Press release

NEW AUDIO CITY GUIDE STUTTGART and
NEW INTERNET PLATFORM
Media service provider red.sign GbR (Stuttgart) and shiva Medien Technologie Service GmbH (Reutlingen) present an individual Audio City Guide for visitors to Stuttgart. A guide to the state capital of Baden-Württemberg and guides to five towns on Lake Constance can be downloaded in various language versions under www.phonotours.com

The popularity of the iPod and other mp3 players is growing fast – and as a result that of audio travel guides. There is of course already one for New York, and Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and a number of other towns have their own audio guides. Now the state capital of Baden-Württemberg joins the club.
It is an ambitious project: red.sign and shiva Medien Technologie Service GmbH provide not only a German language audio tour of the Stuttgart city. Under phonotours.com visitors to Stuttgart can also download English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish versions spoken by native speakers. Further language versions are in preparation.
It goes without saying that this digital travelling companion offers all of the information the visitor requires in order to get to know the town properly. It describes the highlights, fills in the historical background, relates stories and anecdotes referring to the sites – and gives tips on bars, restaurants and cafés along the way.
The two companies cooperating on the project introduce it on the Internet platform phonotours.com, which currently offers a further five audio guides: Bregenz, Constance, Lindau, Meersburg and Überlingen, each in German and English. Others will follow.

CONTENTS
The guide to Stuttgart concentrates on the places of interest in the city easily reached on foot. The tour begins at the Main Station and continues via the Schlossplatz through the Oberer Schlossgarten and past the theatres beside the Eckensee to arrive at the so-called Museum Mile with the Staatsgalerie (art), the Haus der Geschichte (history) and the Wilhelmspalais (a former royal palace, now a library). From there the visitor is guided via the Market Hall to the Rathausplatz with the town hall, to the Hans-im-Glück fountain and to the house where the philosopher Hegel was born. From there the tour takes him to the Stiftskirche and finally to the attractions around the Schillerplatz and the Schlossplatz.
The tour of the city is preceded by a general introduction to Stuttgart as a whole, past and present. After the tour the visitor returns to the Main Station and is invited to ascend the tower where the exhibition Stuttgart 21 gives him an overview of the plans for the future. The audio text lasts roughly 80 minutes, so that it is advisable to reserve at least two hours and a half for the tour.
www.phonotours.com provides a free street map of the city on which the individual highlights are numbered corresponding to the tour, and the user should print out even though the route from one site to the next is described in detail in the audioguide. With its help he can change the order in which he visits the sites to suit himself: he simply consults the map and enters the number of his choice on his display.

SPECIFICATIONS
Storage capacity required: c. 80 MB according to the language version
Length: c. 80 minutes according to the language version
Price: 5.80 Euros
Method of payment: Paypal (credit card)
Target group: Town visitors, in particular tourists and those on business trips
Internet address:www.phonotours.com, with audio samples

CONTACT
Guido Huß:Tel. 0049 (0)711-62008333, E-Mail: g.huss@phonotours.com

Technical realization
www.shiva.de