This blog post is all about audio content! When it comes to interpretation (next to hardware) content is the name of the game, it’s what takes an exhibit / audio trail / presentation from good to great.
Something we often encounter when editing content for our products, especially for the U-Turn and Solar Audio Post, is an overload of information. What we really love about the heritage business is the passion people have for what they do, although sometimes this enthusiasm can get in the way of successful interpretation when in a bid to share their passion with the end user, people fall into the trap of throwing too much information out there, not realising that too much information will often mean less getting through.
What makes a good audio clip for interpretation?
We don’t simply ‘inform’, we ‘interpret’.
“What’s the difference?” I hear you ask! Well let me tell you, the difference is interpretation involves taking the end user on a journey, you have a message you want to share, a story to tell, history to bring to life. A quick ‘google’ brings up the definition: “The action of explaining the meaning of something”. For example anybody can teach you important dates of WWII, it’s our job to share what these dates actually meant, what they meant for the individual, for a community, for the world.
“Bringing history to life” is a phrase I probably use too often (trust me, I’m aware!), however when it comes to heritage, that’s exactly what good interpretation is all about. At its core it’s all about captivating your audience, taking them on a journey.
So back to the original question, what makes a good audio clip for interpretation? The obvious answer is something that is engaging but at the same time gets the information across. Now this is easier said than done of course. For example take our Solar Audio Post, in it’s standard composition it has two buttons and can play up to 12 minutes of audio (high quality, 24 minutes of lower quality), does this mean all 12 minutes should be used? Often the answer is no. It all comes back to being engaging, if you want to keep the users interested you need to take into account the average attention span.
We live in a world of ‘now’ and studies have proven the average attention span has been decreasing in recent years. In fact most people probably haven’t even got this far into the blog post. ‘Focused attention’ refers to a persons reactive attention span after something has ‘caught their eye’, i.e a loud noise, the average length this occurrence will hold their attention is around 8 seconds. This is the type of ‘attention’ we target with the majority of our audio points, especially those 2 already mentioned, most people don’t expect to come across an outdoor wind up or solar powered audio point, so their attention has already been caught, the trick is to then hold their attention once you have it piqued.
8 Seconds… is that all?
In short – Yes. This isn’t to say you only have 8 seconds to share your message, what this means is you have 8 seconds to begin sharing your message and then hold the interest of the end user. This is where the blog title comes into play, ‘Precis’ means to summarise, if you have an audio clip that is 2 minutes long chances are most people will switch off around the 1 minute mark, in fact they will probably switch off around the 30 second mark! The trick is to take that 2 minute message and cut it down without losing the soul of the message. For example;
“Cliff first started working in the mines at fourteen years old, just after his birthday”
Can easily become;
“Right after his 14th birthday, Cliff started down the mines”
It might not seem like much but if you have 2 minutes of sentences like this, you’ve just cut out about 35% of the unneeded text and saved around 40 seconds. The end user gets the same message while being more inclined to actually listen to it all.
But I have a long message and can’t cut it down!
Of course not all interpretation can come down to 30 second clips, and I’m not saying people will never ever listen to content longer than a minute, the main point is you shouldn’t have any unneeded content just for the sake of having content!
So you’ve got 2 quality, engaging and informative audio clips of 5 minutes each and want to present them to the public using an outdoor audio point, you’ve seen our selection and think the Solar Audio Post is ideal for the job, it’s got 2 buttons, it’s solar powered and looks great in an outdoor environment, especially the oak version. This is the second content related pitfall we encounter often at blackbox.
The right audio point
The Solar Audio Post isn’t the wrong choice, but is it the best choice? The Audio Post is solar powered and although our solar electronics are massively efficient and as effective as they can be, the fact is the post runs on a battery that is charged by the sun. This means if the weather is terrible and it is playing 10 minutes of audio all day long, it could possibly exhaust its charge. With good enough weather (even on a cloudy day) the post can be powered solely from the sun, without needing to call on the battery at all. However in the worst case scenario (terrible weather, darker days, overly long messages being played all day) it can simply run out of juice!
The better option for content of 10+ minutes is the U-Turn Round. The U-Turn can play up to 8 different messages, this means the 10+ minutes of audio can be broken down into smaller clips and assigned to each of the 8 dial points (or 4 smaller clips in 2 languages). The main bonus of the U-Turn as an outdoor audio point is the fact it’s wind-up powered, which means it never runs out of juice. No matter how bad the weather or how long the message, users can always generate enough power to play it with some good old elbow grease.
I don’t have the attention span to read all this…
Too long didn’t read? Basically keep it engaging and keep it short! Interpret the information, don’t just pass it on. Ideally an audio clip should last no more than 30 seconds, think about the attention span of the end user, you want to keep them interested which will in turn keep them informed.
