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Case Study · City Sightseeing London

Three routes. Eleven languages.
One deadline.

How London's iconic hop-on hop-off operator relaunched its commentary for the May 2026 route changes with HOHO Studio: written, translated and voiced in weeks, straight into the onboard GPS system.

3
Routes relaunched
11
Languages on Red & Blue
27
Route-language combinations
1
Click to export a whole route
City Sightseeing London Red Route open-top bus crossing Westminster Bridge past the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben
The Operator

London by open-top bus

City Sightseeing London carries visitors past the capital's icons on three hop-on hop-off routes. Serving one of the most international audiences in world tourism, the Red and Blue routes run commentary in 11 languages, from British English, French and German to Brazilian Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Arabic, Mandarin and Japanese, with the Green route in five.

Bus

Red Route

The classic loop past Westminster, Big Ben and the city's landmarks. 11 languages.

Bus

Blue Route

Through the West End and the royal parks. 11 languages.

Bus

Green Route

Bloomsbury and the British Museum down to Piccadilly. 5 languages.

The Challenge

A new route map, and a commentary problem

In May 2026, City Sightseeing London redrew its network: a new Green route section from the British Museum down to Piccadilly, a new Blue section from Lancaster Gate to Marble Arch, additional stops on the Red route, and stop renumbering across all three.

Historically, that is the moment commentary becomes the bottleneck. New narration was needed across three routes in up to 11 languages, and the traditional route to get there runs through months of studio bookings, voice artists in every language, and a bill that turns small route changes into big projects.

"The commentary is one of the core elements of our product, second only to the transport operation itself, so it is essential that it is maintained and developed to the highest possible standard."
Sylvester Wiacek, City Sightseeing London
The Solution

All three routes, managed from one platform

City Sightseeing London moved its commentary into HOHO Studio, iWander's browser-based platform for writing, translating and voicing tour audio. In practice, that means:

  • Every script, for every route, lives in one place Editable in the browser by the whole team, with no files scattered across drives.
  • Translation into each route's languages in minutes AI translation across all 27 route-language combinations, not months of agency turnaround.
  • Natural AI voices record every track No studio bookings, no voice-artist scheduling across 11 languages.
  • One click produces a whole route's audio Generate and export every language on a route at once.
  • Files drop into the systems already on the bus Exports are ready for the existing onboard GPS hardware and the mobile app.
  • Any track can be updated the same day Edit once, republish in every language, from a route diversion to a reopened attraction.
The Platform

A recording studio in the browser

All three routes now live in HOHO Studio. Every track sits in Script Studio with a verification status, so the whole network can be fact-checked and approved segment by segment. Pronunciation rules fine-tune local names before a single file is produced, and AI narration is generated in every language from one click.

HOHO Studio's Script Studio showing City Sightseeing London's Red Route with 194 tracks, the safety track open for editing, and AI script and pronunciation tools
The operator's view: City Sightseeing London's Red Route in Script Studio, 194 tracks, editable in the browser.
The Integration

Straight into the systems already on the bus

Finished tracks export as audio files ready for the fleet's existing GPS-triggered hardware. In London, files drop into the V6e onboard system, get assigned to GPS trigger points, and can be uploaded to the mobile app.

The handover happened where the operation lives: a training session at the Stagecoach bus garage, after which the operations team took over uploads in-house. When the team asked for a faster way to pull down a full route's audio, an "Export All" button shipped the same day. One click now exports every language on a route at once.

Keeping content current is now a job measured in minutes. A track mentioning a temporarily closed attraction can be rewritten and republished in every language the day it reopens.

“
The latest version uses AI technology to create natural-sounding narration, offering a choice of different voices that are virtually impossible to recognise as AI-generated. The quality, tone, and delivery are genuinely impressive and sound very natural.
Sylvester Wiacek
City Sightseeing London
The Result

Route changes without the re-recording bill

Weeks

Not months, to relaunch

All 27 route-language combinations written, translated and voiced in time for the new network, without a single studio booking.

In-house

Run by the ops team

Trained at the bus garage, the operations team manages the commentary end to end, from edits to onboard uploads.

Minutes

To update every language

A changed stop, a reopened attraction or a seasonal note becomes live multilingual audio the same day.

Your fleet could sound this good

Whatever your routes, vehicles or languages - see how HOHO Studio puts your commentary back in your hands.

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