Note: Excelllent News - the app is live!  We have distributed thousands of app map leaflets - but if you've missed out and want one - they are available now at The Fitzwilliam Museum, at Kettles Yard, at Cambridge Junction & other Arts venues - or email the Producer, Helen Weinstein at cycleofsongs@gmail.com and give your snailmail address - and we'll pop some into the post for you!

For users wanting to download the app for Apple iOS you can visit the Apple app store by clicking here.

For users wanting to download the app for Android devices you can visit the Google Play store by clicking here. 

Alternatively, you can download the app by scanning the QR code below.

The App:

On the 5th July 2014 an audio app, designed by software services company Calvium, of the performances of all the participating choirs was made available for free. It has been designed to be listened to along the route of the Tour de France, through central Cambridge from Parkers Piece, into town, around the Round Church, up to Great St Mary’s, along King’s Parade and out of town past the Fitzwilliam Museum and Botanic Gardens to Trumpington.

The aim in the app part of the project is to create two interleaving guides for residents and visitors to Cambridge to enjoy. There will be the Cycle of Songs to listen to along the route, and some historical context and photos for each location. You can find out more about the history project for Cycle of Songs by going to the Historyworks website here: http://historyworks.tv/news/2014/03/13/cycle-of-songs/

Historyworks is well known for delivering authentic and closely researched stories and audio dramas that are based on meticulous research. The team at Historyworks therefore has a wealth of experience in creating unique and ambitious sound projects, and delivering highly polished and professional products. 

Calvium is the perfect choice for developing the Cycle of Songs app as their Apptrails are the distillation of over 10 years’ experience in creating rich sound walks, tours and location-based games. The process and tools support the design and development of media rich experiences that respond to and relate to place.

For outdoor spaces the app can harness GPS, a freely available service, that can report your location even when you aren’t connected to the internet. This makes the app great for those who prefer to remain offline. The interface is beautifully simple to use as the technology locates you on the map and immediately plays the relevant sound file as the text explaining the historical context also appears.

You can find more information about the technology behind Calvium’s audio app commission for Cycle of Songs below.

The technology platform behind AppTrails comprises:

· The Soundwalk Designer

· The AppTrail builder

· The AppTrail Tester

The Soundwalk Designer is an online service that acts as both a content management system and soundscape design tool. It supports the concept of different layers that encapsulate different behaviours for pools of sound depending on artistic preferences. These can be subtly different depending on the location, the density and nature of the end experience and the lifetime of the project. We can support subtle mixing of sounds between layers, fading out of stories when you leave a region of interest and vibrations when there is something to attend to on the screen. We can also support citywide trails where each point of interest can have text, image, and video in addition to an audio story or song.

The AppTrail builder is a set of automated processes that extracts the customer data from the Soundwalk designer and automatically fuses it into the AppTrail tester app.

The AppTrail Tester is a fully working app that allows the customer to walk around their chosen location to see how well their content fits and responds to the actual environment. It means that customers can make adjustments to both the positions of their soundscapes and the design of the media content before committing to expensive final media production. This early testing is vital for any location aware project as the environment can have such a profound effect on the accuracy of GPS location reporting. It also means that the customer can make well informed decisions on the graphical design of the app which we then incorporate into the test app until it becomes the final app that gets submitted to the app stores. The process means that we can support customers worldwide.

You can read more about Calvium's work on their website at calvium.com