Placeum, Bristol audio map App, launches

Placeum, the audio map app for Bristol, has launched today. Place and museum come together in an App that provides a fascinating insight into Bristol’s rich past, architectural wonders and influential characters. It’s designed to engage both visitors and residents who might want to find out more about their city.

Building on a previous basic web-based beta version, the guide comes in the form of minipodcasts, short audio recordings, each two to three minutes long. Pithy and memorable, they allow listeners to pick and choose from an audio smorgasbord of places, themes and topics as they explore the city and is possibly the first guide of its kind anywhere. There are currently 25 places, more than 75 recordings and 3 hours of audio. Users can also access text about each location with images giving a multi-media experience.

While walking tours of Bristol exist, Placeum Bristol is unique in that it’s the first to give visitors complete freedom, allowing them to go where they like and listen to what they like for as long as they like. Wherever they go in Bristol, users can follow a map on their mobile phone and markers on the map indicate locations with audio recordings and text and images about where they are.

The audio recordings come in all sorts, but are always short: history, background, context and, occasionally, some comment. You can also hear contemporary accounts of events, excerpts from novels, and in one case part of a 30-page 18th century ode to a water spring (worth a listen!).

Placeum is the brainchild and creation of Sam Green, an ex broadcast journalist and a barrister.

He has researched and recorded more than 70 aural snippets of 25 locations around the city - more than 3 hours, with more recordings planned. They have been designed to provide an engaging and educational experience to visitors, residents and students of all ages, conveying information and a sense of place in an enjoyable and memorable way. Drawing on his journalistic training, Sam has researched authoritative sources, including old news reports, books, museums and the Internet, to create the content for Placeum.

Sam explains, “Bristol has a hugely rich and varied history and it's a great place to have a wander. Using Placeum adds layers of understanding and helps bring the sights to life. All to be enjoyed however people like.

“It’s been put together to the highest journalistic standards. Just because it’s entertaining doesn’t mean it isn’t accurate. If it’s included, as far as we can check, it’s true. It has substance, and it has been designed to be educational as well as entertaining.”

Placeum is best used with a smartphone; both Iphone and Android versions are available. With location enabled you can see where you are in relation to the pins on the map, but it can be used anywhere in the world.

Bristol is not short of sites of historical interest and intrigue, such as the SS Great Britain, Wills Memorial Building, the Matthew, the Clifton Suspension Bridge and Queen Square. Its history has not been without incident or inflammatory action, riots or reform, and it boasts a number of influential characters including Wesley, Brunel and Burke. There are names with stories behind them: Gallows Acre, Avon Gorge, the Observatory and Snuff Mill. And there are names that might not mean anything, like Durbar, Ningbo and Nimrud.

Did you know, for example, that Brandon Hill might be Britain’s oldest public space; that Hot Wells was once the most fashionable place in Britain or that the Clifton Observatory was once a windmill and then a snuff mill?

Placeum explores all this and more: all you need is an enquiring mind and a smartphone with a data connection and a pair of headphones. You can go as deep or as shallow as you want: either listening to the introductory ‘overview’ audio of each place or, if you choose, listening to further chapters about a certain place that delve deeper into its history. You can also access all the locations, audio and text from a list as well as a map.

Hear about Here - how Placeum works:
• For the iPhone App, go to https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/placeum/id1524515208
• For the Android App, go to https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.placeum.android
• Click on the pins to see audio for different locations. Most locations have multiple
recordings
• Most of the recordings (or Placeums) are 2-3 minutes long. Learn about the city, its
history and its place in the world
• Once you’ve started listening to a recording you can pause, restart and replay from the player bar towards the bottom of the screen.
• All locations and recordings have text and images too.
• If you have location services enabled you can see where you are in Bristol in relation to pins on the map
• You can access the map and recordings from anywhere. You will need internet or data access to use Placeum
• Here’s a link to a video showing public feedback to an earlier version of Placeum:
https://youtu.be/xYdKekN-Aek