One Unbroken Line

One Unbroken Line is the studio’s platform for location-based audio. A creator draws geo-tagged zones on a map and attaches sound to them; a listener puts on headphones and walks, and the audio plays as they move through the zones.

Playback can be conditional. A modifier system decides what plays based on where someone has been, what they have already heard, live data pulled in from outside sources, and the direction they are facing. Sound pools let one zone draw from a set of recordings in order, at random, or “sticky”, so each zone keeps the first sound it is dealt. Walks can record GPS paths, take anonymous contributions from the audience, and carry captions, which are treated as an access provision first.

The same engine ships two ways: as the One Unbroken Line app, and as white-label builds where a single walk gets its own name, icon, and interface. Those builds work without an account and keep the listener’s location on the phone.

When The Tide Went Out

When The Tide Went Out is the first walk built this way: a listening walk along the Brighton seafront, with 94 zones set out around the West Pier. Its interface has no map. In its place is a brass sun over the horizon that slides toward the pier and climbs as you turn to face it, driven by the same angle the directional audio uses, so the sun and the sound always agree.