The first project developed after the close of the shuttle program, the new KSC audio tour was tasked with telling NASA and KSC’s story during a time of great transition and tremendous uncertainty. For Audacious Vision, we worked extensively with our client (DNC) as well as NASA program specialists to develop a tour that not only tells the story of America’s impressive past, but also shows the listener NASA’s vision for the future. The elegant and aggressive tour includes narration, music and authentic historic audio recordings from NASA’s archives.

Kingsley Plantation in Jacksonville, FL has very challenging and complicated subject matter. (For example, the “mistress” of this planation was a free black woman, Anna Kingsley, who herself owned slaves as well as her own plantation.) The client’s goal, and our challenge, was to “bring silenced voices back to life” all while providing the listener with an accurate – though thoroughly unusual – understanding of this specific time and place. The one-hour tour includes primary narration and multiple character voices. The “characters” are composites, developed and based on known stories and facts of the actual men and women enslaved on the Kingsley Plantation.

This rich and complex 90-minute tour includes primary narration, on-site interviews with subject matter experts, archival audio recordings, character voice readings, stock music and sound effects. The enormity of the project conceptually as well as logistically was daunting. The client wanted to delve deeply into the “meaning” of Mt. Rushmore as well as address many of its controversial topics.

This informative and light-hearted tour takes visitors through the Coors Brewery in Golden, CO. The client wanted the tour to reflect their sense of fun, but also convey that they take the quality of their product and responsibility to their customers and community seriously. Using single voice narration, music and light sound effects, the result is a fast paced, fun filled journey from start to finish!

This 75 minute audio tour was developed to be listened to as one drives from point to point along a 77 mile scenic byway in the heart of Kansas. From farming to land conservation, from oil wells to wildlife refuges, from hunting and fishing havens to a birding paradise, the tour knits together the “common ground” that binds this diverse community together: the love of the land. It includes a primary narrator combined with interviews of numerous, local subject matter experts.

This client, a management company of hundreds of apartment communities throughout the nation, wanted to offer customers a new way to tour the communities at their own pace and interest level. Q Media worked with the client to develop an array of appealing, humorous, and informative “co-hosts”. Through banter and dialogue they not only provide information, but bring the tone of the community to life, and help the visitor “see themselves” in the surroundings. The results are stylish, humorous, informative, entertaining, and most importantly, effective.

A collaborative creative endeavor by multiple entities, this tour includes organic (recorded on site) sound effects, archival music and recordings, and primary narration and character voices. With consultation by Q Media, the script was developed by Cherry Valley Group; the voice recordings were provided by client through a relationship with a local public radio station; and Q Media provided script consultation, all editing, post-production and mastering as well as all translation production.

This audio tour is an elegant and refined journey through one of the greatest collections of art in the United States. With the guidance of the museum’s director, who encouraged the team to “stay in the painting!” the tour helps both the experienced and novice visitor see each work in a new way. Primary narration, subject matter expert interviews, beautiful music, and a relaxed pace invite visitors to take as much time in each gallery and with each work of art as they’d like.

The Fantasy of Flight Audio Experience isn’t your average audio tour. Narrated by the collection’s owner, Kermit Weeks, this tour challenges the visitor to find deeper meaning in the stories behind each plane, pilot, and historic event. Told in layered vignettes, the visitor is repeatedly offered the opportunity to “go deeper,” to “find out what happened next,” and to “discover their own inner truth.” For example, in the Spitfire audio tour stop, a decorated WWII Royal Air Force pilot, Douglas Bader, refuses to allow other people to limit his ability to fight…despite the fact that he’d already lost both legs before the war. The question for the visitor: Who or what do you allow to limit you? In another, American pilot Butch O’Hare, in a Gumman Wildcat, single-handedly held off an enemy attack and saved the USS Lexington and her crew from certain destruction. The question: What will you do in a moment of decision?

From before the Middle Passage, through the Civil War, and up to the modern day, the Lewis Museum is dedicated to Maryland’s African American history. The audio tour extensively incorporates oral histories from the museum’s vast collection in order to meet the client’s goal to “move beyond the sound bite.” This approach allowed the individual to tell his or her personal story more completely, while the narrator placed the information in context.

The Roji-en audio tour was designed to help any visitor have the experience they want in the garden. For the person seeking to simply experience the garden with only a little additional insight, a series of short, poetic tracks, enhanced with organic sound effects and authentic music, provide just enough information to help the western mind see the space in a “Japanese” way. For those who want more information on either the history of Japan or of Japanese garden design, additional detail layers are provided that include interviews with the museum’s curator and renowned garden designer. Fun facts are scattered throughout the tour for kids.

For this tour the client provided the script and Q Media provided all casting, recording and post-production services. Sixteen different characters — ranging from a young English soldier filled with both excitement and boredom to an aging English-speaking French priest delivering the Pater Noster in Latin with a French accent – challenged us to fill the archeological ruins of the fort with “living, breathing people.” The resulting tour is both humorous and human, allowing visitors a glimpse of the hopes and hardships of people who lived long ago.

On the Family audio tour, a grandmother takes her two grandchildren on a magical tour of the museum’s permanent collection. They move forward and backwards through time, as well as leap into and out of the various paintings exploring not only style, but context as well. Music and sound effects help young visitors understand the time periods while rich, robust performances engage the listener on a truly unique journey.

Located in the heart of the Smokey Mountain National Park, the Oconalfutee Visitor Center’s goal is to show visitors not only the beauty of the mountains, but of the people and rich culture as well. As a “combined” audio described tour, a 25 minute interpretive tour is available to all visitors and an audio described version — with an additional 45 minutes of description, direction and panel text — is available to visitors with visual impairments. The staff simply switches the audio guide between the interpretive and AD tour upon request. NOTE – it is the same audio tour experience available to sighted visitors, only with an additional descriptive element available for visitors with low or no vision.

Located in Jackson Hole, WY, at the southern tip of Yellowstone National Park, this visitor center is located on the western tip of the National Elk Refuge. As a “combined” audio described tour, a 25 minute interpretive tour is available to all visitors and an audio described version — with an additional 45 minutes of description, direction and panel text — is available to visitors with visual impairments. The staff simply switches the audio guide between the interpretive and AD tour upon request. NOTE – it is the same audio tour experience available to sighted visitors, only with an additional descriptive element available for visitors with low or no vision.

The standard audio described tour is developed strictly for visitors with low or no vision. It offers non-sighted visitors an opportunity to move through exhibits independently, and experience them as closely to that of a sighted visitor as possible. A standard audio described tour is not appropriate for sighted visitors since it only includes information that can be seen or read. It also does not include any additional interpretive elements such as music or sound effects. Its sole purpose is to “make the visual, verbal” through detailed description and directions. All interpretive content is provided strictly from the panel text, either paraphrased or read aloud.

The standard audio described tour is developed strictly for visitors with low or no vision. It offers non-sighted visitors an opportunity to move through exhibits independently, and experience them as closely to that of a sighted visitor as possible. A standard audio described tour is not appropriate for sighted visitors since it only includes information that can be seen or read. It also does not include any additional interpretive elements such as music or sound effects. Its sole purpose is to “make the visual, verbal” through detailed description and directions. All interpretive content is provided strictly from the panel text, either paraphrased or read aloud.