Two New Local AR/Mapping Apps
BOM launched Brum SoundTracks, a location‑based AR app that maps Birmingham’s music history by tying archives and venue facts to places, while Soundprint continues to gain traction as a crowd‑sourced map of restaurant noise levels using user decibel submissions. Both are small but practical examples of geolocation driving context and utility in consumer apps. ( )
BOM’s Brum AR project was developed with Southside BID, Colmore BID, City Curator and music historian Jez Collins, with additional input from Alex Nicholson‑Evans and Jewellery Quarter BID. (bom.org.uk) The prototype lists more than 20 points of interest and opened an early‑access layer focused on music heritage for local testing. (bom.org.uk) Landmarks surfaced in the initial release include The Hippodrome, the Rum Runner, Jam House, the Grand Hotel and Birmingham Town Hall, which BOM and Visit Birmingham are promoting as AR entry points. (visitbirmingham.com) BOM positions the app as cross‑platform and extensible — the Play Store listing and BOM portfolio describe Brum AR as a multi‑layer platform intended to add themed experiences beyond the launch content. (play.google.com) SoundPrint’s publicly accessible database now comprises six‑figure submissions — SoundPrint reports more than 100,000 venue SoundChecks and an organizational release cites roughly 130,000 sound‑level submissions. (play.google.com) The app was founded by Gregory Scott and its built‑in meter records average and maximum dBA values over at least a 15‑second SoundCheck before submission. (audiologyonline.com) SoundPrint is available on iOS (App Store rating 4.6 with 503 ratings) and Android (Google Play shows 10K+ installs), and the developer notes calibrated measurements are restricted to select Samsung models (S8, S9, S10, S20) on Android. (apps.apple.com) The organization runs advocacy campaigns such as “Find Your Quiet Place” and a city‑ambassador program to drive submissions and work with venue managers, and the project has attracted coverage from outlets aggregated on SoundPrint’s press page. (blog.soundprint.co)
