Frequently Asked Questions
General
Just what is GPS?
All the systems seem to use the same seat controllers. Are they all
compatible?
TourMaster
What sort of service is best suited for this product?
How do you play all those different languages at once?
Does the driver need to know when to press play for each commentary segment?
Can the driver and/or host also provide live commentaries if required?
What if the driver wants to convey important tour information to everyone?
Can I provide other entertainment between all the short commentaries?
Can I connect my other audio systems I already have on my coach?
How do the passengers know there is a commentary playing?
How do I update the commentaries and music on the system?
TourMaster-Lite
What sort of service is best suited for this product?
I have minivans that I use on tours, how does this system work in this
situation?
I operate a hop-on, hop-off tour and have many nationalities come on board,
how do I cater for foreign speaking tourists?
Does the driver need to play the commentaries in the correct places?
How do the passengers know that what's playing is the actual commentary and
not a radio DJ talking on the radio?
How do I update the commentaries?
Maestro
What sort of service is best suited for this product?
How do I provide all this entertainment to the passengers?
Does the driver need to manually press buttons to switch between devices?
What if the driver wants to convey important tour information to everyone?
How many other audio devices can I connect?
How do I change the device I want to play on a channel?
Bus Stop Announcer
What sort of service is best suited for this product?
Does the driver need to manually press buttons?
How do I update the announcements?
How many components does the system have?
General
Q. Just what is GPS?
GPS (Global Positioning System) is a world-wide satellite-based navigation system where a vehicle (which has a GPS receiver) can, by triangulation with these satellites, determine the Latitude and Longitude position of the vehicle anywhere in the world. Coachsound commentary systems utilize GPS to pinpoint and unfailingly play the correct commentary segment for any location.
Q. All the systems seem to use the same seat controllers. Are they all compatible?
Yes. The TourMaster, Soundserver, Maestro and passenger audio controllers are all PCU42 compatible - therefore you can interchange components. An example of this may be where a coach is used on tour during the busy tourism season, and then is used for passenger travel for the remaining year.
TourMaster
Q. What sort of service is best suited for this product?
The TourMaster is designed to cater for the tour industry. Those tours that may have one or more nationalities on board, and therefore many different languages. The TourMaster system can cater for all these different nationalities by supplying personal commentaries in each language.
Q. How do you play all those different languages at once?
With the TourMaster system, each passenger has their own personal audio controller like those found on up-market airlines. (see PCU42 ) Therefore each passenger has headphones and can select their own channel of choice.
Q. Does the driver need to know when to press play for each commentary segment?
No. By utilizing GPS tracking, the TourMaster knows exactly where the vehicle currently is and will play every commentary segment in the right place, every time. The driver doesn't need to do anything but drive safely!
Q. Can the driver and/or host also provide live commentaries if required?
Yes. The TourMaster system provides two microphone inputs and these are found on separate audio channels on the passenger controllers. Therefore passengers can choose to listen to the microphone channels instead of the recorded commentary.
Q. What if the driver wants to convey important tour information to everyone?
The drivers microphone input has user-selectable VOX function. This allows the drivers microphone to over-ride all other audio channels when required. Afterwards, the VOX will release and the audio channels will revert back to the normal programme.
Q. Can I provide other entertainment between all the short commentaries?
Yes. The TourMaster system can also contain music (licensed of course!) which can be allocated to unused audio channels on the passenger controllers. You can divide your stored music collection into genres and have these appear on different audio channels! Now you can have country and western on one channel and Jazz on another!
Q. Can I connect my other audio systems I already have on my coach?
Yes. The TourMaster can optionally connect up to five external stereo audio systems (such as DVD players, radio etc) and these will appear on separate passenger controller audio channels.
Q. How do the passengers know there is a commentary playing?
A chime will play over all audio channels prior to the start of each commentary segment. This allows the passengers time to go back to their language channel of choice and listen to the next commentary segment.
Q. How do I update the commentaries and music on the system?
The TourMaster contains a USB2.0 interface and when connected to a PC, appears as another disk drive in Windows® Explorer (for example). It's just a matter of "copy and paste" to add new commentaries and music!
TourMaster-Lite
Q. What sort of service is best suited for this product?
This compact GPS-tracking commentary system is perfect for any tour where using or handing out headphones is impractical. These include hop-on, hop-off tours, smaller vehicles such as minivans and hire vehicles and older buses and coaches with a few years of service remaining.
Q. I have minivans that I use on tours, how does this system work in this situation?
The TourMaster-Lite easily connects to your existing vehicles speaker system, where it can take control of the speakers when a commentary is playing, relinquishing control back to the vehicles sound system when the commentary has finished. This allows the use of the existing speaker system (no other speakers required) and also allows the use of the vehicle sound system in-between commentaries.
Q. I operate a hop-on, hop-off tour and have many nationalities come on board, how do I cater for foreign speaking tourists?
You can record and play consecutive languages at your points of interest over the existing speaker system. This allows your service to cater for foreign speaking tourists.
Q. Does the driver need to play the commentaries in the correct places?
No. The TourMaster-Lite incorporates GPS tracking to locate and play all commentaries in the correct places automatically. This allows the driver to concentrate on what he does best - drive the bus!
Q. How do the passengers know that what's playing is the actual commentary and not a radio DJ talking on the radio?
The TourMaster-Lite plays a chime before the start of each commentary. This allows the passengers to differentiate between the currently playing radio or music programme and the actual commentaries.
Q. How do I update the commentaries?
The TourMaster-Lite holds all commentaries and GPS information on a compact-flash memory card. By using a PC and a cheap and readily available card reader, you are able to easily update tour information with the click of a button!
Maestro
Q. What sort of service is best suited for this product?
The Maestro is designed to cater for the tour industry. It is suitable for both short and long-haul journey's. It can provide a wide selection of audio and enables you to offer more than one type of entertainment to your passengers.
Q. How do I provide all this entertainment to the passengers?
With the Maestro, each passenger has their very own seat-based personal audio controller (see PCU42 ) - just like the up-market airlines. By offering this headphone based system, your passengers can have the choice of what entertainment suits them, not the drivers!
Q. Does the driver need to manually press buttons to switch between devices?
No. Once the system is set up and all your audio devices are connected, each device will play autonomously through the corresponding channel.
Q. What if the driver wants to convey important tour information to everyone?
The drivers microphone input has user-selectable VOX function. This allows the drivers microphone to over-ride all other audio channels when required. Afterwards, the VOX will release and the audio channels will revert back to the normal programme.
Q. How many other audio devices can I connect?
The Maestro can connect up to eight external devices in stereo or sixteen in mono, each can be listened to on a separate passenger audio controller.
Q. How do I change the device I want to play on a channel?
Simply unplug the current device you have connected and plug in the new device. The new device will then transmit audio to the corresponding channel.
Bus Stop Announcer
Q. What sort of service is best suited for this product?
This system is best suited for a vehicle making multiple stops with passengers getting on and off.
Q. Does the driver need to manually press buttons?
Once the system is started and the route has been selected, there is nothing further for the driver to do, the announcements will automatically play through the speakers.
Q. How do I update the announcements?
The Bus Stop Announcer comes with the Coachsound Route Builder software, announcements are added to your routes in the software, changes can be made easily at any time.
Q. How many components does the system have?
The system consists of a head unit, driver control panel, GPS aerial and cable for connection.
