Detour Launches Platform for Museums and Other Content Creators, Partners with SFMOMA

SAN FRANCISCO, May 3, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Detour is opening its groundbreaking platform for immersive location-based audio experiences to museums and other content creators.  The new San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), which opens to the public on May 14, 2016, is the first partner to use the Detour Platform.

"With our brand new building, we had a rare opportunity to completely rethink the SFMOMA visitor experience," said Chad Coerver, Chief Content Officer at SFMOMA. "By collaborating closely with Detour over the last year and contributing to the development of a new technology platform, we created immersive audio journeys that we believe will set a new standard for museums."

Using WiFi indoor positioning that identifies the visitor's specific location, the app introduces a new kind of experience that guides the visitor through the museum at their own pace. Visitors are led by navigation integrated seamlessly into the narration. The visitors' devices can safely remain in their pockets, freeing them to look at art instead of a screen. Detour's award-winning producers worked with SFMOMA to create several walks, which feature fascinating narrators such as Errol Morris, high-wire artist Phillip Petit, and comedians Martin Starr and Kumail Nanjiani of the HBO series Silicon Valley. Additionally, Detour uses location to automatically surface audio clips in each gallery the visitor passes through and provides turn-by-turn indoor navigation to every point in the museum.

Supporting the shared experience of visiting a museum, Detour is the first touring platform to offer wireless real-time audio sync between multiple devices. Visitors are able to form a group with friends and listen to the same thing at the same time. When using the syncing feature, when one visitor pauses, it pauses the audio for the whole group. In this way, audio tours can be a truly social experience for the first time.

"When we decided to bring Detour to museums, our goal was to create an experience that combined the best parts of audio guides with the best parts of a private docent," said Andrew Mason, founder and CEO of Detour.  "By using cutting-edge indoor positioning technology and developing features like group audio sync, we're aiming to make Detour an essential companion for museum visitors."

Detour SFMOMA is available for free on the iOS App Store. The Detour app features 18 other Bay Area location-based walking tours of neighborhoods, as well as tours in Austin, NYC, London, Paris, Berlin and more.

To learn more about using Detour Platform, visit www.detour.com/platform.

About Detour:
Detour is reinventing audio tours to become an essential companion to places. Detour is currently available in San Francisco, Austin, London, Paris, Berlin, Marrakech, and Barcelona. Detour will be coming to Chicago, New York, and Los Angeles, as well as to the Android platform, later this year. Stay tuned for updates at www.detour.com.

SOURCE Detour

Related Links

http://www.detour.com