Museum Audio Guides with a QR Code at Each Stop

A small gallery does not need a rented handset or an app store listing to give a visitor something to listen to. It needs a recording, a wall label, and a code that opens a player in the phone the visitor already holds. ShareKit can host that audio file, show it on a public page with a browser player and a download control, and give you a QR code in PNG and SVG. A scan counts on that upload and then opens the page. The visitor does not create an account.

This is not a timed tour app. There is no map, no indoor positioning, and no lock that forces stop 3 to play after stop 2. Each stop is a file and a code. That limit is a virtue in a four-room show and a problem if you wanted a single app with tickets and offline packs. Know which one you are building.

One stop, one upload, one label

Record or export the stop as a file a phone will play. MP3 is the practical choice. WAV is allowed and is much larger. Listen to the export on a phone speaker and on headphones before you upload. The share page will not remaster it. ShareKit does not transcode audio. The file you upload is the file the player serves, and playback still depends on the visitor's browser.

Upload it from audio to URL. You get a public page, a direct file URL, embed snippets, and QR assets. For a wall, you want the SVG from the upload whose scan address is the one that counts. The MP3 to QR page is the same idea when you already know the file is an MP3.

On the label, print the code large enough for an arm's length scan, with quiet space, and a sentence that says what will happen: "Scan to hear this object, about two minutes." A code with no sentence looks like an inventory mark. Visitors walk past inventory marks. Size and materials are in print a QR code. Indoor matte labels are kinder than gloss under gallery spots. Proof one label under the actual spotlight before you print the set.

What the visitor experiences

They open the camera, scan, and land on a page with a player and a download. They can listen in the room. They can also download the file, because the page offers a download. Anyone who is handed the URL can do the same later, on the bus home. If the recording includes a lender's restriction or a performer you are not allowed to redistribute, do not use a public file page. There is no password and no expiry that automatically hides the page.

Write the stop so it makes sense if they only hear this one. Do not say "as I mentioned at the entrance" unless the entrance recording is optional color. Number the label to match the object, and put the same number in the first sentence of the audio so a mismatched label is obvious during the proof.

Headphones are the visitor's. The gallery does not have to supply them, and many people will use the phone speaker anyway. Record with that in mind: a dry voice, a short length, no quiet passage that disappears into a room of other people. Two minutes is easier to finish than eight. If the scholarship needs eight, say so on the label so people can choose.

Replacing a recording after the labels are up

A mispronounced name or a date you need to correct should not mean a new wall label. Signed-in owners can replace the file at the same address up to five times. The QR image stays. The next scan plays the new file. A visitor who already downloaded the old recording still has the old file. You cannot pull that copy back.

Five replacements cover a round of corrections and a couple of seasonal updates. They do not cover a daily change. If a stop is genuinely different every week, plan on a new label or stop promising that this piece of paper is permanent.

Replacement does not extend the stored date. Guest uploads are stored with a 7-day date. Account uploads are stored with a 30-day date. An exhibition that runs longer than a month should not sit on the default account date and a hope. Keep One File moves one upload, its URL, and its QR out by at least a year. A ten-stop show is ten uploads. If each label must survive the run, each long-lived stop needs its own decision. Buying a year for the two anchor works and accepting a closer watch on the shorter clips is a real plan. Pretending one purchase covers the building is not.

The public page is not switched off automatically when the stored date passes. When the exhibition closes, delete the uploads if the recordings should leave the internet. Tell the front desk the codes on the old labels will stop, or cover the labels the day you delete. A reminder email can be sent before the stored date. Your strike list should still name a person.

Counts you can use, and counts you do not have

Each upload reports views, downloads, and QR scans as aggregates. You can see whether stop 4 is scanned far less than stop 1. You cannot see a visitor's route, their name, or whether they listened to the end. A scan is a hit on the scan address. A view is a page open. A download is a save. None of those is attendance, and none of them is a unique person. A family of four sharing one phone is one scan. A visitor who scans twice is two.

That is still enough to learn. If stop 4 is dark and the label is at knee height, the number is a reason to look at the wall, not a reason to rewrite the script first. If every stop is near zero, the codes are probably too small, too glossy, or never explained by the person at the door. Fix the physical prompt before you record new audio.

Do not publish a claim such as "1,200 visitors used the guide" off the raw scan total. Say "the labels were scanned about this many times," if you say anything.

A four-stop setup you can finish before hanging

Give yourself a morning for four stops, not an afternoon for forty.

1. Export four MP3s. Name them by stop number in your own folder. The public page will show a file name, so name the file the way you want a visitor to see it, such as "Stop 2, blue bowl," not "FINAL_mix_b."
2. Sign in and upload each file separately so each label has its own counts. A single file that contains the whole tour cannot tell you which stop failed.
3. Listen on a phone in the gallery, not only in the office. Note the room noise. If you cannot hear the first sentence, rewrite or raise the voice. Do not raise it so far that it distorts.
4. Place the SVG on the label at a size you have scanned from 40 cm. Add the sentence and the duration.
5. Print one label. Scan it, signed out. Confirm the player is this stop and not the previous upload. Then print the set.
6. On the strike day, scan each label once and write the number down. That is your proof the paper matches the file. The product will not do that walk for you.

Files under 20MB have no credit cost. A two-minute MP3 is usually under that. A long WAV may not be. Prefer MP3 unless you have a reason to ship the larger file, and sign in if the upload shows a credit cost.

Questions from the person writing the labels

Can several languages share one code?

The player is for one file. You can record both languages in one file and say so at the start, or you can print two codes and keep two counts. Two codes tell you which label people use. One file is less paper. Pick the one the attendant can explain in a sentence.

Do visitors need the gallery's Wi-Fi?

They need a connection to load the page. If the galleries have no signal and no Wi-Fi, the code will fail no matter how large you print it. Test a phone that is not on the staff network. Staff Wi-Fi that visitors cannot join is a classic false proof.

Can I stop people downloading?

The public page includes a download control. Do not upload a recording you are not willing to have saved.

What if a lender asks you to take a stop down on Friday?

Delete that upload. The label should be covered the same day, because the code will no longer open the recording. The other stops stay up. This is a reason to use one upload per stop.

Is this a replacement for a paid multimedia guide?

No. It is a file, a page, and a printed code, with aggregate counts. It does not sell tickets, work offline as a packaged tour, or follow a visitor through the rooms.

Related: audio to URL · MP3 to QR · QR code guide