Using bearing in locations

What is bearing in locations?

The circle of a location, like a regular circle, is divided up into 360 degrees. The compass bearing of the location is the direction, in degrees, that an object is going in.

A location's circle in a tour works the same way.

In the below screenshot, the listener is entering the location at a bearing of 90 degrees, and exiting it at a bearing of 270 degrees.

VoiceMap has added a feature whereby you can manually define the bearing that the listener needs to exit at, in order to trigger the location. In the below diagram, the listener enters the location at 45 degrees and exits at 225 degrees. So the bearing would be set to 225 degrees.

But because it's just about impossible to have the listener exit the location at exactly 225 degrees, we've added an additional parameter called bearing tolerance.

Bearing tolerance is the range, in degrees, on either side of the bearing, that the listener needs to be within, in order to trigger the location.

In the below diagram, the bearing has been set to 225 degrees and the tolerance is 45 degrees. This means the listener needs to exit the location between 180 and 270 degrees (i.e. 45 degrees either side of 225).

When would you use bearing?

Bearing is useful in cases where a listener might enter a location from multiple directions, but should only trigger the audio when approaching from a specific direction. For example:

• A location at an intersection where the listener should only hear the audio when walking south
• A route that loops back on itself, passing the same point twice — bearing ensures the audio only plays the first time (or second time)
• A location near a road that the listener crosses, where you only want the audio to trigger when they're on the correct side

How to set bearing

In your Mapmaker, open the location and look for the Bearing and Bearing Tolerance fields under Location Info. Enter the exit bearing in degrees and the tolerance range. If you're unsure about what values to use, discuss it with your editor — they can help you test and fine-tune the settings.