals with the assistance of the palace curator.
The signpost tour contains information about the history, art and architecture of the Palace. “Our research has proven that a tourist would always like to know more about a particular architecture or a painting. They would like tidbits of information on why a painting was painted in a such a manner, in which period was it painted... we have also complied the audio with appropriate music that suits the time and era. The listeners will get to listen to different types of music depending on the room they are in. For instance, the music played in a ballroom would be different from what’s played in a Durbar Hall,” says Penelope Street, director of Narrowcasters.
At the launch, Srikanta Datta Narasimharaja Wadiyar said, “The audio will take the visitors on an enriching guided tour. The audio is priced at Rs 175 for Indians and Rs 350 for foreign tourists. The cost of translation to a foreign language is much more, hence the difference in cost.
We have put together a modern and quality site interpretation service which will help them understand and appreciate the collections and history better,” he explains. The tour has been launched in seven languages including English, Hindi, Kannada, French, German, Italian and Spanish and lasts for an hour.